Twins 2024 Position Analysis: Third Base

[bean5302]

Teams don't usually push superstar players off their positions, especially home grown face of the franchise style talent. Moving Royce Lewis around the diamond probably doesn't happen until at least next season, and it'll be dependent on a number of other things, I'd think.

[Mike Sixel]

48 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Teams don't usually push superstar players off their positions, especially home grown face of the franchise style talent. Moving Royce Lewis around the diamond probably doesn't happen until at least next season, and it'll be dependent on a number of other things, I'd think.

Mookie Betts says hi. But I agree, he's an exception. I think teams are often wrong in this.... But I understand why they act this way.

[Linus]

Can’t wait to see Royce develop and perform this year. I don’t usually pay much attention to “leadership qualities” as it’s really not possible for fans to really have any insight. Having said that Royce seems special in this regard. 
 

[Linus]

5 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

I think if Kirilloff shows star talent at 1B and has a big, healthy year it's still far more likely that Julien gets moved to being a primary DH than Lewis gets moved to the OF. Everything the Twins have done and said has them installing Lewis as the every day 3B. Julien had a heck of a year mostly playing 2B and they're still giving Brooks Lee reps there, and likely will give him more time there than at 3B. Kirilloff is more likely to spend time in the OF than Lewis, but fans keep banging away on this "move Lewis to the OF" shtick. 

The only way Lewis is moving off 3B this season is if he gets hurt himself and doesn't play the position, Correa gets hurt and they decide they'd rather have Lewis step back in at SS rather than have Lee try to go there (not sure which way they would go there, but I'm guessing they, like me, would rather not think about it until they need to), or Lewis completely implodes this season.

I think Kiriloff is done as an outfielder. Hes not particularly fast, has a mediocre arm and takes bad routes to balls. 

[jkcarew]

Still think you’re wasting his speed at 3B. (And don’t buy the injury risk being materially different.) But regardless of whether or when Lewis moves, 3B should be solid for at least a few years between Lewis, and/or Lee, and/or Correa.

[sweetmusicviola16]

I don't know much, but what I do know is Royce Lewis is our 2024 3B. A team can't have too many good players and the FO knows this. When Lee is ready they will find a place for him to play along with Julien.

[JD-TWINS]

11 hours ago, Trov said:

I do not understand why we would predict regression when he was always touted as a top prospect and only health is what really kept him back. Sure, he may not hit 4 grand slams every year, in part he may not get that many chances, and teams may start pitching around him in those situations willing to give up 1 run, not the full Bonds treatment, but give him nothing but junk in hopes he starts chasing. 

If we are expecting regression it is only because he did things he never did before, but that does not seem to be the fact. Yes, compared to his very young years the OPS is higher, but that is to be expected from an 18 or 19 year old.  His 2019 season he was hurt much of the year, but in 2022 he put up .940 OPS at AAA and .867 OPS at MLB.  Last year the power was about the same, the main difference in OPS was his OBP.  

The main risk we run into is if he starts to press and chase bad pitches because teams start pitching around him. I am not too worried about that because after he came back from his injury last year, the last 2 months he did better than his first month, which is when they would have started to adjust more to him crushing. 

Sure, he may regress, but to expect it because he was very good seems odd based on his overall history.  He is getting into his prime and could very well get even better.  If he, Buck, CC can all stay healthy and Julien can build off what he did last year the top of this line up will be crazy. 

Seems to me with an assumed jump for Correa back to at least .260 BA & Buxton up to at least .235 BA …….the XBH capabilities come along with more hits for those two……..,Kepler, somewhere between ‘23’s  1st half & 2nd half offense ……maybe .245 with decent XBH power. So these 3 guys were intermittently effective last year - to me, with these guys making the line-up longer along with Kirilloff-Wallner-Julien-Jeffers, Lewis will continue to see decent pitches to hit.

If he hits .285 with 28 HR & 85 RBI, Lewis will be regressing a bit but still having a pretty solid year!! Games played is what the Team needs from Royce! Hoping for 130-135 games.

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

Seems to me with an assumed jump for Correa back to at least .260 BA & Buxton up to at least .235 BA …….the XBH capabilities come along with more hits for those two……..,Kepler, somewhere between ‘23’s  1st half & 2nd half offense ……maybe .245 with decent XBH power. So these 3 guys were intermittently effective last year - to me, with these guys making the line-up longer along with Kirilloff-Wallner-Julien-Jeffers, Lewis will continue to see decent pitches to hit.

If he hits .285 with 28 HR & 85 RBI, Lewis will be regressing a bit but still having a pretty solid year!! Games played is what the Team needs from Royce! Hoping for 130-135 games.

Pretty solid? Those are all star numbers. 

[jmlease1]

14 hours ago, wabene said:

Is anyone really pressing the idea of moving Lewis to the outfield? It doesn't seem that way to me. I would say it is the opposite, that there are people banging away against him ever moving there. Many because they believe he would somehow be more apt to be injured there. I'm simply suggesting that it may be a good solution if all the cards fall a certain way. I'm open to it if it makes the most sense. I am against moving Julien or any player to full time DH. A guy like Nelson Cruz would be worth losing the roster flexibility, but he was special.

 

Literally every thread about Brooks Lee has at least someone suggesting moving Royce Lewis to the OF. Most threads about the OF, especially related to Buxton and his ability to play CF someone wants to move Royce Lewis to the OF. Every thread about Royce Lewis has someone suggesting moving him to the OF. I would say yes, there are fans who keep pushing the idea of moving him to the OF. I don't think it's with ill-intent or anything, and it would be a way to potentially put the best players in the lineup most often...but the front office has stated pretty clearly that their plan is to keep him on the dirt, so it's a little wild for it to keep coming up as if it were realistic, especially since he has little experience there. Some of this feels more like fantasy baseball managing rather than actual MLB.

[wabene]

53 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

Literally every thread about Brooks Lee has at least someone suggesting moving Royce Lewis to the OF. Most threads about the OF, especially related to Buxton and his ability to play CF someone wants to move Royce Lewis to the OF. Every thread about Royce Lewis has someone suggesting moving him to the OF. I would say yes, there are fans who keep pushing the idea of moving him to the OF. I don't think it's with ill-intent or anything, and it would be a way to potentially put the best players in the lineup most often...but the front office has stated pretty clearly that their plan is to keep him on the dirt, so it's a little wild for it to keep coming up as if it were realistic, especially since he has little experience there. Some of this feels more like fantasy baseball managing rather than actual MLB.

The front office stated pretty clearly that the plan was to keep him on the dirt for now. Earlier in this thread someone posted Royce himself stating that his future was not written in stone. This site would be devoid of most content without speculation and that is all this has been. Speculation about how to juggle the roster if we are in the enviable position of having multiple young players perform. Royce has a good skillet for the outfield. Seem like a pretty logical progression to speculate that outfield may be a possible destination for Lewis. Especially when other young players like Lee and Kirilloff are not as well suited there. He had also played there before in the majors and minors. 

The only time (until this thread as a joke) I brought it up was as pushback to those who have what I consider an irrational fear of Lewis in the outfield. I have simply mentioned I think it is a possible outcome. Whether it happens or not does not matter as long as we win. That is my position. 

[wabene]

I'd like to add that when Lewis injured his ACL a second time management decided to play him where he was more comfortable upon his return. The guy probably had to learn to trust his repaired knee. Two straight surgeries would put anyone into a state of shock. It was a smart move to keep him comfortable as he also had to deal performing in MLB for the first time. There was a lot on his plate. 

[bean5302]

15 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Mookie Betts says hi. But I agree, he's an exception. I think teams are often wrong in this.... But I understand why they act this way.

I do think it's rare superstar players continue to play defensive premium positions when they can no longer handle them. It's just while they're still good at their position, teams aren't interested in moving them for maybes. There are a few instances where teams make genuinely poor baseball decisions to show favoritism to their franchise face (A-Rod at 3rd and Jeter remaining at SS), but I think most players are moved once they're a defensive liability. Kirby Puckett moving to RF instead of CF for example. 

Not sure how Mookie Betts comes into the conversation, though? In Boston, he wasn't able to displace Red Sox star Dustin Pedroia at 2B so he was moved to RF. After he was traded to the Dodgers, he wouldn't have been home grown talent, and the Dodgers pushed him to 2B because of injuries, and that was Betts' original position.

Really, all the speculation on this is about a way to fit Brooks Lee onto the roster with lots of sky high expectations of how great Lee is going to be. I consider Brooks Lee to be comparable to Austin Martin 2 years ago in terms of projection. Fans could slow their roll a bit, haha.

[RpR]

For those who keep spewing -- Lewis to the out field -- the Twins should have kept Urshela, his Spring Training number splits are fantastic and he was very good with the Twins.