Could Edouard Julien Be the Next Surprise Demotion for Minnesota Twins?

We are at the point of the season where options rule. The circumstances that led to Bride and Clemens are still around.

If one of the options guys was named Keaschall it might be a different story but for now, the move the keeps everyone around is the move that has to be made.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be much of a surprise for Julien to get demoted.

It wouldn't be much of a surprise for Clemens, Bride, Gasper or Kiersey either, but that's a different discussion. Specifically, yikes -- five guys out of 13 who are viable demotion/DFA candidates!

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

It's pretty hard to judge what their plans are this year because of the roster makeup due to injuries recently. They seem to have moved somewhat away from needing to play everyone a decent amount as Keirsey was getting essentially no run when the roster was even remotely healthy (outside of defense and pinch running). If they're willing to go with pretty close to a set 10 guy lineup (despite reports that they were going to lean more heavily on Jeffers behind the plate they really haven't done that so it's still a 10-man lineup when you include the 2 catchers), then I could see Julien going down when Lewis and/or Castro are back as they wouldn't likely want him sitting on the bench while they'd be more open to Gasper, Bride, and Clemens sitting around....

My take on Jeffers/Vazquez is that on Saturday and Sunday they prioritized Vazquez's defense over Gasper's, Julien's or Kiersey's bat.

Given Cleveland's and Boston's seemingly running at will on Jeffers Wednesday and Friday, I took it as using Vazquez for defense and letting Jeffers DH. If you're going to have a black hole in the lineup with Julien, for example, you might as well have a black hole with Vazquez and improve the defense. 

That scenario, with catching Vazquez and using Jeffers as the DH, might be Gasper's saving grace on the roster, since his ability to be an emergency catcher does allow them to DH Jeffers without risking losing the DH by Vazquez getting hurt.

EDIT: Based on what Vanimal just posted, apparently you can scratch my third paragraph going forward. I think the first two paragraphs still stand, however. And now that they have two more bats they can use as DH (or to shuffle someone else to DH), rather than using Jeffers there as much, it will be interesting to see how the Vazquez/Jeffers balance plays out.

Royce Lewis is hitting .174/.167/.217 in AAA in 24 PA while sitting in the hotel watching every game get rained out. Not sure how that benefits his conditioning or shows he's ready.

12 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Oh, his defense is obviously the only reason he'd ever be on the field, I'm just saying, to this point, they haven't started using Jeffers more frequently as it was reported they were going to. And they certainly may change things when Lewis gets here and DHs more, I don't know. I was just noting that they haven't leaned more heavily on Jeffers to this point.

I don't remember when the statement was made, but from April 15-May 2, Jeffers started 11 of 16 games behind the plate, including 9 of 12 from the 15th to the 28th. It's just been the last several days that they went back to alternating, with Vazquez getting both Saturday and Sunday. 

(It's also been in that last stretch, and a couple more, that they had lost another bat in Keaschal.)

Enough has gone wrong that it's hard to see Lewis and Castro as the saviors to the season, but they do change the roster pretty dramatically. The last week, they had five guys they couldn't/didn't trust offensively -- Vazquez, Julien, Bride, Clemens, Gasper, Kiersey. You can't have a lineup without at least one of them in it. 

Now, with no Julien and Gasper, you have a bench of Catcher, Bride, Clemens and Kiersey. Keirsey hardly starts but he's even more the PR and defensive replacement for Larnach. Bride and Clemens can slide into being true spot starters, rather than either Bride or Clemens starting seven of the last nine days (plus four starts for Gasper and five for Julien in that window.

When it comes to Julien, he's got to produce, and he needs to understand that production can't come from standing at the plate like a statue watching strikes fly by. Even if Julien winds up working a walk doesn't make up for staring down a meatball he should have put in the seats.

If it's stress/mental, he needs to suck it up and do his job. As harsh as that is, nobody is going to wait for him. It's sink or swim when your production is out in the open for everybody to see.

27 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

That's what I get for going off my memory! Thanks for the info.

No problem -- the start of this season has had us trying to put a lot out of our memories. 

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

Oh, his defense is obviously the only reason he'd ever be on the field, I'm just saying, to this point, they haven't started using Jeffers more frequently as it was reported they were going to. And they certainly may change things when Lewis gets here and DHs more, I don't know. I was just noting that they haven't leaned more heavily on Jeffers to this point.

It will also be interesting in that their next nine games are against Baltimore and San Francisco, one spot below and one spot above the Twins in steals, near the bottom of the list. Then they have three with Milwaukee, near the top of the list. 

Check back with me later, but my prediction is Jeffers Tuesday and Thursday against Baltimore this week and then since Thursday is an afternoon game, Jeffers on Friday and Sunday against the Giants. Then the next week, Jeffers on Tuesday and Thursday against Baltimore, but Vazquez Friday and Sunday against Milwaukee to get two of three in that series, since the Brewers run a lot. Book it. 

As a general rule with wanting to do "load management," but with also seeing Jeffers as the better bat, I've thought that a starting point is to have see Jeffers play every other day, rather than every other game. That would mean that in an even number of consecutive days, they would be equal, but in odd game stretches, Jeffers would always get the extra.