CLEARWATER, Fla. — For more than half his life, the Minnesota Twins organization was all Max Kepler knew. The Twins took a chance on a teenager out of Germany, nurtured and developed him and then handed him the reins in right field for nearly a decade.

But as the 2024 season was winding down, with the Twins in the midst of a collapse, Kepler could do nothing but watch, and he seemed to have an inkling that his time in Minnesota was coming to an end.

“It was hard to move on, but it’s a business,” Kepler said Friday in front of his locker in the Philadelphia Phillies clubhouse before he went 2 for 2 with two walks in a 6-3 Phillies win over the Twins at BayCare Ballpark.

Kepler, who finalized a one-year, $10 million contract with his new organization in late December, assumed — correctly — that the Twins wouldn’t be spending much in free agency. His agents, he said, did not hear from the Twins, who opted to move on, with Matt Wallner and Trevor Larnach, also left-handed hitters, ready to take over in the corners.

Still, Kepler looks back fondly at his time with the Twins. He joined the organization in 2009 and debuted in 2015.

“To be able to have an opportunity as a kid out of Berlin, for them to be patient with me in the minor leagues, patient with me at the big league-level and to give me opportunity after opportunity is what I’m grateful for,” he said.

Over the course of his career, Kepler has hit .237 with 161 home runs, which is 13th in club history. No one has hit more home runs at Target Field than the 32-year-old. A career-high 36 of them came as a member of the Bomba Squad in 2019.

Since his debut, nobody has suited up in more games as a Twin than Kepler (1,072). Now healthy, Kepler is having a strong spring, hitting .382 with a 1.218 OPS.

“He’s played as much for us as any player since I’ve been with the Twins, so of course it’s a change,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He did a lot of great things for us. You miss the contributions. But also I think he’s excited about the next step for him in his career, as well.”

The outfielder — he’s playing left field now — was navigating free agency for the first time this offseason while also trying to rehab from an Oct. 2 bilateral core surgery. Kepler initially landed on the injured list about a month earlier with a knee pain but soon after, he said, he got a scan which revealed a partially detached abdominal muscle and ensured the end of his season.

“(It’s) tough to go out and that be my last month of my stint with the Twins. (They) gave me that first shot,” Kepler said. “It wasn’t the way I wanted to see it, but it is what it is. You just kind of have to look forward and work with what you have now.”

Kepler spent the beginning part of the offseason healing from surgery. It was a pretty aggressive recovery — doctors got him up and walking the morning after the procedure — but he was able to focus on that while his agents took care of finding him a new home.

After Kepler went through months of what that he described as a “cat-and-mouse process,” with teams showing interest but not submitting a “credible offer,” he wound up in Philadelphia, where he seems to be enjoying the next step in his baseball journey.

“The game itself, the career on the field, came with lots of ups and downs for me. But I loved everyone I got to work with and every adverse moment I got to go through,” Kepler said. “Also, the successful ones and the highs with the guys were something I’ll always remember. That’s where my career started.”

Related Articles

Twins’ Pablo López sets sights on turning in two strong halves

Already down one infielder, Twins’ Brooks Lee dealing with back issue

What’s left to settle? Twins still have multiple roster decisions to make

Results are good but Twins’ Bailey Ober working to find his timing

Twins’ third baseman Royce Lewis ‘hopeful’ even in face of latest setback