Handing out first-half awards on the Minnesota farm

This story was excerpted from Matthew Leach's Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MINNEAPOLIS – With the year just about at the halfway point in full-season Minor Leagues, it’s time to take a look around the Twins’ system and hand out some virtual hardware.

And for an overall system Player of the Year in the first half, it’s hard to look past Triple-A St. Paul standout Carson McCusker. The 6-foot-8 slugger forced the Major League club’s hand and actually got a cup of coffee with the Twins in May, but he’s back with the Saints now and still hitting dingers.

A somewhat quiet June has brought McCusker’s overall numbers from “otherworldly” down to merely outstanding. He’s tied for third in the International League with 14 home runs, and he has 14 doubles, 46 RBIs, and 32 runs as of Saturday afternoon to boot.

McCusker remains an unranked prospect due to his age – he turned 27 last month. But he’s done nothing but produce since joining the Twins system after a stint in independent ball after college.

Here’s a look at other first-half standouts from elsewhere in the system.

Double-A Wichita: OF Gabriel Gonzalez (No. 17 prospect)
If we were limiting the overall player of the year honor to ranked prospects, Gonzalez would be the winner.

A former Top 100 prospect, Gonzalez struggled through a difficult 2024 but has found his way again this year. He began the year by returning to High-A Cedar Rapids, but quickly earned a promotion and has kept raking since being bumped up.

Gonzalez has maintained the command of the strike zone that he’s always shown, even last year, but has gotten back to the ability to hit for average that he showed earlier in his career. He sports a combined .326/.392/.496 line entering Saturday.

High-A Cedar Rapids: IF Kaelen Culpepper (No. 4)
Culpepper has actually recently been promoted to Double-A as well, but he’s played a much larger chunk of his season at the High-A level. And he’s been exceptional. A 2024 first-round pick, Culpepper has shown everything the Twins hoped for in his first full pro season: an all-around offensive profile, quality defense at shortstop and even 15 steals in 17 tries.

Single-A Fort Myers: LHP Dasan Hill (No. 13)
Shouts go out to infielder Jay Thomason and outfielder Maddux Houghton, both of whom have put up nice numbers in relatively limited duty for the Mighty Mussels. But if we’re going with a player who hasn’t gotten a lot of reps at Fort Myers, it has to be 2024 draftee Hill. The big lefty has one of the most exciting arms in the entire Twins system, and he’s dominated hitters in his first taste of professional baseball. Entering his start Saturday night, he had amassed 43 strikeouts against 16 walks in 27 1/3 innings, allowing just 12 hits.