Kody Clemens Had the Season Minnesota Twins Wanted Edouard Julien to Have

[Rod Carews Birthday]

21 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

If he got to it the same way Clemens did, they shouldn't have been happy with it. It would've just been Julien doing Julien things. Spike short term performance with no staying power. Ignoring the fact that nearly all of Clemens' performance came in a 1-month period of time would be terrible player evaluation on the Twins part. But, based on where the team is at now, I guess you very well could be right.

They're going to talk themselves into Clemens being a useful piece and they likely would've done the same with Julien if he had a 1-month outlier. It's why the team lost 92 games. Being happy with performances like that and selling themselves on the idea that the 1-month spike is more meaningful than the 3 months of well below average performance.

Absolutely!  

I would hope that the Twins would want a better overall season (with much more consistency) from Julien if they imagined him to be a part of the future team.  An average OPS+ isn’t very exciting, especially when it comes in fits and starts without consistency.  In Julien’s first year, he was much better than that.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like he will regain that pace.  Clemens, on the other hand, may have some usefulness as a utility guy IF he can be more like the surge Kody than the scuffling one.  Unfortunately, I think that the Twins will hand him a job next year and watch Clemens turn back into . . . . Kody Clemens.  The Twins have done that many times in the past.  Here we go again.  

[stringer bell]

19 hours ago, Jacksson said:

ANY Position Player, other than Catcher who can't hit .250 over the course of the season has no business being on a MLB 26 man roster and for that matter a MLB 40 man roster.

Only 11 teams had team batting averages of .250 or above and only five were above .253. More than 50 players in MLB had more than 502 plate appearances and hit less than .250, including Mr. 60 home runs Cal Raleigh. If you were talking 20-30 years ago, you might have a case, but getting a high batting average is difficult these days. Today's .270 hitter was a .300 hitter in earlier eras.

[stringer bell]

Kody Clemens season with the Twins includes a hot month of May and the rest of the season where he performed pretty close to his career norms. I don't think his good month should be ignored, nor should we fans expect him to hit like he did in May for a sustained period of time.

In Clemens' first season where he got fairly regular playing time, he hit 19 homers and had a .715 OPS. He played more than acceptable defense at four positions and provided more than his share of clutch hits. IMHO, if he was to replicate his 2025 in 2026, he would deserve a roster spot and hold it for the entire season. I'd hesitate to make him Option A at first base, but he does represent a backup plan.

[Jeff K]

On 9/29/2025 at 1:56 PM, Sjoski said:

Julien is still young.  The problem is pitchers figured him out with offspeed stuff, and he hasn’t adjusted.

If he can get back to using his patience and on-base skills, he brings something Clemens doesn’t.

However, he will have to prove himself by winning a job during spring training next season. 

It's highly probable he can't play himself back to the majors...another Miranda. 

Julien doesn't have a position.  Where are you going to play him?  The Twins have to improve their defense and Julien is not the answer.  I hope the Twins have better options than Clemens; but Julian is certainly not one of them.  And I like Martin backing up 2nd base better than either of them.

[stringer bell]

On 9/29/2025 at 1:25 PM, DJL44 said:

The real answer to that is Brooks Lee. If they want a 90 loss season, make Brooks Lee the everyday SS again.

If 2024-2025 Brooks Lee is the Twins shortstop, they won’t be very good. 24-year-olds get better more often than not, so I do expect a better version of Brooks Lee in 2026. How much better? I’m not really sure.

There will be a new manager and maybe he can unlock the likes of Lee, Wallner and Lewis so that there are.six or seven guys who are season long regulars. 

[DJL44]

18 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

If 2024-2025 Brooks Lee is the Twins shortstop, they won’t be very good. 24-year-olds get better more often than not, so I do expect a better version of Brooks Lee in 2026. How much better? I’m not really sure.

There will be a new manager and maybe he can unlock the likes of Lee, Wallner and Lewis so that there are.six or seven guys who are season long regulars. 

I think Brooks Lee will become a better hitter. He was the lowest rated SS defensively in 2025. His athleticism gives him a ceiling of below average at SS. He’s a 3B playing out of position.

[Doctor Wu]

On 9/30/2025 at 1:30 AM, JD-TWINS said:

Agree, he looks like a 48 year old playing in a 25 year old body - lack of strength and quickness is glaring!!

That's the best --- and maybe most accurate --- description I've read about him yet.

[old nurse]

On 9/29/2025 at 1:38 PM, chpettit19 said:

How many PAs were given to players worse than Julien? Unless your answer is 0 so you're literally arguing he's the worst player in MLB and that's why he doesn't deserve a spot on any roster then I don't understand the argument.

1. The Twins didn't give 2000 PAs to worse players than career norm/June through September Kody Clemens. 2. Just because the Twins, and other teams, had a number of other players who also weren't MLB quality doesn't make Clemens MLB quality.

If you're using his season stat line and including the complete and utter outlier that was his month of May in your argument, cool, have at it. Good luck getting the same performance moving forward. But career norm (which is nearly identical to his June through September performance) Kody Clemens is not a major league player. It's why he was available on the waiver wire at the age of 29 with only 402 MLB PAs to his name.

I mean this is the Twins in a nutshell. Carrying Jonah Bride on your AAA team the whole season after DFAing him and Kody Clemens on your MLB team the whole season. They have no present or future value. Having people trying to convince themselves a 1B/cOFer who plays a barely passable 2B and brings a .665-.670 OPS bat is a real MLB player. He isn't. And the fact that the bar for entrance onto the Twins 26-man roster is that low explains everything very well.

Over 2700 PA by position players with a worse fwar and having at least 50 PA. Another way to look at numbers, there were 196 players with a worse WRC+ and 50 AB. No idea how many of either groups were catchers as so many can’t hit