As their 2024 first-round pick, Kaelen Culpepper, broke out in 2025, the Twins continued their draft strategy of many years. The Twins selected a fairly similar prospect in the 2025 first round. They selected Marek Houston, a shortstop out of Wake Forest. Like Culpepper, Houston was selected as a high-floor, right-handed-hitting college prospect who brings a hit over power approach at the plate. 

Despite those similarities, evaluators don’t expect Houston to have the same success at the plate as Culpepper. On the other hand, he’s a sure-fire shortstop who has a slick glove that’s good enough for the majors right now. The question with him is whether he can find a way to produce offensively. 

What’s to Like
The glove is the headliner with Houston. He’s athletic and has a plus arm, profiling as a very good defender at shortstop. In his short time in pro ball in 2026, he’s already put plenty of highlights on his reel. He’s firmly established himself as the best defensive shortstop in the Twins system. If he can hit at any reasonable level, he could be a key feature in the Twins’ plans. 

While his bat remains a question, Houston has some qualities to build on. In college, he showed the ability to draw walks at an extremely high rate (15.4% in his last year at Wake Forest) and limit his strikeout rate (15.4% as well). He also added power to his game, popping 15 home runs, to produce a 135 wRC+, setting himself up well for the draft. That power came with Houston gaining 20 pounds, but based on exit velocities, he still has weight to be gained and power to be added. 

In just 12 games at Low-A Fort Myers, he produced, batting .370 with a 150 wRC+.He isn’t going to hit .370. but that is just a display of what to look for with Houston – a high batting average and on-base percentage to pair with great defense. 

What’s Not To Like
As discussed, there aren’t many questions about Houston’s defense. The question is whether or not the bat can be good enough to get his glove into the lineup. Over just 24 total games, split evenly between Fort Myers and Cedar Rapids, he put up just a .680 OPS – leaving plenty of room for improvement.

Two issues in the offensive profile in that small sample size were that he didn’t walk like he did in the minors and struck out at just an above-average level. To make his offense work, the young shortstop needs to find the approach he had in college. That means controlling the strike zone while limiting strikeouts. 

Improving the approach will help Houston, but he also needs to do more damage when he makes contact. Of his 27 hits, only six were extra for extra bases, and only one of those was a home run. That is backed up by the batted ball data from single-A. Despite hitting .370 at the level, Houston had a horrendous .259 xwOBA, posted a 90th percentile exit velocity of just 96.2 MPH, and pulled the ball in the air at a 12th percentile rate. These are the warts on the offensive side for Houston that he’ll need to clean up to ascend in his first full year at pro ball.

What to Look for in 2026
Houston should get a good run at High-A Cedar Rapids in 2026, where he can show off his defensive chops but also have a chance to show improvement on the offensive side. That would look like getting his approach back to where it was in college, which means striking out and walking at similar rates. That would indicate he might be able to get on base at a rate that, paired with his defense, makes him a valuable big-league contributor. 

For a true breakout that indicates a chance at stardom, the Wake Forest product needs to bring his exit velocities closer to average or above average and find more opportunities to lift the ball to the pull side. If he does this, he’ll start to appear on national Top 100 lists, and Twins fans will start getting very excited about a potential two-way star. 

Houston’s defense gives him a great chance to make the big leagues at some point, but the offense has plenty of questions. Do you expect to see strides in Houston’s power in 2026?

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