After 10 up-and-down seasons in Minnesota, Max Kepler is heading to the Philadelphia Phillies. The two finalized a $10 million, one-year contract on Friday with the expectation he’ll become the team’s starting left fielder.
Kelpler spent his entire career with the Minnesota Twins. Over 1,072 games, Kepler is a .237 hitter with 161 home runs and 508 RBIs.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said the team will give Kepler a shot at playing every day in left.
“We think he can,” Dombrowski said.
Kepler had just eight homers and 42 RBIs in a 2024 season derailed by injury. Dombrowski confirmed that Kepler underwent core surgery this offseason to repair a sports hernia that — along with left patellar tendinitis — limited him to just 105 games.
“Max was very careful. He said, ‘I don’t want to make any excuses,’” Dombrowski said. “It does affect you. It just does. You try to play through it but it’s not easy. It’s a tough (injury) to play through.”
Twins stay quiet so far while dealing with a potential sale, TV issues
As for the Twins, they've been very quiet so far this offseason. Behind the scenes, they are dealing with changes. The Pohlad family has announced the team is for sale and are exploring potential bidders. Also, longtime team president Dave St. Peter is ending his run and is being replaced by former President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey.
On top of that, there are changes to the team's local TV distribution - and the revenue associated with that. There is still no resolution to what channel they'll be on locally or how much that impacts what the team budget would be. Bally Sports (now FanDuel) paid the team tens of millions in a rights fee every year. St. Peter told WCCO Radio last month that they believe in the new model which will include a streaming-only option, but acknowledges the revenue will not be there at the onset.
"We do expect a reduction of local revenue coming to the Twins in 2025," says St. Peter. "We also understand the expansion of reach and what that'll do for our fanbase. It's time to get on with that. And we're excited about that and our ownership understands the consequences of that."
While the club believes they have good pitching depth and a solid core intact, Falvey said during the recent Winter Meetings that they still believe there's work to do on the roster.
“There's a good foundation and a good core here that we think can go compete, and we've got to figure out ways to be creative to try and add around it," he told Twinsbaseball.com.