Jose Berrios was named the Twins' Minor League Pitcher of the Year
photo by Tim Evearitt
The Minnesota Twins announced Wednesday night that outfielder/first baseman Max Kepler has been named the 2015 Sherry Robertson Award winner as the Twins Minor League Player of the Year and right-handed pitcher Jose Berrios has been named the 2015 Jim Rantz Award winner as the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year.
Kepler, 22, spent a majority of the season with Double-A Chattanooga, hitting .322 (131-for-407) with 32 doubles, 13 triples, nine home runs, 71 RBI and 76 runs scored in 112 games for the Lookouts.
He was named Southern League Most Valuable Player after ranking second in the league in batting average, first in on-base percentage (.416) and slugging percentage (.531), third in runs scored, and fourth in doubles and RBI.
The 22-year-old Berlin, Germany native was originally signed by the Twins in July of 2009 and has spent six seasons in the Twins minor league system, hitting .281 (448-for-1594) with 98 doubles, 34 home runs and 254 RBI. The 6-foot-4, 205-pounder earned a SiriusXM Futures Game selection this season, as well as Southern League post- and mid-season All-Star and Southern League Player of the Week honors twice.
Berrios, 21, began the season at Double-A Chattanooga, going 8-3 with a 3.08 ERA (90.2 IP, 31 ER), 24 walks and 92 strikeouts. He was promoted to Triple-A Rochester in early July and went 6-2 with a 2.85 ERA (75.2 IP, 22 ER), 14 walks and 83 strikeouts. He becomes the first Twins farmhand to win the Jim Rantz Award in consecutive seasons, and third ever to win either the Rantz or Robertson Award consecutively joining LaTroy Hawkins in 1993-94 and Ben Revere in 2008-09, who both won the Sherry Robertson Award.
The Bayamon, Puerto Rico native was named to the SiriusXM Futures Game and made the start for the World Team for the second consecutive season. Additionally, he was named midseason Southern League All-Star while with Chattanooga as well as Southern League Pitcher of the Week in May. He finished the season with a combined record of 14-5 and a 2.87 ERA (166.1 IP, 53 ER), 38 walks and 175 strikeouts between Chattanooga and Rochester.
The Sherry Robertson Award, named in honor of the Twins first farm director, was established in 1970 to recognize the Twins top minor league performer each season. Beginning in 2002, the award began recognizing the Twins Minor League Player of the Year while an additional award was created to recognize the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year. This award was named in honor of former Twins Minor League Director and Twins Hall of Famer, Jim Rantz. Past winners of the Sherry Robertson Award include: Butch Wynegar (1974), Kent Hrbek (1981), Gene Larkin (1986), Paul Sorrento (1989), Denny Neagle (1990), Marty Cordova (1992), LaTroy Hawkins (1993 and ’94), Todd Walker (1996), David Ortiz (1997), Doug Mientkiewicz (1998), Michael Cuddyer (2001), Joe Mauer (2003), Jason Kubel (2004), Brian Dozier (2011) and Byron Buxton (2013) while Jesse Crain (2003), Scott Baker (2004), Francisco Liriano (2005), Matt Garza (2006) and Kyle Gibson (2010) have won the Jim Rantz Award.
Both Kepler and Berrios, along with the other Twins 2015 award winners, will be recognized at the 11th Annual Diamond Awards dinner, which will be held on Thursday, January 28, 2016 at Target Field.
Max Kepler was named the Twins' Minor League Player of the Year
photo by Tim Evearitt