The Minnesota Twins are one of the hottest teams in baseball.
After a sluggish start to the season, the Twins have won 13 of their last 14 games to take their record to a steady 20-14.
The start of that impressive run was on April 22, a victory against the Chicago White Sox.
That day also marked the return of Max Kepler to the lineup after being out since April 6 with an injury.
All Kepler has done since that day is rake, and all the Twins have done since that game is win.
If it doesn’t seem like a coincidence, it’s probably because it isn’t.
Kepler is not exactly the best player on the Twins, but his contributions during the current run of stellar play are hard to deny.
A 1.218 OPS is absolutely elite, and it’s no wonder why the Twins have been so good as of late.
They are still behind the Cleveland Guardians in the standings, but it seems like the AL Central is slowly returning to normal: the Guards and Twins are the best teams, and they are finally showing it in the standings.
The Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers do seem very much improved, though.
As long as Kepler is healthy and producing like this, the Twins will be a tough team to beat.
For the season as a whole, the lefty-hitting slugger is hitting a cool .311/.386/.492 with two home runs, 11 RBI, and a .878 OPS.
The Twins are back, and it’s in large part because of Kepler.