It hasn’t been an easy 10 years in professional baseball for Max Kepler.

“Rollercoaster” is a good word for it. His rookie year with the Twins was a fairly impressive start, logging 93 hits in 113 games with a .734 OPS. His peak season was 2019, when he slashed .252/.336/.519 with 36 homers. But everything started to unravel after that.

He tallied just 37 homers the next three seasons, had a bounceback year in 2023, but struggled again last season, logging just a .682 OPS in 368 ABs. He’s ready for a fresh start, or, as he called it Thursday during his introductory media session, a “new chapter” –

“I’d even consider it a new chapter in my career,” Kepler said. “I’m excited, nervous, and I’d say a little anxious. It’s like walking into a new school on the first day.”

Kepler hasn’t known any city in the last 10 years other than Minneapolis. Philadelphia will be just the 2nd team that the 31-year-old has played for. The German-born outfielder started with the organization back in 2009, signing with the Twins for $800,000 after being identified by international scout Andy Johnson.


Phillies fans were a bit confused by the Kepler signing at first. The main hole before the signing was left field, a position Kepler has never played at the Major League level. He’s logged 7,363 innings in right, 1,236 in center, and 0 in left. But Kepler’s ready for the challenge:

“The only real thing is that there will be a lot more righties pulling the ball to left. Obviously, I’m just going to have to try to play the slice differently than in right. It’s really just flip-flopped. The last game I played left was in the minor leagues in High-A, which was a long time ago. I’m going out to Clearwater early, I’m going to be out in left as soon as I can get there. I’ll be tracking out here in LA as soon as I can get out there. I’m excited for it all. The outfield, to me, I always say…Center is the hardest,  I’m obviously a corner guy, and I’m very easily adjustable. I’m not worried about the transition to left. I’m ready to see how the park plays. I think I’ll actually be able to reach over the wall for once and rob homers now, opposed to that big right field wall in Minnesota.”

While the power comes in waves, the defensive metrics have always stood out the most in Kepler’s game. He leads all right fielders in Outs Above Average in right field since 2019, and it isn’t particularly close.

  1. Max Kepler: 30
  2. Jason Heyward: 17
  3. Mookie Betts: 13
  4. Brett Phillips: 12
  5. Daulton Varsho: 11

Kepler hasn’t ever really gotten the chance against left-handed pitching. He touched on the Twins being a platoon-heavy team, especially last season, but he’s excited to be an everyday player for this Phillies team in 2025. While he didn’t get many at-bats, he hit .273 last season (77 ABs) with a .416 slugging percentage.

“I don’t view myself as someone who struggles against lefties,” Kepler explained. “Statwise, I fared better against lefties last year better than righties. We were stuck in a platoon situation last year, lefties didn’t get to see a ton of lefties, righties didn’t get to see a ton of righties.” 

There’s no better atmosphere during postseason baseball than Citizens Bank Park. Kepler, while he wasn’t there, got a taste of it this past October. He was in Philadelphia for surgery during the Mets series and wanted to attend the game.  He had it on TV, and his Mom asked if he wanted to go watch in person. Kepler, who said he was “definitely a little drugged up after surgery,” said it probably wasn’t the best idea to go to CBP in a non-sober mind in a wheelchair.

He wished he got to see it in person, but Kepler said he’s ready for the 2025 season to feel the crowd as a player on the good side.

“I just wanted to go to a team that was capable of winning…and capable of going all the way…It supplies me with raw energy and adrenaline to step on that field again.”