The Minnesota Twins announced today that infielder Kaelen Culpepper has been named the 2025 Sherry Robertson Award winner as the Twins minor league Player of the Year and left-handed pitcher Connor Prielipp has been named the 2025 Jim Rantz Award winner as the Twins minor league Pitcher of the Year.
Culpepper, 22, split the 2025 minor league season between High-A Cedar Rapids and Double-A Wichita, hitting a combined .289 (131-for-454) with 16 doubles, three triples, 20 home runs, 64 RBI, 50 walks, 25 stolen bases, 77 runs scored and an .844 OPS in 113 games during his second professional campaign. The 6-foot, 185-pound infielder was second among all Twins farmhands in hits and tied for third in runs scored, while ranking fourth in total bases (213), fifth in doubles and eighth in RBI. He was a two-time Twins minor league Player of the Week (May 25 with Cedar Rapids and August 10 with Wichita) and represented the Twins at the 2025 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at Truist Park in Atlanta, going 0-for-1 as a reserve at second base. Culpepper also recorded multiple hits in 33 of his 113 games played, including four different four-hit performances. He began his season with the Kernels and hit .293 (63-for-215) with nine doubles, two triples, nine home runs, 34 RBI, 26 walks, 15 stolen bases, 38 runs scored and an .864 OPS in 54 games, despite missing time on the 7-day Injured List from April 12-22 with a right wrist sprain. Culpepper was promoted to Wichita on June 20 and hit .285 (68-for-239) with seven doubles, one triple, 11 home runs, 30 RBI, 24 walks, 10 stolen bases, 39 runs scored and an .827 OPS in 59 games for the Wind Surge. The Memphis, Tennessee native was selected by the Twins in the first round (21st overall) of the 2024 First-Year Player Draft out of Kansas State University. He is currently ranked as the No. 4 prospect in the Twins organization and the No. 72 overall prospect in baseball, per MLB.com.
Prielipp, 24, went 1-9 with a 4.03 ERA (82.2 IP, 37 ER), 31 walks, 98 strikeouts and a 1.51 WHIP in 24 games (23 starts) between Wichita and Triple-A St. Paul in the 2025 minor league season, his first full professional campaign. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound southpaw ranked second among all Twins pitchers in starts and was tied for seventh in strikeouts, despite missing time on the 7-day Injured List from June 9-21 with a blister. He began the season with the Wind Surge, where he was named Twins minor league Pitcher of the Week on May 11 after tossing 4.0 scoreless innings with just three hits allowed, no walks and six strikeouts on May 8 at Northwest Arkansas. After posting a 3.65 ERA (61.2 IP, 25 ER) with 18 walks, 73 strikeouts, a 1.49 WHIP and an 0-6 record in 19 starts for Wichita, Prielipp was promoted to St. Paul on August 16, where he finished out the season with five appearances (4 starts) for the Saints, going 1-3 with a 5.14 ERA (21.0 IP, 12 ER), 13 walks, 25 strikeouts and a 1.57 WHIP. Those outings included a start on September 13 vs. Columbus in which he matched his career high with six strikeouts across 5.0 innings of work. The Tomah, Wisconsin native was selected by the Twins in the second round (48th overall) of the 2022 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Alabama. He is currently ranked as the No. 10 prospect in the Twins organization and fourth-best pitcher, per MLB.com.
The Sherry Robertson Award, named in honor of the Twins’ first farm director, was established in 1970 to recognize the top Twins minor league performer (player or pitcher) each season; since 2002, the award has strictly recognized the Twins Minor League Player of the Year. In 2002, the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year Award was established, named in honor of former Twins Minor League Director and Twins Hall of Famer Jim Rantz.
Additionally, the 2025 Riccardo Ingram Award – given to the Twins minor leaguer who best exemplifies the four tenets of the Twins Tradition, passion, heart, hustle and fun – honoree is catcher Noah Cardenas, who also won the Harmon Killebrew Award for minor league community service for St. Paul this season. Cardenas, infielder Danny De Andrade and outfielder Walker Jenkins have also been named Twins minor league Defensive Award winners.
(info courtesy of Twins baseball)
