Fun From The Farm Part I -
Our Judge???
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- He’s not even a ranked prospect, but
Carson McCusker is undeniably turning heads in the early going at Triple-A St. Paul.
For one thing, you can’t miss him. McCusker, 26, is listed at 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, and he looks every bit that tall.
For another, he’s got a fascinating back story. McCusker was a
26th-round pick of the Brewers out of a California junior college in the 2017 MLB Draft, didn’t sign, then played four years at Oklahoma State and was undrafted after the ‘21 season. McCusker played three seasons in the independent Frontier League before signing with the Twins as a free agent in ‘23.
Since then, all he’s done is hit. McCusker has 39 home runs in 189 games in the Twins’ system, and he’s turned it up this year. His six homers are tied for the third-highest total in the International League, he’s hitting .306 and he’s got five doubles to boot.
All while the big league team has scuffled at times to score runs.
As a result, there’s more attention on McCusker than ever before. He’s not a ranked prospect largely because of his age, but it’s not like there’s never been a 26-year-old rookie before. The bigger issue may be that he’s not on the 40-man roster. For a brief moment, it appeared the Twins might have room for him after
outrighting Diego Cartaya, but the
acquisition of Kody Clemens on Saturday means Minnesota is once again at capacity on the 40-man.
So it’s far from a guarantee McCusker will be on the big club any time soon, or even at all. But as long as he keeps hitting, he’ll keep drawing attention.
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