Saying goodbye to a fan favorite
As you may remember—and we’ll recall together in detail on Twinkie Town as 2025 proceeds—2015 was a resurgent year for the Minnesota Twins. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was also the year in which Max Kepler got his cup of coffee in the big time.
Between that moment and his recent departure in free agency to the Philadelphia Phillies, Max cemented himself as a fan-favorite of the highest order. But of course, his story goes so much further beyond the white lines.
Born in Berlin, Germany—not exactly a hardball hotbed—Kepler’s parents were ballet dancers and his sister a golf prodigy. A family not lacking in athletic talent. Max caught the eye of Twins international scout Andy Johnson and signed at the age of sixteen in 2009.
Think of what you were doing at 16 and imagine it including an international journey away from your homeland to try and star in a sport your fellow mates may not fully understand. A remarkably courageous decision.
By 2015 Kepler had climbed the Minnesota minors and was starring in that season’s All-Star Futures Game. By year’s end he was the Southern League Player of the Year and had the aforementioned 3 MLB games under his belt.
The Berliner’s breakout came in 2016, given due to MN’s total system failure of a campaign. In 447 PA he stroked 20 2B, 17 HR, and accumulated a solid 96 OPS+. I remember him catching my eye in a mid-July series against Boston, where he went 6-16—spraying baseballs all over Fenway Park.
In 2017 & 2018, Kepler established himself as a solid corner outfielder. With the bat, he’d be good for 30-ish doubles and 20-ish homers per 162. But his most pertinent value may have been his graceful—some might call it balletic—play in Target Field’s tricky RF, seemingly effortlessly navigating all the nooks, crannies, and surfaces therein.
2019 saw Max take another giant batting step forward, bashing 36 long balls to the tune of a 123 OPS+. Rabbit ball or not, even the rate states indicated Kepler could now be an XBH threat. That year also saw Kep absolutely terrorize Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer…
A feat equal part skill, improbability, and hilarity (for Twins fans seeing Bauer seethe).
Undeterred by COVID postponements and protocols, Kepler got the 2020 season started with a bang in Chicago…
Sadly, 2021 & 2022 were down years for Maximus. Though still solid on the green grass, knee, hamstring, and/or hip maladies plagued his offensive game and rendered him league-average. In the first few months of 2023, Kepler hit so poorly as to have many—including myself—call for a decrease in playing time.
But as the calendar flipped to July ‘23, Max flipped an internal switch. For the season’s final months, he was perhaps the Twins’ most important offensive contributor. He ultimately finished with 24 HR & 120 OPS+—best in both since ‘19!—and led the Twins to their first playoff series victory in his tenure with the team.
That postseason provided perhaps my most endearing Max Kepler memory. At a press conference next to friend Jorge Polanco, Kepler professed how special it was to make a playoff run with his first teenaged roommate in the Twins’ International pipeline…
2024 was a bit up-and-down for Max, but he did set the all-time Target Field home run record. He also produced his 11th walk-off hit—tied for first in Twins franchise history with Kirby Puckett & Harmon Killebrew. Not bad company.
If Kepler never returns to 1 Twins Way, he’ll finish with this career MN line: 1,072 G, 161 HR, 205 2B, .237 BA, .746 OPS, 102 OPS+, 20.7 WAR. Still just 31 years old, there is potentially a lot of baseball out in front of the phenom from Deutschland.
I will take with me two enduring mental images of Max Kepler:
- His cat-like quickness breaking in an a ball and picking it an inch above the grass with a perfect slide—or nimbly pirouetting to snare the sphere with the last ounce of leather.
- His infectious smile after things broke right for his teammates.
All told, Kepler was exactly this for the Twins: an inspirational, unlikely story of a ballplayer who was never flashy but could never be questioned in work ethic. Though his handsome visage may have initially endeared him to segments of Twins Territory, his overall body of work rendered him a fan favorite for even the die-hard cranks in the Target Field seats.