Carson McCusker was the talk of the Minnesota Twins’ farm system for the first couple of months of the 2025 season. Appropriately nicknamed McCrusher, he hit .350/.412/.650 with 10 home runs, 36 RBI, and 11 doubles in 154 plate appearances over 38 games.

When Byron Buxton went on the concussion IL in mid-May, it opened the door for McCusker to make his MLB debut against the Milwaukee Brewers on May 18. His first 10-day stint in the majors was uneventful.

McCusker made only six plate appearances in five games, including one start during a suspended game against the Cleveland Guardians, and Rocco Baldelli took him out of the lineup when it resumed two days later. However, McCusker at least secured his first major-league hit before the Twins sent him back down to St. Paul.

Things weren’t the same in his second stint with the Saints. All the things McCusker crushed at the start of the season went away over 49 games from June to early August. He hit .165/.244/.357 hit nine home runs, 25 RBI, walked only 17 times, and struck out 73.

Despite the bad drop off in St. Paul, McCusker finished the season, setting the Saints’ Triple-A home run record with 22. That helped earn him the Saints Player of the Year award, voted on by fans, and showed how much his impact mattered throughout the highs and lows of the season.

“I mean, it’s awesome,” McCusker said in September. “I mean, a place like that, so many great players coming through there, even though it’s a fairly new team. It means a lot. Especially with my background coming from my step-by-step journey through Minor League Baseball, it’s a great honor.”

McCusker is a story of a long shot making an impossible climb, even making the majors. The Milwaukee Brewers drafted him in the 26th round of the 2017 MLB Draft, and he opted not to sign. That allowed him to play out his college career at Oklahoma State. Then, he played under the Cowboys’ greatest player in program history, Pete Incaviglia, in Indy ball, and signed with the Twins in 2023.

For a guy who started his pro-ball career at 25, he’s fared well throughout the minors, putting up a .265/.335/.494 slash line, 55 home runs, 181 RBI in 275 minor-league games. But being a hulking 6’8”, 250 lbs. player whose greatest strength is hitting home runs, the strikeout numbers will also be high. That’s been the case his whole career, with 368 strikeouts in 1,146 plate appearances, turning into a 32.1% strikeout rate.

Between the high strikeout numbers and shaky defense in the corner outfield spots, Baldelli didn’t start him all that often. He started in 10 of his 16 games, but only played in one complete game during Minnesota’s doubleheader against Cleveland on September 20.

Despite limited playing time, McCusker felt he was developing a better approach at the plate in his new role. He was a bench guy playing in a limited role against opposing pitchers, but being in the majors and having the Trajek machine readily available before every at-bat to warm up.

“I feel good,” McCusker said. “I feel like I’m adjusting to how these guys are pitching and just the situations, like pinch-hitting. Knowing when to stay ready, how to stay ready. So I feel like I’m getting the hang of it.

“When you’re not getting consistent at-bats, you have to make sure you’re always ready, that you’re able to get your timing in. Not in-game, but off the Trajek machine or stuff like that. Just making sure you’re making it as game-like as possible in the cage.”

So what’s next for the towering slugger? The Twins are likely to remove McCusker from their 40-man roster in the coming weeks. It’s a disappointing end of the season for a player who had the potential to start every day but didn’t get a fair opportunity to do so with the Twins. But even if the Twins let him go this off-season, it’s not the end of his major-league career.

McCusker is the type of player who could benefit from a team that plays in a ballpark more favorable to his kind of hitting. That would mean a trip out west, either to Colorado or Arizona, where they humidify the balls, or Sacramento, in the very hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League ballpark.

If one of these three teams takes a flyer on McCusker, he’s much more likely to reach his full potential in the majors. In the meantime, McCusker has a lot of work to do this offseason to make that opportunity a reality. He knows he needs to improve upon all aspects of his game, and he will do everything he can to make that dream a reality.

“I mean, basically, my whole game,” he said. “Defense, base running, I need to work on just bat to ball, maybe some swing adjustments, but I think my whole game could use an upgrade for sure.”