A Tale of Two Infielders: Making the Most of Your Opportunities

It’s still far too early in the season to start talking definitively, and the Twins have a ton going on right now, but I think this is a notable enough development to write about. Edouard Julien and Jose Miranda came into 2025 with shockingly similar stories, and they’ve quickly embarked on diverging paths.

Let’s actually start with where they differ. Although they both have a significant offensive shortcoming, they’re almost the complete opposite—to boil it down to its most basic form, Miranda needs to stop swinging so much, and Julien needs to swing more.

"When an aggressive hitter gets even more aggressive, then there’s probably overaggressiveness," Rocco Baldelli said of Miranda on Sunday. "But he’s always gonna be a guy who’s gonna be looking to swing the bat. That’s just by nature, who he is and who he’s always been. It’s part of the good version of Jose Miranda, too. It’s a guy that when he gets a good pitch, he hammers it right away. He’s not gonna be up there waiting around, taking pitches in the zone that he thinks that he can barrel up. So I think finding a level of patience at the plate—that’s a relative term, when it comes to hitters. But no matter who you are, everyone has a point of passivity, and also overaggressiveness. So I think he just wants to do something so badly that he’s wanting to swing the bat before he knows what he’s swinging at."

The only other big difference is that Julien has settled in at second base and Miranda is a third baseman, but even their defensive profiles share similarities: they’re both below average. Julien is at second base because his arm doesn't work anywhere else, and Miranda is at third because his range doesn't work anywhere else. Both could be said to profile long-term at first base, though the Twins seem squeamish to move either there. I mean, they signed Ty France for $1 million to move both off of the position. Both have also played a game at shortstop during blowouts in the last year, even.

Both have had short stretches looking like significantly above-average big-league hitters, but both have had stretches where they’re unplayable. Both face uncertainty as to what sort of role they will fill this year, and the Twins face uncertainty over which version of each will be available to them this year. And both need to be the good versions of themselves, because they’re at risk of being pushed out of the infield picture entirely, with Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee, Carlos Correa, and Luke Keaschall all looking like potential mainstays on the dirt.

They both made the Opening Day roster in reduced roles. Miranda was given the third base job only due to an injury to Lewis. Before that, the plan seemed to be that he would play some third, some first, and some DH, but instead, he got everyday consistency. Julien only got a spot on the roster at all because Lee began the year on the injured list. There was something of a position battle at second base this spring, and until his injury, most assumed Lee would get the job.

I think that pretty well sets the scene. Julien didn’t play the first three games of the season, and although Miranda started those games at the hot corner, he batted eighth in all three games, slotting ahead of only Harrison Bader and Christian Vázquez. Admittedly, Julien was ill for those games, so it’s unclear what his usage would have looked like under better circumstances.

But both have played quasi-regularly to this point in the season, forming a three-spots-for-two-men rotation with Bader (who starts in left when Trevor Larnach is the DH). Through the first 14 games of the season, they had received nearly identical playing time. Miranda had started eight games and played in 11, registering 35 plate appearances, compared to Julien’s 36 plate appearances, starting nine games and playing in 12.

Miranda had a miserable .143 batting average and an OPS of .371 (over 80% lower than average). Julien had a more respectable, but not great, .273 average and .697 OPS—right around the league average. But then Saturday’s game happened.

Julien started the 15th game of the season and registered a hit in two plate appearances, but he was lifted in the eighth inning for Miranda to face a lefty reliever. Miranda also got a hit, but he was then tagged out in one of the more boneheaded baserunning gaffes the Twins will have this season (I pray).

On Sunday, Julien started at DH and homered, pushing his season OPS up to .769.

Miranda was demoted to St. Paul after Saturday’s game to make room for Lee, who also started Sunday.

"I had a pretty thorough conversation with Jose Miranda when we sent him out—when we optioned him," Baldelli said. "Obviously, I’m not gonna dive into the details of that conversation, but I had a couple of different messages for him, and it’s time for him to go down, play well, and get his season rolling."

There’s no telling what the rest of the season holds, but Julien is taking advantage of the opportunities he has. It’s not a unique story, but it is one that defines a ton of players’ careers. Wally Pipp has gotten the bad break of living in historical infamy for it, but this happens all the time. Two players get a shot. One seizes it.

If you just read that and think I said “Edouard Julien and Lou Gehrig are comparable,” please let me stop you. It’s just the quickest example. A player only gets so many opportunities to show a team, or the league, that he’s worthy of playing time—or even instructional time. There are only so many plate appearances—or hours in a coach’s day— to go around. And when there’s a looming infield crunch, every opportunity matters.

Miranda now seems to be somewhere around eighth on the infield depth chart, ranking behind Julien, Correa, Lewis, Lee, France, Willi Castro, and maybe even Keaschall (if he proves he’s healthy). I mean, Mickey Gasper is also still on the roster (but destined for a much smaller role, so we can probably ignore him for this conversation).

Fifteen games to start a season is a small sample. Matt Wallner opened the season dreadfully in 2024, but by rate stats, he ended up being the second-best batter on the team. Sometimes in baseball, though, that second (or third) chance never comes. You can get passed by by guys who do take advantage.

In 2019, Luis Arraez leapfrogged Nick Gordon due to Gordon’s injury—and then proceeded to hit .400 for two months, preventing the Twins from ever sending him down again. Rob Refsnyder parlayed about 20 games of very good play for the Twins in 2021 into a decent little four-year career with the Red Sox as a role player. These small samples have a huge effect on guys’ careers.

Julien has taken advantage of the small opening on the Twins roster. He might even settle into the regular leadoff spot, like he did Sunday, if he keeps hitting.

"Eddy looks really good right now. I think he's very comfortable at the plate," Baldelli said after Sunday's win. "I think he's seeing the ball very well, I think he's looking for pitches in different parts of the zone. He's on heaters; he's on offspeed pitches. He drives the ball really well to the opposite field, and when you see him doing that, you know he's feeling it."

Of course, again, I’m not crowning Julien, and I’m not calling for the banishment of Miranda. Who knows? Miranda might show back up in July and lead the team in batting average for the rest of the year, and Julien might fizzle out in May and spend the rest of the year in St. Paul.

But right now, one has done what he needs to, and one hasn’t. I think the dichotomy is worth recognizing.