Are Minnesota Twins Planning to Enter the 2026 Season With Edouard Julien as the Backup First Baseman?

[DJL44]

23 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Name a position player on the Twins, besides Buxton and Keaschall (really still a rookie-49 games), you would look to acquire in a trade. 

Jeffers, Lewis, Martin.

[twinstalker]

When I was in grad school our department was, let's just say, very friendly with each other.  A few years later, reunited the day after one's wedding, we were all playing volleyball with our beers near our feet.  I reached for the closest one and asked "is this my beer?"  The gal friend behind me slowly shook her head and said, "How could it possibly matter?"

I've always found that incredibly amusing.  I knew immediately what she was saying and that she was right, of course.  Just like I know that would be the perfect answer to this article's title.

 

 

[tony&rodney]

8 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Jeffers, Lewis, Martin.

Really? Wow, but ok. That might be good. It makes me wonder if some front office people from another team will offer something worthwhile for these guys.

[Major League Ready]

3 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

It is easy to see either Clemens or Julien playing first base as the 2026 season opens. Not exactly a charming thought but one that has a fair degree of chance behind it. They are virtually identical in my mind; mediocre.

The tell will be what happens with them or any others for that matter who were our September guys, when June arrives in 2026. By then an answer should be apparent. Either Julien/Clemens is performing at an average rate, at a minimum, as a MLB first baseman in which case the experiment continues or the Twins cut bait and go in a different direction. A continuation of last September is not a good idea.

I see them quite differently.  Clemmens is a better fielder, especially at 2B and he is more versatile with his ability to play the OF.  He is a much better roster fit given where this team stands and where it is hopefully going.  When replaced, he has value as a bench player.   I think it's easy to see them starting the year with Clemmens at 1B and hopefully replacing him with a converted OFer or player acquired in trade.

[CoachDW]

Are Minnesota Twins Planning to Enter the 2026 Season With Edouard Julien as the Backup First Baseman?

The real question should be:

Are the Minnesota Twins seriously considering entering the 2026 season with Kody Clemens as the primary first baseman?

Having a 30-year old who hit .213 last year with an OB% of .281 and an OPS+ of 94 as the guy to be your starting first sacker is a total recipe for disaster. With regular playing time, Julien could put up those numbers. Any low-level free agent the Twins could sign for 1B would probably be more of the same.

2026 will no doubt be a lost season, so I guess rolling with that is probably okay with the Twins brass. However, I would like to see them make a move to acquire a young player with upside who could potentially anchor the position for the next five or six years (someone like Coby Mayo of the Orioles comes to mind). The Twins have gotten decent production from the string of stop-gap veterans that they have signed to play 1B (Solano, Santana, France) but this is the year to make a move to get a younger, long-term solution there who will be in their prime when the Twins are ready to contend again.

[Riverbrian]

Julien has me perplexed. He's out of options so... he's on the edge of whatever reality is about to face him. 

Anyone can argue with me but 2023 was a good year for us because Julien was great that year. Julien had as much influence on that winning season as anyone. 

.263/.381/.459 in 408 AB's in a rookie season is incredible. You hate to let that go but... he's out of options and he's had 448 AB's in the past two years of well below average.  

He seems to be our version of Outman. Julien has better career total overall hitting stats but Outman has defensive skills and can take a base. 

Outman produced .248/.353/.457 in 483 AB's in his rookie season. 23 Home Runs and 16 stolen bases is a toolsy player. The problem is he's out of options and his past two years have been 270 AB's of not well below average like Julien but well below well below average. 

If you are trying to unlock Outman... might as well try to unlock Julien as well but... you just can't give them much rope.  

Julien and Outman are just a couple of reasons why you need to be careful with how we feel about Keaschall at the moment. After all Keaschall was .283/.382/.445 in his rookie year in 182 AB's and we declared Julien King with those numbers... even better numbers and we are declaring Keaschall King going into 2026.   

All of this is part of the reason why I'm insistent on talent accumulation beyond a starting 9 because some are just going to fail and who is impossible to predict. 

The Twins have an opportunity to just load up on youth and let them show you who wants a longer term job. 

 

 

 

 

[DJL44]

27 minutes ago, CoachDW said:

Having a 30-year old who hit .213 last year with an OB% of .281 and an OPS+ of 94 as the guy to be your starting first sacker is a total recipe for disaster. With regular playing time, Julien could put up those numbers. Any low-level free agent the Twins could sign for 1B would probably be more of the same.

I would expect Julien to put up an 85-90 OPS+ with terrible defense. Clemens is at least 1 WAR better than Julien, possibly 2 WAR.

[jorgenswest]

Some guys respond positively to different leadership. Maybe we will see more of the 2023 version of Julien as well as Lewis. Maybe we will see better from Wallner. We didn’t get their best last year.

Last year’s leadership also included Correa who just seemed to bring the team down with him when he struggled. Julien was a different player in September with his .788 OPS. The team looked like it was having more fun playing the game in September.

I certainly want to have an open mind to start the season about any of these players who have shown ability.

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, twinstalker said:

When I was in grad school our department was, let's just say, very friendly with each other.  A few years later, reunited the day after one's wedding, we were all playing volleyball with our beers near our feet.  I reached for the closest one and asked "is this my beer?"  The gal friend behind me slowly shook her head and said, "How could it possibly matter?"

I've always found that incredibly amusing.  I knew immediately what she was saying and that she was right, of course.  Just like I know that would be the perfect answer to this article's title.

 

 

I had a boss who sometimes answered my questions with this question: "What would you do with that information if you had it?"  It left me stumped the first time; I tried to have an answer prepared the times after that.  Same spirit.

[Exiled in Illinois]

Lewis is the answer at 1st nobody talks about.  He has the potential to be a plus bat there.  Easier to transiton 3rd to 1st than it is for an outfielder, and he's athletic enough to do it.  Shores up a position with little organiztional depth.

Sure, it creates an opening on left side of infield, but we have some talent developing there.  Might need a placeholder for a year or two until that talent is ready, but at least the talent is there, unlike 1st base.  

[Doctor Gast]

I always wondered who was responsible for these hair-brained evaluations, then riding that dead horse until it abhorrently stinks to high heaven. Baldelli is gone, so it's all on Falvey. Falvey has no nose for evaluating, so he should keep his nose out of the kitchen. Miranda & Kiriloff were smart candidates for 1B, but they were passed over. Julien is absolutely horrid & we shouldn't depend solely on Clemens, not by a long shot. Why have a bad LH hitter to back up a LH hitting 1Bman? Julien should be DFAed. I'd also DFA Gasper, just to remove him as an option so we can get someone who is qualified. We have much better options in-house who can hit & play 1B. These kind of ideas, drives me crazy. & we wonder why we can't put it all together? This is why!

[DJL44]

17 minutes ago, Exiled in Illinois said:

Lewis is the answer at 1st nobody talks about.  He has the potential to be a plus bat there.  Easier to transiton 3rd to 1st than it is for an outfielder, and he's athletic enough to do it.  Shores up a position with little organiztional depth.

Sure, it creates an opening on left side of infield, but we have some talent developing there.  Might need a placeholder for a year or two until that talent is ready, but at least the talent is there, unlike 1st base.  

If Brooks Lee could start hitting he could be the 1B.

[ashbury]

7 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

If Brooks Lee could start hitting he could be the 1B.

If Lee could start hitting he'd be OK at shortstop the way Polanco was OK at shortstop for a while.

[matt]

My guess is that Julien and Clemens are in a ST battle for the primary DH / backup 1B job, and the 2026 starting 1B is not on the roster. Larnach seems like a nontender. Starting OF is Wallner, Buxton, Roden/Martin platoon with Outman as the backup CF. Remaining bench spots are backup C and backup SS.

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

....All of this is part of the reason why I'm insistent on talent accumulation beyond a starting 9 because some are just going to fail and who is impossible to predict. ....

And because of not being able to predict which ones it will be, it's hard for me to fault them for not locking guys into positions in the minor leagues.

The FO gets bashed for not having guys focus on a single position, but with the (low) success rate (among all major leaguers, not just the Twins) and with a three-man (non-catching) bench, there has to be a fair number of guys able to play multiple positions.

Just like there's been general acknowledgement on these pages that a team has to plan for something like 8-10 starting pitching options, a couple years ago I went back through some prior pages on baseball-reference.com and found that you have to anticipate that somewhere around 15-17 guys are going to get 100-150 plate appearances or more.

The job of a front office is to get to the point of having that 15-17 guys at the beginning of the season that you feel confident in giving that many at bats. That can include a Jenkins, in that you can see him getting his 150 PAs from July or August on. 

I feel good about the 10-deep on the starting pitcher side. The challenge on the offensive side is that it's hard to imagine a 17. When you consider the need for depth, with the current collection of hitters, it's hard not to hope that Julien recovers something and fits there. But when you factor in the need for position flexibility and the lack of options, it's also hard not to think that he'd better come out of the gate swinging if he makes it to spring training.

[Riverbrian]

8 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

And because of not being able to predict which ones it will be, it's hard for me to fault them for not locking guys into positions in the minor leagues.

The FO gets bashed for not having guys focus on a single position, but with the (low) success rate (among all major leaguers, not just the Twins) and with a three-man (non-catching) bench, there has to be a fair number of guys able to play multiple positions.

Just like there's been general acknowledgement on these pages that a team has to plan for something like 8-10 starting pitching options, a couple years ago I went back through some prior pages on baseball-reference.com and found that you have to anticipate that somewhere around 15-17 guys are going to get 100-150 plate appearances or more.

The job of a front office is to get to the point of having that 15-17 guys at the beginning of the season that you feel confident in giving that many at bats. That can include a Jenkins, in that you can see him getting his 150 PAs from July or August on. 

I feel good about the 10-deep on the starting pitcher side. The challenge on the offensive side is that it's hard to imagine a 17. When you consider the need for depth, with the current collection of hitters, it's hard not to hope that Julien recovers something and fits there. But when you factor in the need for position flexibility and the lack of options, it's also hard not to think that he'd better come out of the gate swinging if he makes it to spring training.

When it's time for the call up. I believe it is best if your best player has multiple paths to the major leagues. 

If the guy is playing SS exclusively in the minors and hitting the ball. Does he have to wait until the SS and the SS only gets injured for the call up?

If he can slide to 2B or 3B or even CF... He gets the call when the majority of players are injured instead of waiting for one specific spot.   

 

[DMcQ]

He’s cheap, so he will be one the rooster and a continual development  player!

[RpR]

2 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

Anyone can argue with me but 2023 was a good year for us because Julien was great that year. Julien had as much influence on that winning season as anyone. 

Julien had a good year because Farmer could come in and play Second when the game was on the line, saving Juliens Iron glove butt.

[Riverbrian]

2 hours ago, RpR said:

Julien had a good year because Farmer could come in and play Second when the game was on the line, saving Juliens Iron glove butt.

It was a Good Year... Not a Fire Stone. 

[DocBauer]

I was very encouraged when Julien debuted. I thought he even improved his defense to average at one point. And he seems like a cool and fun dude. But the offense and defense both have cratered  except for a few flashes. Maybe he gets a shot and surprises in ST. But with a 13 man position roster, how is he a fit at 1B and 2B only WITH Clemens?

And I don't hate Clemens either, as long as he's in a utility role. Any idea you can be a competitive team in 2026 with him as the primary 1B is just a little nuts. And can we stop with the hyperboles of "good value" for a below league average player just because he cost little and didn't stink? The odds that Clemens is Max Muncy Jr now that he's been given his first "real" opportunity with a team are extremely remote.

IF payroll constraints will almost force Clemens to be the opening day 1B, it would be a major mistake to bring in a RH platoon partner who is ONLY a 1B/DH option. You only have 13 spots. You HAVE to have someone who can play more positions. IDK, but maybe someone like Miguel Andujar who can at least cover 3B and a corner OF spot who doesn't choke your bench.

I can see a possible 2027 where Gonzalez, Rosario, or Mendez have had a chance to play 1B and could be a viable long term possibility there. Even in 2026, I can see a dimly lit path where rookie Fedko and almost rookie Roden could share 1B in a quasi platoon...with Clemens probably getting some time there...and also function as a PAIR of 4th OF.

Even that makes more sense than Julien as the backup 1B option. Sorry Edourd, it's just reality.

But unless they make a trade for a long term 1B, or make a semi-significant signing, just PLEASE quit IGNORING 1B as a "throw away" position and at least bring in ANOTHER 1yr option that can actually help to bridge towards a potential 2027 and beyond answer.

 

[mickster]

21 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

If you don't think the players you mention have any value, what team (player) are you suggesting as a partner in a deal?

Lee had more value as a prospect then he does now.   Erod has value now as well.   I am stating that I would like to see some chances taken when prospects are at a sell high level.   

[tony&rodney]

43 minutes ago, mickster said:

Lee had more value as a prospect then he does now.   Erod has value now as well.   I am stating that I would like to see some chances taken when prospects are at a sell high level.   

I'm ok with that idea. What are your suggestions?

[mickster]

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

I'm ok with that idea. What are your suggestions?

I don't have really any suggestions, other than a philosophy that needs to change.   Parting with a top prospect or two now and again to fill a real need, and not a rental, is good.   I liked the Mahle trade, it just didn't work out.  Steer and CES were move valued at that time then they are now as MLB players

[tony&rodney]

15 minutes ago, mickster said:

I don't have really any suggestions, other than a philosophy that needs to change.   Parting with a top prospect or two now and again to fill a real need, and not a rental, is good.   I liked the Mahle trade, it just didn't work out.  Steer and CES were move valued at that time then they are now as MLB players

I think many people would agree with you on trading prospects for established good players. The reality at this time is that the increased budget that comes with adding good experienced players is not within the Twins plans as far as it is possible to guess. Now if the Twins can increase their payroll budget to the $150-200M range there would be options. Until such time other opportunities need to be explored. Practicality intervenes.

[mickster]

30 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

I think many people would agree with you on trading prospects for established good players. The reality at this time is that the increased budget that comes with adding good experienced players is not within the Twins plans as far as it is possible to guess. Now if the Twins can increase their payroll budget to the $150-200M range there would be options. Until such time other opportunities need to be explored. Practicality intervenes.

Agreed.   Just would have been nice a couple of years ago when the Twins were playoff bound and didn't add at the deadline anything that would have put them over the top a trade of someone like a Brooks Lee as a prospect at that time should have been done.

[Jeff K]

On 11/19/2025 at 12:00 PM, tony&rodney said:

It is easy to see either Clemens or Julien playing first base as the 2026 season opens. Not exactly a charming thought but one that has a fair degree of chance behind it. They are virtually identical in my mind; mediocre.

The tell will be what happens with them or any others for that matter who were our September guys, when June arrives in 2026. By then an answer should be apparent. Either Julien/Clemens is performing at an average rate, at a minimum, as a MLB first baseman in which case the experiment continues or the Twins cut bait and go in a different direction. A continuation of last September is not a good idea.

A continuation of the September lineup is not ok; I 100% agree with that.  I will say that Clemens has a decent glove whereas Julien's is mostly iron.  Ironglove Julien should never play a position for the Twins again.  If I squint really really hard, maybe I can see his bat come around and he can DH.  But not for the Twins.  Julien needs to go.  If he is a major league player, then some other team can resurrect his career.  Clemens can be an ok 1st baseman and utility player until the Twins figure out a better option.  I would give Fedko a chance or convert another player to first base.  I've previously suggested Wallner and maybe it's not him.  I don't care.  It can't be Julien.  He is an awful fielder.