Carson McCusker is a big man with big power

CEDAR RAPIDS — He couldn’t go back in time, and even if he could, Carson McCusker claims he would have done things the exact same way.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels outfielder was drafted out of junior college by the Milwaukee Brewers but didn’t sign a contract. He had chances to sign as an undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma State twice but passed them up.

He ended up grinding through parts of three seasons in independent professional baseball before the Minnesota Twins gave him a shot at affiliated ball again in late June. He accepted.

“No regrets,” McCusker said late Tuesday afternoon, prior to C.R.’s 4-1 win over Wisconsin at Veterans Memorial Stadium. “I definitely wouldn’t take anything back, for sure. I’d do it the same exact way.”

McCusker put up video game numbers, as the cliches goes, this season for the Tri-City River Cats of the Frontier League, hitting .433 in 37 games, with 10 doubles, 17 home runs and 51 RBIs. That OPS (on base plus slugging) of 1.302 is just plain absurd.

The Twins noticed and picked him up. The 25-year-old Nevada native hit seven homers in 25 games for low-Class A Fort Myers, prompting a promotion to the high-A Kernels earlier this month.

He hit a solo homer Tuesday night, his fourth longball in seven games with C.R. His other two hits were doubles, and he has driven in 11 runs.

“I made a little swing adjustment about halfway through the year in 2022 and carried that on right through the offseason. I was able to work off of it, carry it on to this year, and it’s worked for me,” McCusker said. “Just a little leg kick. My timing was messed up, so the hitting coach (at Tri-City) encouraged me to get my foot in the air as quickly as possible. That has really worked out for me.”

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Before you even see McCusker play, you notice one thing about him. He’s huge, measuring 6-foot-8 and weighing 250 pounds.

His size brings comparisons to Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees. It allows him to hit the baseball hard and a long way when he barrels pitches.

Kernels hitting coach Corbin Day said all of his six hits thus far with the club have surpassed 100 miles per hour in exit velocity. That included a skyscraper of a home run to left-center field Tuesday night that had a 109 exit velo.

“He’s an awesome kid,” Day said. “I heard great things coming from Fort Myers from all the coaches down there. He obviously made a ripple. He’s got a ton of power, a ton of juice. He’s got that 6-8, Aaron Judge frame, and he’s all of 6-8. He’s obviously got things to work on, like everyone here, and he’s open and willing. I think he comes from a background where he’s well thought out on his work, so I think he’s in a good spot.”

McCusker said he didn’t sign out of Oklahoma State because he wanted to play in the Cowboys’ brand new ballpark (O’Brate Stadium) when it opened in February 2021. He assumed someone would come along and take a chance on him professionally after his final collegiate season.

That didn’t happen, but he’s here now. It’s a belated opportunity, but he’s grateful for it.

“It means a lot,” he said. “I’ve waited my whole life to do this, two and a half years in (pro) baseball waiting for this chance. At the same time, it’s just being present, just enjoying everything I can while I’m still here.”

The Kernels took a 66-42 overall record into the opener of this six-game series. They are 26-16 in the second half, good for first place in the Midwest League’s Western Division.

The teams play again Wednesday night at 6:35. Milwaukee Brewers first baseball Jesse Winker is expected to be in the lineup again after playing seven innings Tuesday.

Winker, a starting outfielder for the National League in the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, is on a minor league rehab injury assignment. He went 1-for-3 with a strikeout, single and shallow popout in his first game with the Timber Rattlers.

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