The Minnesota Twins have announced that High-A Cedar Rapids catcher Noah Cardenas and Cedar Rapids right-handed pitcher C.J. Culpepper have been named Twins minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week for week 24.
C. J. Culpepper was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 13th round of the 2022 MLB June Amateur Draft from California Baptist University (Riverside, CA). According to Jim Callis, Culpepper signed with Minnesota for $125,000. This is the third time this season Culpepper has won this award. MLB currently has C. J. rated as the Twins 14th best prospect on MLB Pipeline and you can read more about Culpepper there.
Culpepper, 21, made the start for Kernels on Friday against Peoria in the decisive Game 3 of the Midwest League West Division Series, allowing one run on four hits in 5 innings
pitched, with one walk and eight strikeouts. Splitting his time between Ft. Myers and Cedar Rapids in 2023, Culpepper was 6-5 with a 3.56 ERA over 86 innings in which he had 89 strikeouts and allowing just 4 home runs.
Noah Cardenas was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 8th round of the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA). Cardenas received a $200K signing bonus to sign with the Twins. MLB Pipeline currently has Cardenas as the Twins 29th best prospect. For more info on Cardenas please go here.
Cardenas, 24, played in three games for the Kernels, hitting .500 (4-for-8) with one double, two RBI, five walks and no strikeouts, while posting a 1.317 OPS. In 90 games this season Cardenas slashed .272/.397/.382 primarily as a catcher but he also played some first base.