There's an Awful Lot Riding on the Shoulders of Kaelen Culpepper

There's a growing buzz throughout the Twins sphere that Kaelen Culpepper's arrival in the majors is imminent. A promotion would certainly be warranted — the 23-year-old has been on fire in Triple-A, slashing .391/.481/.696 here in June after posting a .947 OPS in May. He's homered five times in his past 14 games while showing improved plate discipline and playing shortstop almost everyday. 

It's fair to say he looks ready. But Culpepper's success in St. Paul is only one factor driving the sense of urgency to get him up to the big-league club.

The other side of it is that Minnesota's infield has been horrible, offensively and defensively. Most troubling: this state of affairs can primarily be tied back to a set of players who not long ago were in the same position as Culpepper: former high draft picks turned top prospects who were being counted on as key parts of the solution for the Twins infield. 

Brooks Lee's OPS has hovered around mediocrity, which is a relatively good outcome in light of his ugly underlying metrics. His fielding has graded out very poorly, albeit better at third than short, and as a result he's been a borderline replacement-level player. That still puts him ahead of Royce Lewis, who's checking in at a .554 OPS and negative-0.2 fWAR after returning from a brief banishment to the minors. Lee has also outperformed Luke Keaschall, who's been getting on base at a solid rate recently but is slugging .324. Not good enough for a bottom-tier defender at second base.

Twins fans are constantly being reminded that the path from top prospect to impact major-leaguer is non-linear if not a dead end. The two biggest talents in the Twins' system aside from Culpepper, Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez, are both injured (again), which only reinforces that sense of wariness. Nothing is promised. In fact, around here, it almost feels like what's promised is disappointment.

Still, hope springs eternal, and when you see a touted talent like Culpepper tearing it up at the closest level to the majors, you can't help but shake off past experiences and feel excited. He looks like a good one. The Twins need him to be, and fast.

It's not so much about salvaging this season, which feels like a moot point. It's more so about rejuvenating any sense of optimism and confidence within the fanbase. This year has already been a morale beatdown: modest winning stretches followed by deep funks, myriad injuries to the pitching staff, and — as mentioned — the so-called "post-hype prospects" meant to propel a turnaround have flopped almost without exception.

Fans need a beacon for a better future they can grasp onto. There's little on the current roster to provide it, and there's little else on the way in the near term. Fair or not, Culpepper carries a heavy weight. Here's hoping he's up to the task. 

History says he'll let us down. But history is only that.