Max Kepler, Minnesota Twins
Since he’s been going on a homer binge and is literally having one of the best “old guy” seasons ever, it’s hard for other Twins players to grab headlines away from Nelson Cruz right now. Since the All-Star break, the 39-year-old designated hitter leads all of baseball with 16 homers and a wRC+ north of 200 through just 104 plate appearances.
You know who has been pretty dang good, though? Max Kepler. The 26-year-old has been improving slowly since his first full season with Minnesota in 2016 before putting together a career season. Check out how his homers, wRC+, and fWAR have improved each year over that time.
There are currently just 10 hitters in baseball with 30-plus homers this season, and Kepler is one of them. And sure, while it’s come in a little more than 100 plate appearances, he’s almost as many dingers as Cruz (32). Although his hard-hit rate (43.7% to 41.0%) and fly-ball rate (45.6% to 45.2%) have basically stayed the same from one half to the next, he’s benefited from a decreased infield-fly rate (17.1% to 11.1%).
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