Max Kepler

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Max Kepler
Max Kepler Spring 2016.jpg
Minnesota Twins - No. 26
Outfielder / First Baseman
Born: February 10th, 1993
Berlin , GermanyGermanyGermany 
Strikes: Left Throws: Left
Debut in Major League Baseball
September 27,  2015  for the  Minnesota Twins
MLB statistics
(until the end of 2019)
Games    553
Batting average    .238
RBI    280
MR    92
Runs    297
SLG    .444
Teams

Baseball Bundesliga

Minor league baseball

  • GCL Twins (2010)
  • Elizabethton Twins (2011-2012)
  • Cedar Rapids Kernels (2013)
  • Fort Myers Miracle (2014)
  • Chattanooga Lookouts (2015)
  • Fort Myers Miracle (2015)

Major League Baseball

Awards

  • Appalachian League All-Star 2012
  • Futures Game nomination 2015
  • Southern League All Star 2015
  • Southern League Most Valuable Player 2015
  • Baseball America Minor League All-Star 2015
  • Minnesota Twins Minor League Player of the Year 2015
Last update: May 13th 2020

Maximilian "Max" Kepler-Rozycki (born February 10, 1993 in Berlin ) is a German baseball player who has been under contract with the Minnesota Twins from the American League since 2009 . The outfielder , who is sometimes used as a first baseman , is considered one of the greatest European talents. He was first used in September 2015 for the Twins in Major League Baseball (MLB).

Life

Max Kepler is the son of the native Texan Kathy Kepler and the native Polish Marek Różycki, who both belonged to the first guard of the Deutsche Oper Berlin , where they also met. He has a younger sister named Emma. Kepler began playing baseball while at the John F. Kennedy School , a German-American school in Berlin-Zehlendorf , which he attended together with the future professional footballer John Anthony Brooks . In addition to baseball with the SCC Berlin Challengers (2002-2004) and Berlin Sluggers (2005-2007), he was also active in other sports, such as tennis . Among other things, he was a soccer goalkeeper in the youth team of Hertha BSC , but describes himself as a fan of Borussia Dortmund . Kepler was in a relationship with soccer player Abby Dahlkemper from 2017 to 2019 .

Career

Regensburg legionaries

From 2008 Kepler attended the baseball boarding school of the Regensburg legionaries and was early active for the team in the baseball Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga. In total, he made 61 appearances, 21 in the first and 40 in the second team. In addition to his standard position in the outfield, Kepler also played three times as a pitcher for the legionaries. He didn't get a single run in six innings .

In 2011 he was with the Legionnaires German baseball champions with a 3-2 win in the final series of the 2011 Bundesliga season against the Paderborn Untouchables . Kepler was only used in the play-offs and scored three runs in five games and contributed an RBI to the success of his team.

Minor league career with the Minnesota Twins

2009–2012

In 2009, Kepler, who had sixteen offers from MLB teams, including the New York Yankees , Boston Red Sox , Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies , signed a deal with the Minnesota Twins. He received a so-called signing bonus of 800,000 US dollars just for his signature with the Twins . This was the highest sum ever paid for a player outside of the US or Latin America , up until 2013 . From August 2009 he lived in Fort Myers , Florida , where he attended high school and from the 2010 season played for the GCL Twins , the rookie level team of the Twins in the Gulf Coast League . In his first season in the USA, Kepler-Rozycki, who is regularly only listed under the surname Kepler in official statistics and in media reports , was used 37 times and achieved a beating average of 28.6%. In addition to eleven RBI and six stolen bases , he also scored 15 runs of his own.

For the 2011 season he moved to the Elizabethton Twins , another rookie minor league team of the Minnesota Twins, which plays in the Appalachian League . After 50 games in which Kepler was mainly used as a left fielder , he finished the season with 24 RBI, and he also managed his first home run as a professional in the minor leagues.

According to his own statements, Kepler originally aimed to make the leap into the major leagues in 2014. In the 2012 season, however, the Twins left him in Elizabethton for another year. There he was able to draw attention to himself through excellent performances. Compared to the previous season, he was able to increase his batting average to just under 30%, scored ten home runs and 49 RBI in 59 games and came to first base eight times through a hit by pitch alone .

2013-2015

In 2013, an elbow injury initially prevented Kepler's deployment. He was only able to intervene in the game again at the end of June. The Minnesota Twins assigned him to their Class A minor league team Cedar Rapids Kernels , taking Kepler the next step up the corporate ladder. Various experts counted Kepler among the ten best young players in 2013 under contract with the Minnesota Twins. In the rankings at the end of the 2013 season, Kepler was able to maintain this position. Following the regular season, the Twins sent him to the Arizona Fall League , where the teams' greatest talents are regularly used. In Arizona, Kepler played at First Base for the Glendale Desert Dogs .

In November 2013, the Minnesota Twins named Kepler to their 40-man squad. With this strategic decision, the Twins made sure that they would not lose him to another team in the Rule 5 Draft.

In the pre-season 2014, Kepler was first used in the professional team of the Minnesota Twins. He played a total of seven games as an outfielder during Spring Training and drew attention to himself with a batting average of .500 (50%) before he was reassigned to a farm team of the Twins on March 9, 2014 , this time the Fort Myers Miracle . With this he won the championship in the Class A-Advanced Florida State League in 2014 . Then, as in the previous year, the Twins nominated Kepler for the Arizona Fall League , where he competed for the Salt River Rafters this time. In 18 games he scored a respectable batting average of .307 there.

After Kepler had started the 2015 season again in Fort Myers, the Twins "promoted" him after just a few games. Since then he has worked for the Chattanooga Lookouts in the AA division. At the end of May 2015, the performances he showed there earned him the title of “Twins Minor League Player of the Week”. In addition, Kepler was voted Player of the Week of the Southern League twice . He was given a special honor in June 2015 when he was selected as the first German player for the Futures Game , in which the best young players from the MLB clubs compete every year as part of the MLB All-Star Game . However, due to an injury, Kepler was unable to participate in the game. The 2015 minor league season ended for Kepler with both a team success and personal awards: On the one hand, his Chattanooga Lookouts won the championship title of the Southern League , with Kepler making a decisive contribution to this triumph with a total of three home runs in the finals. On the other hand, Kepler was not only voted the most valuable player in his league and in the all-star team of Baseball America , which includes all junior leagues , but was also named the best junior player of the Minnesota Twins in 2015.

Major league career

2015-2016

For the final spurt in the race for the playoff places, Kepler was appointed by the Twins for the first time in their major league team on September 22, 2015. On September 27, he came to his first short stint in the MLB when he came on as a pinch hitter in the 7-1 win at the Detroit Tigers for Torii Hunter . On October 4, he had his first hit in the game against the Kansas City Royals , the eventual winners of the 2015 World Series . Kepler made four appearances in the American League in 2015, two of them from the start.

Max Kepler at the Minnesota Twins in 2017.

Kepler's outstanding performance at the Chattanooga Lookouts in the 2015 season was also recognized by the trade press. MLB.com rated him as one of the fifty best young players in the MLB. In the corresponding Baseball America rankings , he even landed in 30th place. For the 2016 season , the Twins had planned to initially continue to build Kepler carefully. To this end, at the end of the spring training camp, he was sent to the squad of the highest-class farm team, the Rochester Red Wings , at Triple-A level . For Rochester, however, he only played two games before he was called back to the major league team on April 9 to replace the injured Danny Santana . After nine appearances in the MLB, Kepler was transferred back to Rochester at the end of April and was there 29 times. On May 31, Kepler was reassigned to the major league team due to an injury to Miguel Sanó .

In his second deployment on June 2, he got his first two RBI in the Major League in a home win against the Tampa Bay Rays . On June 12, 2016, he hit his first home run in the Major League in the Twins' home game against the Boston Red Sox , a 3-run walkoff HR in the 10th inning, which meant the 7-4 victory over the Red Sox . This was followed by Kepler's first Stolen Base on June 19 in the 7-4 win over the Yankees, in which he also achieved three hits in one game for the first time. On July 2, 2016, Kepler hit the 17: 5 win against Texas Rangers for the first time two home runs in one game and the first time a home run against a left-hander. With seven RBI, he also set a new franchise record for the Twins for most runners batted in a rookie in one game. This was followed by Kepler's first Grand Slam on July 10, 2016 in a 15: 4 home win over Texas Rangers. Against the Cleveland Indians , he got three home runs and a total of four hits in one game for the first time on August 1, 2016. For his achievements in the week from August 1 to 7, 2016, Kepler was named Player of the Week in the American League for the first time, together with his teammate Joe Mauer .

2017-2018

In 2017, Kepler was first used exclusively in the major league team of the Twins. He had a batting average of .243 in 147 games with 19 home runs , 124 hits and 69 RBIs . The Minnesota Twins reached the play-offs that year , but lost the wildcard game against the New York Yankees on October 3, 2017 4-8. Kepler managed a double in the first inning.

The 2018 season was dubbed in advance by some sports media as a possible breakthrough season for Kepler. At first he also managed a significant improvement, especially against left-handed pitchers . In the further course of the season, however, Kepler fell short of the expectations of most experts and his batting average - like most other statistics - settled at about the level of the previous year. Only the walk-strikeout ratio (BB / K) showed a clear improvement. With 20 home runs he surpassed his season record from the previous year (19 home runs).

Since 2019

For the 2019 season, Kepler initially signed a one-year contract with the Minnesota Twins for $ 3.125 million. According to media reports, the player signed a five-year contract worth $ 35 million with the Twins in February 2019 . The deal was confirmed on February 15, 2019. With an annual base salary of 7 million US dollars , Kepler rose to third place among the best-earning German athletes in US sports leagues, ahead of Bastian Schweinsteiger (fourth place with 6.1 million) and after Leon Draisaitl (second place with 9 million) and Dennis Schröder (1st place with 15.5 million). In the week of May 20-26, 2019, Kepler was named American League Player of the Week with a batting average of .571, three home runs and 10 RBI. On June 6, 2019, he scored three home runs in one game against the Cleveland Indians for the second time in his career. On June 19, 2019, Kepler scored the decisive hit for a walk-off victory in the 17th inning against the Boston Red Sox . In the fan voting for the MLB All-Star Game 2019 , Kepler was only 138 votes short of a starting place. Even before the All-Star Game break, he also set a new personal season record with 21 home runs. In July 2019, Kepler was involved in several home run records for the Twins. Against the Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer, he hit five home runs in five consecutive at-bats within two games. On July 26, 2019, he hit the 200th home run of the Minnesota Twins in the 2019 season, making the team the team that reached that mark in the history of MLB fastest in one season. With his 33rd season home run on August 16, 2019, he broke the MLB record for European-born players, previously held by Scottish- born outfielder Bobby Thomson for 68 years . In the second half of the season, Kepler missed numerous games due to injury; including on September 8 because of a chest injury and from September 14 to 21, six games in a row because of a shoulder injury.

criticism

During the protests over the death of George Floyd , he posted a picture with a protective mask from the organization #BlueLivesMatter on his Instagram profile. The mask features an American flag on black fabric with a blue line. This is a symbol of the # BlueLivesMatter initiative, which, as a reactionary counter-movement to the protest against the much more frequent police violence and violence against dark-skinned people, the so-called # BlackLivesMatter movement , puts the life of the police in the foreground. After criticism, he apologized for the photo.

Web links

Commons : Max Kepler  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dave Brown: VICE Sports Q&A: Rookie Twins Outfielder Max Kepler Talks Ballet, Berlin, and Baseball. In: Sports. September 6, 2016, Retrieved January 13, 2019 (American English).
  2. ↑ Kelly Thesier: Twins' Kepler-Rozycki is in his element . MLB.com. September 24, 2009. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  3. ↑ a b Jörg Leopold: Baseball player Maximilian Kepler-Rozycki - "Maybe I need a few more kilos" . The daily mirror . March 14, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  4. ^ A b Jan-Hendrik Böhmer, Florian Regelmann: Interview with Max Kepler-Rozycki . spox.com. July 16, 2009. Retrieved February 21, 2011.
  5. ↑ Meet Abby Dahlkemper - Girlfriend of Twins OF Max Kepler. Accessed August 8, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Minnesota Twins Player Has A Girlfriend That's Worth Taking A Look At. Retrieved August 8, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Max Kepler Biography, accessed April 24, 2020
  8. ↑ Player statistics on baseball-softball.de . Retrieved February 23, 2011.
  9. ↑ Max Kepler appointed to the MLB team of the Minnesota Twins Homepage Buchbinder Legionaries, September 22, 2015
  10. ↑ Team statistics for: Buchbinder Legionaries 2011 (REG). (No longer available online.) DBV, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on June 23, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / stats.baseball-bundesliga.de
  11. ↑ Dick Kaegel: Royals ink Italian shortstop Gasparini for $ 1.3M . MLB.com. July 2, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  12. ^ A b Gereon Detmer: How a 16-year-old became the most expensive player in Europe . The mirror . July 16, 2009. Retrieved February 21, 2011.
  13. ↑ a b Christoph Heymann: The ballet icon with baseball studs . The time . August 1, 2010. Retrieved February 21, 2011.
  14. ↑ Ashley Marshall: Passport Prospects: Max Kepler - German Wunderkind shows depth of European talent pool . MiLB.com. January 31, 2013. Accessed July 30, 2013.
  15. ^ La Velle E. Neal III: Twins farm report: Kepler finally starts season at Cedar Rapids after elbow strain . Star Tribune . June 22, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  16. ↑ Nick Nelson: Twins Daily Top Prospects: # 10 Max Kepler . Star Tribune . February 3, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  17. ↑ Jonathan Mayo: 2013 Prospect Watch . MLB.com. July 25, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  18. ↑ John Sickels: Minnesota Twins Top 20 Prospects for 2014 . Minor League Ball. October 15, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  19. ↑ Seth Stohs: TwinsCentric: Top 50 Twins prospects: 6-10 . Star Tribune / TwinsCentric. November 4, 2013. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  20. ↑ Marc Hulet: 2014 Top 10 Prospects: Minnesota Twins . Fangraphs. December 12, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  21. ↑ Teddy Cahill: Glendale's Kepler outshines arms, Twins teammates . MLB.com. October 17, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  22. ↑ Christian Swoboda: Max Kepler in the 40-man roster of the Minnesota Twins . Bookbinders legionaries . November 21, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  23. ↑ Rhett Bollinger: Twins add four players to 40-man roster . MLB.com. November 20, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2013.
  24. ↑ Kepler back to the farm team . Sport1.de . March 11, 2014. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
  25. ↑ Miracle win the 2014 FSL Championship! . MiLB.com. September 8, 2013. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  26. ^ David Paschall: Berlin-born Max Kepler enjoying early success with Chattanooga Lookouts . Chattanooga Times Free Press. May 12, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  27. ↑ La Velle E. Neal III: Twins' Gibson remains on a roll . Star Tribune . May 24, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  28. ^ Lookouts' Max Kepler Named Southern League Player-Of-The-Week . The Chattanoogan. June 22, 2015. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
  29. ↑ Max Kepler at the MLB Futures Game in Cincinnati . Baseball Bundesliga . June 25, 2015. Accessed June 27, 2015.
  30. ↑ Kepler missed the futures game . Sport1.de. September 27, 2015. Accessed July 11, 2015.
  31. ↑ a b c Matthias Ondracek: Kepler's MLB dream comes true . Sport1.de. September 22, 2015. Accessed September 23, 2015.
  32. ^ Matt Eddy: Minor League All-Star Team 2015 . Baseball America. September 9, 2015. Accessed September 27, 2015.
  33. ↑ Kepler receives award . Sport1.de. September 24, 2015. Accessed September 27, 2015.
  34. ↑ Boxscore, September 27, 2015 Minnesota Twins at Detroit Tigers Box Score and Play by Play. baseball-reference.com, accessed June 23, 2016 .
  35. ↑ Boxscore, October 4, 2015 Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins and Play by Play. baseball-reference.com, accessed June 23, 2016 .
  36. ↑ 2016 Prospect Watch . MLB.com. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  37. ↑ Top 100 Prospects . Baseball America. February 13, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  38. ↑ Kepler back in the MLB . BZ-berlin.de. April 10, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  39. ↑ MLB: Max Kepler is brought back to the Minnesota Twins team - Kepler is back in MLB. spox.com , June 2, 2016, accessed June 2, 2016 .
  40. ↑ Boxscore, June 2, 2016 Tampa Bay Rays @ Minnesota Twins. baseball-reference.com, accessed June 3, 2016 .
  41. ↑ Max Kepler became the hero of the game. Mittelbayerische Zeitung , June 14, 2016, accessed on June 16, 2016 .
  42. ↑ Boxscore, June 19, 2016 New York Yankees @ Minnesota Twins. baseball-reference.com, accessed June 23, 2016 .
  43. ↑ Kepler Homer's Twice as Twins Thump Rangers. New York Times , June 2, 2016, accessed June 2, 2016 .
  44. ↑ Kepler has seven RBIs as Twins club Rangers 17-5. (No longer available online.) Inforum.com, June 2, 2016, archived from the original on July 3, 2016 ; accessed on June 3, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.inforum.com
  45. ↑ Watch: Kepler hits Grand Slam, Twins crush Rangers. BringMeTheNEws.com, July 10, 2016, accessed July 11, 2016 .
  46. ↑ Max Kepler - "Hotter than a Texas summer". Sportschau , July 12, 2016, accessed on July 13, 2016 .
  47. ↑ Kepler belts 3 HRs to back Berrios in win over tribe. MLB, August 1, 2016, accessed August 2, 2016 .
  48. ↑ Kepler, Mauer share AL Player of the Week honor. MLB, August 8, 2016, accessed August 9, 2016 .
  49. ↑ Max Kepler Stats, Fantasy & News. Retrieved August 8, 2018 (American English).
  50. ↑ Twins vs. Yankees - Game Summary - October 3, 2017 - ESPN. Accessed August 8, 2018 .
  51. ↑ Perform Media Deutschland GmbH: MLB - Max Kepler in his third year with the Minnesota Twins: So close to the breakthrough . June 1, 2018 ( spox.com [accessed August 8, 2018]).
  52. ↑ Jörg Leopold: Will Maximilian Kepler succeed in the next step? In: Der Tagesspiegel Online . March 29, 2018, ISSN  1865-2263 ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed August 8, 2018]).
  53. ↑ Max Kepler Stats, Fantasy & News. Retrieved August 8, 2018 (American English).
  54. ^ Max Kepler Stats | Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 9, 2018 .
  55. ↑ Sport1.de: MLB: Max Kepler extends Minnesota Twins and earns 2.7 million euros. Retrieved January 13, 2019 .
  56. ↑ MLB - MLB: Kepler extends for 2.7 million with the Twins. January 13, 2019, accessed January 13, 2019 .
  57. ↑ February 15, 2019 10:08 a.m.: Max Kepler receives million dollar contract. Retrieved February 15, 2019 .
  58. ↑ AP sources: Twins reach 5-year deals with Kepler, Polanco. Retrieved February 15, 2019 .
  59. ↑ 35 million US dollars: Mega deal for Berlin baseball player Max Kepler. Retrieved February 16, 2019 .
  60. ↑ US sports - Germans earn that in the big US leagues - Kepler signs 35 million deal. October 21, 2015, accessed February 16, 2019 .
  61. ↑ MLB: Max Kepler voted Player of the Week in the American League. Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
  62. ↑ FOX: Kepler hits 3 home runs in Twins win at Cleveland. Retrieved June 7, 2019 .
  63. ↑ MLB: Max Kepler outstanding! Three home runs against the Cleveland Indians. Retrieved June 10, 2019 .
  64. ↑ MLB News: Walk-Off in the 17th Inning! Fantastic Kepler brings Twins record victory. Retrieved July 12, 2019 .
  65. ↑ MLB News: Incredibly bitter! Max Kepler is only 138 votes short of the all-star voting. Retrieved July 12, 2019 .
  66. ↑ MLB: All-Star-Squad is confirmed - Max Kepler also not nominated as a reservist. Retrieved July 12, 2019 .
  67. ↑ MLB - Minnesota Twins: Historic! Max Kepler hits five home runs in a row against a pitcher. Retrieved July 27, 2019 .
  68. ↑ Twins become fastest team to hit 200 home runs in MLB season. Retrieved July 27, 2019 (American English).
  69. ^ Kepler is a new European-born home run king. August 16, 2019. Retrieved August 17, 2019 (American English).
  70. ^ Gunnar Meinhardt : Max Kepler: The historical strike of the German baseball star . August 18, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed August 19, 2019]).
  71. ^ Kepler dealing with upper chest discomfort. Retrieved September 21, 2019 .
  72. ↑ Twins' Max Kepler: Out yet again. Retrieved September 21, 2019 .
  73. ↑ Protest against police violence: MLB star Kepler causes displeasure Focus
personal data
SURNAME Kepler, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kepler-Rozycki, Max; Kepler-Rozycki, Maximilian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German baseball player
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1993
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin