SS · 2026
Kaelen Culpepper
- Age
- 24
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 5' 10"
- Weight
- 185 lb
- Number
- #12
- Born
- December 29, 2002 in Memphis, TN, USA
- MLB debut
- August 7, 2026
- Drafted
- 2024, round 1
- College
- Kansas State
- High school
- St. Benedict at Auburndale
- dbWAR
- .2 1 season(s)
- PA
- 8
- AVG
- .200
- OBP
- .500
- SLG
- .800
- wRC+
- 254 100 = avg
Kaelen Culpepper is a shortstop for the Minnesota Twins. In 2026 he hit 1 home run and knocked in 1 RBI, notching 1 hit across 8 plate appearances in 2 games. His batting average was .200, 17.9% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .500 clip and slugged .800, for an OPS of 1.300, 80.7% higher than the league mark of .719. He averaged 85.2 mph off the bat, hit 25.0% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 25.0% of them and made contact on 80.0% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 254 wRC+ puts his offence 154% above average. That comes to 0.2 dbWAR — +1.4 runs with the bat, -0.0 on the bases, +0.1 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.
League context
Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +1.7 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .250 | .500 | 1.000 | .581 | 16.7% |
| vs RHP | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .500 | .000 | .373 | 0.0% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 4 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 4 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 25.0% 1 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 85.2 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 100.2 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 25.0% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 50.0% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- 27.0° average
A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.
Hot and cold zones
Batting average by pitch location, 2026.
Situational hitting
How Kaelen Culpepper hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .200 | .500 | .800 | .529 |
| Bases empty · thin | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .333 | .500 | 1.333 | .690 |
| Runner on first · thin | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | .500 | .000 | .362 |
| Runners on · thin | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | .500 | .000 | .367 |
| RISP · thin | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .500 | .000 | .373 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Rows under 25 plate appearances are marked thin — at that size a rate moves several dozen points on one hit. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .200 | .500 | .800 | .600 | .000 | 12.5% | 12.5% | .529 | +1.4 | 254 | 0.2 | — |
Head to head
Put Kaelen Culpepper beside up to three others.
wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.