Twins Prospect Hot Sheet, August 11, 2025: Walker Jenkins, Kaelen Culpepper Form Dynamic Duo

Early next season, perhaps that will happen. AAA is nearly over and they are still in AA. However, no doubt they will be invited to spring training and depending upon what they do there; it's possible. More likely though they'll arrive by the middle of next season. Lewis needs to get back on track. He's better than he was for about a year, but not good enough. Don't forget about Gabriel Gonzalez who is an interesting prospect. The Twins future is bright, IF the team has new owners.

Let both Culpepper and Jenkins finish the year with Wichita. If they look ready after a winter of work, put either or both in the Twins lineup. Talent plays.

2 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Let both Culpepper and Jenkins finish the year with Wichita. If they look ready after a winter of work, put either or both in the Twins lineup. Talent plays.

Agree with you 100%.  Looking forward to seeing both in person the next 2 games as I'm making my annual trip to Springfield, Mo to see the Wind Surge battle against a strong Cardinals team. 

9 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I can't believe I'm saying this as I've argued against it for some time now. But when I look at the system as a whole, plus the deadline teardown, should we be looking at Prielipp more as a power pen arm at this point? I think he needs a 4th pitch to truly rise as the SP we all hoped he could be. But a 4th pitch could also make him that more dominant as a reliever. 

Unless the FO does something STUPID like trade away the strength of the team, there's enough depth of talent, including some interesting LH arms, that MAYBE we should give up on dreams of Prielipp as a STUD SP, and accept that maybe he should just be a STUD RP.

Not a bad idea at all at this point. We certainly need an infusion of strong arms in the bullpen and Prielipp seems like an ideal candidate. 

Please stay healthy. That's my biggest hope on all three of these guys. (especially Jenkins, who has gotten dinged a couple of times already in his career)

Wouldn't mind at all seeing Culpepper and/or Jenkins get some run in AAA to finish the season: the performance has merited it for sure. I think both are in spring training next season and not just to get a taste of what big league spring training is like, but as guys who can earn a spot. Regardless of how that goes, I'm pretty confident we'll see them at Target Field in 2026 before midseason.

An OF of Buxton, Wallner, and Jenkins is pretty exciting to think about (and E-Rod or GG pushing Wallner to DH through performance would also be exciting) and an infield featuring Culpepper, Lewis, and Keaschall is also exciting. 

Here's hoping the team is sold soon.

I expect the FO of have both start in AAA but both be a quick call up, unless they want to push for that extra pick, but my guess they would rather have the extra year of control. Both will hopefully help the MLB team next year though. 

It will be interesting to see out of the 4 OF taken in that draft, all touted as 1-1 in their own drafts will pan out with Jenkins.  We got the left overs, but possible we got the best of the best.  

Crews the first OF taken has been the worst so far.  Making majors but playing below replacement.  Clark, the first HS taken has done fine, but compared to Jenkins, Clark is not as productive.  Langford, the pick right before Jenkins is having best MLB careers so far, bWAR 7.1 in his 1.5 season so far. He could grow more power, 16 HR last season and 16 so far this season, but Jenkins sure looks like he could leap them all.  That would be amazing for us. 

I think both should be pushed up to AAA.  The Saints have 36 games left in their season, and it would be great to get them roughly 30 this season.  They get a taste of AAA and will know what it's like going into next season.  

Also, has Kyler Fedko turned himself into a legit prospect?  He struggled last year at AA, but in repeating AA this season has put up very good numbers.  He was promoted to AAA a few weeks ago and hasn't skipped a beat.

37 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

Also, has Kyler Fedko turned himself into a legit prospect?  He struggled last year at AA, but in repeating AA this season has put up very good numbers.  He was promoted to AAA a few weeks ago and hasn't skipped a beat.

Unless he gets called up this year, he will be a 26 year old minor league player. IMO that is no longer a prospect. (which doesn't mean he can't/won't be a major league player, just not a prospect)

13 hours ago, DocBauer said:

The AAA season goes a little longer than the rest of MILB for the sake of the ML team, if I'm not mistaken.

I think the Twins would be perfectly happy having Culpeper and Jenkins play in the Double-A playoffs to end September. If they don't make the playoffs, I think both should spend the last 2 weeks of September in AAA.

47 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

Also, has Kyler Fedko turned himself into a legit prospect?  He struggled last year at AA, but in repeating AA this season has put up very good numbers.  He was promoted to AAA a few weeks ago and hasn't skipped a beat.

It's great to see him doing well at AAA so far, but it would also be the first time he hasn't needed to repeat a level to find success in his pro career. At a certain point you have to ask how much of his success is beating up on younger players? It's great that he earned his way up to AAA, and he might be a useful player who can play corner OF/1B/DH...but it's hard to see him as a prospect at his age with inconsistent power and a relatively low BA in the minors. But maybe he's finally putting it all together?

If nothing else, he should be good organizational depth. Let's hope he continues to hit well for the rest of the season at AAA.

7 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

I don't think Prielipp needs a 4th pitch. The only concern about him when it comes to starter vs reliever is whether or not his arm can hold up. If they think his arm can hold up I'd be pretty disappointed if they switched him to reliever at this point. He should get every opportunity to fight for a rotation spot next year. Chris Sale doesn't really even throw a 3rd pitch. Technically he throws 4, but when 2 of your pitches are thrown 6 and 4 percent of the time you really only throw 2 pitches. I agree the expectation should be for him to start in AAA next year, but he should go into spring as part of the group fighting for a rotation spot. 

I agree…kinda. But he’s 25 years old next year. If he’s so talented, it’s time to make a call and use him…or at least find out that he’s not as talented as we thought. Even if that means he’s in the Twins bullpen.

Has there been an Em Rodriguez sighting anywhere in the recent past?

The silence is deafening.