What Should the Twins Do About the Middle Infield?

If you move Lee, move him to first base. He has enough range to cover that position and arm strength generally isn't an issue. Think of him as a 2020's Mientkiewicz. 

There can't be a thought that the Twins have too many shortstops and need to acquire a C or 1B. San Diego has former highly rated shortstops playing RF, CF, 3B, 2B, and SS. The goal of every organization should be to acquire as much high end talent as is possible.

Currently the Twins have guys in the correct position given the options. Lee would probably be best at 3B where his lack of foot speed doesn't hurt him as much. His arm is not top notch for third but his first step, instincts, and quick release would serve him well. Royce did improve last year at 3B. We can hope for further improvement. He has looked like a guy who should play 1B before last August and September. Lee is easily the best shortstop until someone else moves in. He can improve and his bat will determine his career. Keaschall hasn't had enough time to fairly evaluate. He is quick and covers ground. He could be ok or even decent at 2B. Maybe the Twins sign Bo Bichette for 2B and Luke plays first base. Clemens looked like a fair utility player and is the first baseman until someone else comes aboard. 

The big concern seems to be first base. I would suggest that all of Royce, Brooks, and Luke could be decent first basemen but the Twins would need to acquire someone to push them off of their current spot. Get the best possible athlete/hitter.

I keep seeing suggestions to move Lee to another position. My question is why is he considered a starter at all when hasn't earned it. @Riverbrian pointed out in a previous post it's a good thing too have too much talent & that would be a nice problem to have. That's never going to happen if we give starting jobs to players who haven't earned it. Don't get me wrong I'm still hoping Lee shows improvement, but he hasn't earned a starting role to this point.

The OP pointed out a possible solution & to me it's an acceptable risk that Kim can provide an upgrade at SS. 

39 minutes ago, the_brute_squad said:

If you move Lee, move him to first base. He has enough range to cover that position and arm strength generally isn't an issue. Think of him as a 2020's Mientkiewicz. 

Clemens is at least as good both offensively and defensively.  What would be gained.  Lee should get a chance to prove he can be better than he was last year.  However, his best role on a team with a real shot at contending is probably utility infielder.  

22 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

No one ever said to keep a player at his "preferred position".  They said to find the best position for a player when they are in the minors, give him the proper coaching to make him proficient and then let him play at that position until is ready to be called up.

Bingo.
 

The current approach is to keep moving guys from one position where they struggle to another one where they struggle more because the Twins brain trust wanted to keep a promising bat in the line-up. But all the moving around gives them the yips at the plate, and pretty soon you’ve got an infield that looks like, well, the Twins infield.

So the Twins better find some lights-out guys to restock the bullpen, because they aren’t going to be able to hold a late inning lead by relying on their defense.

1 minute ago, Riverbrian said:

If the they want to sign Kim to play SS for a few years. I'm ok with it. It's at least not a temporary plug like IKF would be because I assume that Kim is a multi-year consideration.

However... If the Twins rumors are true as reported on Twinsdaily. If the rumors are true. By rumor... I mean the stuff that is being reported coming out of the mouths of Falvey and Zoll. 

Here are the rumors:

1. We have 20 million to spend.

2. We are not trading Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez or Byron Buxton.

3. We are looking for a power bat and middle infield and bullpen. 

I'll add that rumors state that signing Ha-Seong Kim will require a multi year deal at maybe 15 million per, 

I don't know if that is accurate but in consideration of the thin-ness of the SS free agent market the Twins will have to compete for his signature and that drives price up. 

Signing Kim will drain that 20 million. And you still have the power bat and the bullpen to address. 

The Twins are kind of spreading thin and putting themselves against the wall if the rumors are true.  

Good point, The biggest need on this team is fixing the bullpen, so that needs to happen first & then find a SS whether it's through FA or trade. Kim isn't my first choice, but if it's possible I believe he would be an upgrade at SS.

The bigger issue is we haven't done anything yet in an off-season where we should be busy. No offense to Eric Orze, who may work out fine, but we need a lot more help in the bullpen & the front office needs to get to work or it becomes clear they're not trying to compete. Actions speak louder than words & Falvey & Co. are a little short on actions to this point.

1 minute ago, Riverbrian said:

If the they want to sign Kim to play SS for a few years. I'm ok with it. It's at least not a temporary plug like IKF would be because I assume that Kim is a multi-year consideration.

However... If the Twins rumors are true as reported on Twinsdaily. If the rumors are true. By rumor... I mean the stuff that is being reported coming out of the mouths of Falvey and Zoll. 

Here are the rumors:

1. We have 20 million to spend.

2. We are not trading Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez or Byron Buxton.

3. We are looking for a power bat and middle infield and bullpen. 

I'll add that rumors state that signing Ha-Seong Kim will require a multi year deal at maybe 15 million per, 

I don't know if that is accurate but in consideration of the thin-ness of the SS free agent market the Twins will have to compete for his signature and that drives price up. 

Signing Kim will drain that 20 million. And you still have the power bat and the bullpen to address. 

The Twins are kind of spreading thin and putting themselves against the wall if the rumors are true.  

As you say, if the rumors are true, they are plugging the biggest holes which are the BPO and 1B.  SS is obviously week as well but they are not signing a free agent if they believe in Culpepper.  That would make no sense unless they are willing to spend a lot more for the next several years.  If they can shore up the BP and inject Culpepper and Jenkins fairly early in the year, they could have a pretty good team the 2nd half.  Assuming of course Culpepper and Jenkins make the jump successfully and they shore up the BP.  Shoring up the BP to the point of contending by spending $10-12M is not going to happen unless a couple of the guys transitioning from starting are great.  

This plan looks destined to be a fringe playoff team.  Based on the "rumors" this seems to be the goal of this organization.

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

Agreed on the bullpen.

If I was in charge. I'd focus that 20 million dollars on the bullpen exclusively but that ship seems to be sailing away. If we could land a couple of the top bullpen FA's with that 20 million. We could have a chance at functional bullpen. Not the best in baseball but somewhat functional. 

Alas... the top bullpen arms are starting to fall off the table. This suggests... and I hope I'm wrong but it strongly suggest that the Twins are going to take that 20 million and spread it around in an attempt to fill everything they need to fill with it... which would spread it so thin that it would be near the point of nothingness. 

Hoskins or Bell for the power bat guy on a one year deal.

IKF or Arcia for that middle infielder on a one year deal. 

and multiple bullpen free agent left overs one year deals that were not picked over by other teams. 

But... Hey... it's not all bad news. We will have Joe Ryan supported by Rhys Hoskins!!! 

We all knew that we were a Rhys Hoskins away last year. 😉   

.  

The dispersal is a repeat of the last few years. France, Coulombe, and Bader last year performed way above the expectations but those guys didn't move the needle and we saw the results in the win-loss column. 

Adding to the bullpen with active talent seems like a good idea. Then you realize that $20M doesn't bring in much and if the Twins wanted to they could have just kept their relievers from before the purge and saved $10M. 

The trades are water over the dam, but there is no way the team spends any money worth an article on the bullpen. It is much more likely we see Festa, Matthews, Prielipp, and Raya join Sands, Topa, Orze, and Funderburk. 

There remains a entire raft of options for improving the quality of the team but it is mid December and we are in the process of witnessing a Falvey Threepeat.

Remain hopeful for change. Don't be disappointed or angry. It's all good.

People are awfully fast to shove Keaschall off 2B. Yes, he had some wonky throws and clunkers off the glove, but he's got the quickness and range to do well at 2B, so many give him some reps now that he's actually healthy and see if he can handle the position? He's got 42 games at 2B in MLB and only 56 games there in the minors, total. Considering the time he missed to injury, might be worth seeing how he looks after an offseason where I'm betting he took a bunch of reps and could work on his throwing. (I seem to recall he didn't really field in spring training last season either) We really don't know what his arm looks like yet; he's barely 23.

I'm certainly not looking to dump him in the OF if he can play on the dirt, because we have better options in the OF than we do shuffling around the infield right now.

Lee's lack of range (and lack of big arm to make up for it) is a problem at SS, and it's hard to see him sticking there, but unless he hits moving him anywhere else isn't going to be great either...and if he starts hitting above league average we might be able to accept his defense at SS for now (he does handle the balls he gets to?) until Culpepper is ready. And moving Royce Lewis to 3B to find room for Lee doesn't work for me either; Royce is developing nicely at 3B defensively, and if he can't hit either then moving him to 1B isn't going to work.

I'm not terribly interested in dropping assets on a placeholder SS, and if you believe in Culpepper (and it's hard to see why you wouldn't at this point; he's answered every question put to him so far) why would you spend significant assets for something more impactful, when there are other areas of greater need?

Lewis is NOT good at 3rd, Lee's best fielding numbers came at 3rd. Keaschall looked like Julien in his early years at Second, Clemens did better there than Keaschall.

Lee stunk at SS.especially with his small range.

39 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Nobody other than the Twins would have put Brooks Lee at shortstop as a planned starter, but Lee also doesn't play SS if Correa isn't hurt. That really leaves 2 legitimate options for shortstop duty.

Brooks Lee or Royce Lewis. 

Personally, I would have chosen Lewis 7 days a week and twice on Sunday from a skill standpoint, and to honor their commitment to the player to keep a potential future superstar happy; however, Lewis had his throwing issues AND he had a lot of lower body injury woes. Of course, Lee had his back issues... I mean, it's kind of 6 of 1, half-dozen of the other.

Lee has the less error prone glove, but the Twins were enamored with his switch hitting and SSSS performance in AAA as they annoited him as a superstar in the making, but he's actually severely deficient in range, has an unacceptably weak arm, and the chronic back issues. Lewis had poor mechanics on his throws and was a little more error prone than Lee, but had a ton of lower body injuries.

Lee can't hit. He needs a drastic approach change to be an MLB starter. Might be an acceptable utility guy at this point.

Curious you choose Royce Lewis for shortstop. The Twins drafted him and named him a shortstop but he played third base behind a better defensive shortstop much of high school. He also never made much of an impression in the minor leagues. Royce looked much better at third base late last year. I'm hoping he continues to improve and with health he begins to hit consistently.

Brooks Lee makes the routine plays but his best position is third base. His range at second base is poor. Until such time as someone better comes along, it is going to be Brooks at shortstop.

Jorge Polanco signed with the NYM today for 2 years and 40mil. So we have 20mil to spend on additions. Guess what? 20mil to sign on 3 BP guys, a 1B and a middle infielder. We'll see 5 guys in here with no future who no contending team wants. This is just plain stupid. Round and round we go and no sense enough to stop. 

My two cents……I am not worried about where to play Lee. He has to hit a lot better or his position will be Left Out. He would be fine at SS if we were going into a rebuild but supposedly we are trying to win so then we waste assets getting a stop gap?  I’m hopeful about Culpepper but he has to successfully advance two more levels which is no sure thing. I think a lot of people are getting ahead of themselves with him. So the idea that we will live with Lee at SS for a couple months until Culpepper takes over has serious risk for a team trying to win now. Combined with the mess that is the bullpen this whole situation doesn’t add up to trying to win. 

When I look at the Twins right now, and squint a little bit, I sort of see the path the possibility the FO sees to being a contender this coming season. The trade deadline sell off created more questions. Clearly, the Twins were trying to add mostly near ready talent that would lengthen the talent pool but while this plan might give them more options, it isn't very clear how this talent is supposed to fit together and fill all the existing problems and the problems created by the selloff.

The short-term solutions being discussed and perhaps being considered by the FO, seem to be more the wash, rinse, repeat solutions of the last few years. I am hoping for more creative solutions. There are only few guys on the current roster that are  currently impact players. Maybe a couple more who are working their way to that point.  Otherwise, you are looking at just a guy, or maybe a good player, sometime.

So, pick a direction and work toward it. If, you believe in the young talent that has been acquired, then everything you do should be working toward maximizing it. Make sure they are getting the best minor league instruction possible. Make sure fundamentals are emphasized everywhere, even at the major league level. It looks they are trying to shore up the organizational weakness at catcher. Lets see more of that in other areas.  

I am a Twins fan since 1961. I don't expect the The Twins organization to get everything right all the time. The best periods of Twins baseball came when strong core talent was in place and a good job was done building around it. Maybe they are closer to that than it appears. If they are, try to take advantage of it.