Twins Reassign Top Prospect Brooks Lee

[Parker Hageman]

Fort Myers, FL – The Minnesota Twins announce that they have sent infielder Brooks Lee to minor league camp.

 

Lee, Twins Daily’s number 2 ranked prospect, left Thursday’s game against the Nationals with back spasms. He will be looked at by the Twins’ training staff to determine the next course of action. His reassignment is unrelated to the injury but he is unlikely to play in any games between now and the start of the regular season.

“I think he had a better than a good camp,” Rocco Baldelli said of Brooks Lee’s spring performance. “I think he had a great camp. He showed us that he can go out there and play shortstop. He left everyone with an excellent feeling with his time here.”

The switch-hitting infielder hit .333/.351/.611 with seven extra base hits in 13 Grapefruit League games this spring. He made some modifications to his swing that have produced favorable results. 

The Twins’ roster is now down to 40 players in camp.

 

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[stringer bell]

How did Brooks do hitting right handed? My guess is that his to-do list at St. Paul would include getting experience at second base and improve his numbers against left handers.

[Parker Hageman]

6 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

How did Brooks do hitting right handed? My guess is that his to-do list at St. Paul would include getting experience at second base and improve his numbers against left handers.

2-for-9 with a double this spring.

[Doctor Gast]

I'm a big fan of Lee, he's a future foundation of the Twins. Yet I never believed that Lee would break camp with the Twins. What I saw from Lee at SS,  was OK but I wasn't that impressed.

[bean5302]

I want Brooks Lee to prove he can hit at the AAA level, and especially hit LHP before calling him up. The Twins saying nice things about him is good, but they're not going to throw a top prospect under the bus.

Lee isn't on the 40 man, and he won't be rule 5 eligible until after the 2025 season, and the Twins don't really have a good every day position for Lee to fill at the moment. The Twins appear committed to Julien at 2B for now, Correa at SS and Lewis at 3B.

Lee's lack of a good speed means he's probably a poor fit for an outfield position, and his history of being very weak from the right side of the plate means he's potentially a LHH platoon candidate like Julien, Wallner, and Kirilloff are already treated.

I'd rather Lee get experience and make adjustments at AAA rather than rushing him to MLB and endlessly tinkering with him in the big show like they did with Byron Buxton.

[KirbyHawk75]

A Twins prospect injured?  I am shocked

  

[CRF]

There's no doubt that he's going to be a big part of this team in the future, but I agree that he should be in StP and work on a few things. He definitely has skills and we'll be seeing him soon enough. 

[jkcarew]

Yeah. Hopefully, the Saints face at least their share of lefties in the front half.

The comments regarding his defense are encouraging. He had a good showing.

[GNess]

Lee also showed a major improvement in results from last spring. He is going to be a good one - a position will work out for him. His talent and performance will demand it.

[RpR]

They did not send him down to learn how to hit, his defense needs a lot of work:

[Whitey333]

Besides the Twins are loathe to start a players major league clock time.  I hope he develops and doesn't get jacked around like many of the prospects this regime has mishandled

[stringer bell]

2 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Lee isn't on the 40 man, and he won't be rule 5 eligible until after the 2025 season, and the Twins don't really have a good every day position for Lee to fill at the moment. The Twins appear committed to Julien at 2B for now, Correa at SS and Lewis at 3B.

Lee's lack of a good speed means he's probably a poor fit for an outfield position, and his history of being very weak from the right side of the plate means he's potentially a LHH platoon candidate like Julien, Wallner, and Kirilloff are already treated.

As we are going to see with Carlos Santana, switch hitters aren’t as readily platooned. Also, from what I understand, Lee did well against lefties in ‘22, his first taste of professional baseball.

The Judge example shows the fallacy of using small sample sizes. I am not ready to give up on Lee as a good offensive player from both sides of the plate, but he has some proving to do. 

[mikelink45]

I'm delighted that Lee did so well. I didn't expect him to be on the team going north, but an injury as a bad report. We've had way too many injuries to our prospects over the years. So I just hope he gets well soon. Does grayden AAA and forces his way back to Minnesota?

[JD-TWINS]

Unless somebody gets hurt seriously underperforms, he won’t be back until July or August at best. There’s nowhere for him to play at this point.

The injury seems pretty mild.

I still think he’ll rest Correa and Lewis later in the summer & DH some……….he doesn’t help with the platoon at 2B so Farmer keeps him off the 26-man potentially ……… hopefully, they may “help” another team by trading Farmer and prospects for an arm by the deadline?

[jkcarew]

4 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Also, from what I understand, Lee did well against lefties in ‘22, his first taste of professional baseball.

Yes…over 24 PA…the smallest of small samples.

In 2023 over 109 PA (and against better pitching), he was pretty awful from the right side. Less power, fewer walks, more K…the whole 9 yards. Even he has admitted that he’s spent much of the offseason working on improving the right-handed swing.

I agree, though, that I don’t doubt he can be a good hitter in the majors. Even if he can improve from the right (which will only represent 20%-ish of his opportunities) to get within hailing distance of MLB-average…we probably have a very nice player on our hands.

[Brett]

Seems like Lee is an injury replacement for Correa, Lewis, Julien, and Farmer. Love that flexibility!

[JD-TWINS]

11 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Yes…over 24 PA…the smallest of small samples.

In 2023 over 109 PA (and against better pitching), he was pretty awful from the right side. Less power, fewer walks, more K…the whole 9 yards. Even he has admitted that he’s spent much of the offseason working on improving the right-handed swing.

I agree, though, that I don’t doubt he can be a good hitter in the majors. Even if he can improve from the right (which will only represent 20%-ish of his opportunities) to get within hailing distance of MLB-average…we probably have a very nice player on our hands.

Agree on some mild improvement from right side as adequate to play every day. Guys now only play 140 games on the high end, even young guys. If he sits/rests v. LH pitching …..that’s 20 of the 40 games he would bat RH.

Can’t really think of too many really effective switch hitters in the last 50 years? Maybe 5? My point, as yours, expectations/hope for excellence from both sides probably need to be tempered.

[Fatbat]

18 hours ago, RpR said:

They did not send him down to learn how to hit, his defense needs a lot of work:

He is also dinged up. He has to work on a lot of everything since he is young and obviously not a finished product but he is already as good as or better than dozens of infielders that will be rostered on opening day in MLB.  
He likely wont see a while lot of MLB SS in ‘24 simply because C4 is primed to have a career year.

[mrcharlie]

Rocko's comment about his SS play is very telling when you consider all his starts at SS during Spring Training.  I don't believe he played else where.

If he is called up he will play fulltime and most likely at SS I believe.  It is unusual for a top prospect to get the call to be a utility player.  So where does that leave Correa?... injury, DHing or traded?  

I want to see how this unfolds.

[Seth Stohs]

21 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

Besides the Twins are loathe to start a players major league clock time.  I hope he develops and doesn't get jacked around like many of the prospects this regime has mishandled

It's sure hard to get rid of old narratives, even if they haven't been true for a long time. 

[Seth Stohs]

1 hour ago, mrcharlie said:

Rocko's comment about his SS play is very telling when you consider all his starts at SS during Spring Training.  I don't believe he played else where.

If he is called up he will play fulltime and most likely at SS I believe.  It is unusual for a top prospect to get the call to be a utility player.  So where does that leave Correa?... injury, DHing or traded?  

I want to see how this unfolds.

It's hard to know because it's impossible to know when an injury will happen. But it's clear that they wanted to see Martin at 2B, LF and CF because he could be called up quickly and until the Margot deal, maybe had a chance. Larnach likely ready when a need in LF or RF or DH. If the need is at SS, it'd likely be Lee early in the year (if he'd be out an extended time). 

However, once the season gets going and we're in June, it'll come down to who is playing well in St. Paul, and I would assume guys will play all over. I know that Lee spent time at 2B and 3B on the back fields and took a lot of ground balls at those spots throughout the spring. He'd be fine there if needed too. 

[bean5302]

20 hours ago, stringer bell said:

As we are going to see with Carlos Santana, switch hitters aren’t as readily platooned. Also, from what I understand, Lee did well against lefties in ‘22, his first taste of professional baseball.

The Judge example shows the fallacy of using small sample sizes. I am not ready to give up on Lee as a good offensive player from both sides of the plate, but he has some proving to do. 

The "switch hitters shouldn't be platooned" line of thinking Baldelli was talking about earlier this year seems like a poor take to me. Santana can't hit RHP at the MLB average level, and he's not providing any positive positional value as a 1B. I mean, I'm sure Julien could technically stand in the right handed batters box to qualify as a "switch hitter" but like Aaron Hicks, it doesn't mean it's going to produce good results from both sides, lol.

Brooks Lee's splits were -.257 OPS in 109 plate appearances while hitting as a RHB vs. LHB in 2023. As you noted, he hit lefties well in 2022 with +.117 OPS, but in a tiny 24 plate appearances. Also, the vast majority of Lee's plate appearances in 2022 came in low minors so I'm not sure I'd want to rely on them as much as looking at AA/AAA results like I did with Wallner.

The takeaway from Lee not making the team is probably this. He's going to get plate appearances, he's going to get the opportunity to prove himself, and the Twins are incredibly deep on valuable MLB caliber infielders so the upside Brooks Lee could bring over the guys we already have is probably very limited. We'll get our stats to review as the season goes on :)

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, mrcharlie said:

Rocko's comment about his SS play is very telling when you consider all his starts at SS during Spring Training.  I don't believe he played else where...

The Twins obviously want to see Brooks Lee play at SS. He's not been scouted as a good runner, and sources like Fangraphs feel he's taken a step back in his range already. The question is whether or not Brooks Lee could possibly be an MLB-caliber SS as more than an emergency fill in. I think the Twins are pretty confident Lee's current range limits would be able to handle 3B, and his strong arm makes up for his expected lack of range at 2B.

If Correa were to go down, I expect Lewis, Farmer or Castro would be starting at SS with Austin Martin being called up. It'll take two IL-60 injuries before Brooks Lee gets a potential opportunity, IMHO. Even then, it's not guaranteed if the Twins are having Lee work on something at AAA because there's also Severino on the 40 man and Prato who the Twins aren't nearly as invested in.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, mrcharlie said:

Rocko's comment about his SS play is very telling when you consider all his starts at SS during Spring Training.  I don't believe he played else where.

If he is called up he will play fulltime and most likely at SS I believe.  It is unusual for a top prospect to get the call to be a utility player.  So where does that leave Correa?... injury, DHing or traded?  

I want to see how this unfolds.

Lee started at least two games at third base this spring.I believe that if Lewis had an IL injury, Lee would be promoted to take his place. He also played a few games at third in the minors last year. AFAIK he hasn't played second base in a professional ball game.

[stringer bell]

14 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

The "switch hitters shouldn't be platooned" line of thinking Baldelli was talking about earlier this year seems like a poor take to me. Santana can't hit RHP at the MLB average level, and he's not providing any positive positional value as a 1B. I mean, I'm sure Julien could technically stand in the right handed batters box to qualify as a "switch hitter" but like Aaron Hicks, it doesn't mean it's going to produce good results from both sides, lol.
 

Last season, Santana hit right handed pitching at exactly MLB average (100 OPS+). He's not helpless against right handers, but he isn't an asset (according to last year) and his platoon splits are far less pronounced than the three lefties (Kirilloff, Wallner, Julien) last year.

A lot of good switch hitters have their platoon split vary from year to year, others are always better on one side. Polanco had been consistently better against RH pitching until last year, when in a half season, he put up his best OPS+ versus lefties. Until proven otherwise, I would expect Lee to be marginally better against righties, but not a true platoon candidate.

[bjorks]

On 3/22/2024 at 11:23 AM, Parker Hageman said:

2-for-9 with a double this spring.

All Star level for Gallo

[RpR]

5 hours ago, mrcharlie said:

Rocko's comment about his SS play is very telling when you consider all his starts at SS during Spring Training.  I don't believe he played else where.

If he is called up he will play fulltime and most likely at SS I believe.  It is unusual for a top prospect to get the call to be a utility player.  So where does that leave Correa?... injury, DHing or traded?  

I want to see how this unfolds.

Only in a different universe.🤣

He started 8 games at SS, he is not going to be called up, period.

Correa, he will play SS till he thinks he does not want to.

 

[jkcarew]

11 minutes ago, RpR said:

He did not play Short Stop in Spring Training  even once

Huh?

Lee played almost exclusively at SS during spring training.

[RpR]

Just now, jkcarew said:

Huh?

Lee played almost exclusively at SS during spring training.

Error, I had brought up Martins stats. by mistake.