It’s been a rough year for the Minnesota Twins, as they have the worst record in the American League at 41-64. However, it certainly appears Twins fans have something to be excited about in 23-year-old German rookie outfielder Max Kepler.
Kepler, who entered the season as Baseball America’s No. 30 overall prospect, has a terrific .256/.332/.547 slash line with 14 homers on the season. And three of those dingers came on Monday night against the first-place Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.
Check out these homers, which were lasers:
Max Kepler is the 5th player to hit 3 400-ft HR in a game this season pic.twitter.com/quwovx2WvM — ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 2, 2016
It made Kepler the first European-born player to ever hit three homers in a major-league game:
Max Kepler is the 1st European-born player in MLB history with a 3-HR game
via @EliasSports
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 2, 2016
He became the first player in Twins history — including the Washington Senators — to have four hits and three homers in a game:
Max Kepler is the first player in #MNTwins history (includes Washington Senators) with at least four hits and three homers in game. — Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) August 2, 2016
And he now leads the majors in homers since July 1:
Max Kepler never hit more than 10 homers in any Minor League season. He leads the Majors with 11 homers since July 1.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) August 2, 2016
Those are pretty incredible achievements just 62 games into Kepler’s major-league career, and it looks like he could be a fun one to watch for a long time.
