{"id":35947,"date":"2025-05-18T09:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T09:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/35947\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T09:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T09:20:15","slug":"storybook-moment-the-twins-are-calling-up-carson-mccusker-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/35947\/","title":{"rendered":"Storybook Moment: The Twins Are Calling Up Carson McCusker – Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Minnesota Twins will have a new face, and hard-to-miss physique, in their dugout on Sunday. Carson McCusker<\/a>, the towering 6-foot-8, 250-pound slugger nicknamed McCrusher, is heading from Des Moines to Milwaukee to join the major-league club, as reported<\/a> by Dan Hayes of The Athletic and others on Saturday evening.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe circumstances, unfortunately, are sobering. Outfielder Byron Buxton<\/a> is being placed on the 7-day concussion injured list, joining Carlos Correa<\/a>, after their violent outfield collision on Thursday. Buxton had been under daily evaluation, but the Twins ultimately opted for caution following concussion protocol guidelines<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the injury news is tough, McCusker\u2019s call-up is undeniably one of the most heartening stories of the Twins\u2019 season.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tA few years ago, McCusker was on the verge of retirement. As Bobby Nightingale of the Star Tribune noted<\/a>, the Oklahoma State product was coming off a second season in independent ball without a single offer from a major-league organization. But the Twins took a flier on him, and he\u2019s made them look smart ever since.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCusker has mashed at every level of the system, and this year he’s turned it up to 11. In 38 games with the St. Paul Saints, he\u2019s slashing .350\/.412\/.650 with 10 home runs and 11 doubles, ranking third out of 119 International League hitters in OPS. That kind of production has made him impossible to ignore, especially for a Twins team that ranks in the bottom third of the league in slugging and home runs, and is now going to be without its most prolific power bat in Buxton.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMake no mistake: this is not your typical big-league promotion. McCusker isn\u2019t on any top prospect lists. He\u2019s nearly 27, was drafted in the 26th round out of college, and has a career minor-league strikeout rate over 30 percent. He\u2019s not a polished, five-tool player. But he does one thing exceptionally well: hit the baseball very hard. In profiling McCusker earlier this season, Jamie Cameron pointed out<\/a> that his max exit velocity clocked in at over 114 mph, and he boasted a hard-hit rate above 60 percent.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn other words, the Twins are adding something they are sorely lacking with Buxton down and Royce Lewis<\/a> still not looking like himself: right-handed thump.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCusker\u2019s late-bloomer trajectory, sky-high whiff rates and lack of discipline might make some skeptical, but Twins fans are ready to root for a grinder who earned his shot the hard way. Whether he becomes the next slugging sensation or simply a feel-good flash, he\u2019s earned this moment.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd for a team still searching for offensive identity \u2014 and now down two cornerstone players \u2014 it might be the perfect time to unleash McCrusher.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAre you as excited as I am about this news?! Sound off in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Twins will have a new face, and hard-to-miss physique, in their dugout on Sunday. Carson McCusker,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,977,978,822,169,975,976,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-35947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blog","10":"tag-forum","11":"tag-minnesota","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rumors","14":"tag-schedule","15":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114528100262518030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}