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Brooks Lee was overmatched at the plate in 2024, and while it was his first taste of MLB action, his performance at least started to raise some red flags on the former 8th overall pick. He’s putting those concerns to bed in 2025, even if his superficial stats aren’t showing it.
Lee’s most significant issue in 2024 was that he showed no semblance of the elite plate discipline he displayed across the minor leagues. It appeared Lee was overmatched and overanxious, chasing 35.8% of the time while continuing to make contact at a high rate. As we’ve seen with players like Jose Miranda, there comes a point where a lack of swing-and-miss becomes detrimental, particularly when the contact being made is outside of the strike zone.
While Lee’s game is not centered upon his ability to do significant damage at the plate, his lack of power in 2024 was alarming. His average exit velocity of 85.8 mph would have ranked him in the bottom 15 of qualified hitters last season. His hard-hit percentage would have been in the bottom 10. While far from a death sentence in such a small sample, he had a long way to go to meet already low expectations in the power department.
This season has been a much different story for Brooks Lee. His modest .683 OPS is slightly above the league-average hitter, but the process is entirely different. He’s improved his quality of contact across the board, including adding roughly 4 mph to his average exit velocity. Hard-hit rate, barrel rate, expected slugging, and even Lee’s expected batting average have spiked so far, and it’s only a matter of time before these improvements show up in his bottom-line performance.
Much like Lee’s struggles in 2024, these metrics have a root cause that can be traced back to his plate approach. He’s swung at more pitches in the zone while cutting 16% off his chase rate. He’s making less weak contact, letting these pitches outside of the zone go, and setting himself up with more favorable hitting counts to get pitches he can barrel. This is the approach that made him such a polished hitting prospect.
Lee’s change in plate approach is likely a result of the newfound confidence he feels at the plate, which shows in multiple layers of his profile. In 2024, he appeared to be sitting back to fight everything off. He hit .175 against fastballs with a .275 slugging percentage. So far in 2025, he’s hitting .273 with a .455 slugging against them, and expected stats say he’s been unlucky.
He’s hit offspeed pitches even better than fastballs, but has yet to collect a hit against breaking balls. How he adjusts to pitchers who try to abuse this weakness will likely determine how high Brooks Lee’s ceiling can be offensively.
Brooks Lee looks like a player who acknowledged his struggles in his brief debut and went to work in the offseason. Despite an early season back injury delaying his start to the season, he looks like a different player at the plate. His overall performance is unimpressive, but his underlying numbers provide exciting foreshadowing. His .368 xwOBA is ahead of players like Randy Arozarena and Francisco Lindor. If Lee can maintain this performance, he’ll be a serious contributor to the Twins’ roster.
Lee looks like a completely different player so far in 2025. Given his minor-league track record, his plate approach supports the quality of contact and makes 2024 look like the outlier in his career. The raw production should be right around the corner for Brooks Lee, and he may simply be a core member of the Twins’ lineup for years to come.
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