The Twins Shouldn't Ask Brooks Lee to Save the Team's Offense

Brooks Lee has a wRC+ of 97 at AA.  .267 / .328 / .422 is decent but also does not suggest he has conquered AA.  I think the calls for him to join the ML club are a bit premature.

If there is to be a ‘savior’ it probably comes from one (or two) of the following names…

Lewis, Larnach, Miranda/Farmer, Helman.

Helman a stretch, but if Lewis and Miranda, for whatever reasons, can’t factor in…a hot right-handed bat with a versatile defensive profile could really help.

Probably the most obvious candidate for savior would be for Correa to get hot…or even warm.

You don't have to call him up to be a savior.   Call him up to see if he makes it impossible to send him back down.  Not saying they absolutely must call him up, but I don't know, we also don't need to find reasons not to reward good performance.  Twins have to be open to doing new or different things - status quo aint exactly blowing anyone out of the water.

Just my observation from watching the Wichita games on milb.com. Brooks Lee is not ready. He looks smooth at shortstop, so fielding is not a problem. Lee is swinging better versus fastballs. He has had some struggles against breaking balls and pitchers attack him. There isn't any reason to have Lee face MLB pitchers at this point.

The guys who look the best at the minor league level are Julien, Larnach, and Helman. A host of others are having good days, but those three stand out.

Strange team this Twins team.  For many years we had good hitting but not so great pitching.  Not we have very good starting pitching but can't hit in the clutch or much at all.  Bringing Lee up now would probably do more harm than good.for.him. We however should not be afraid about who we would remove from the 40 man roster.  There's plenty of candidates.  Correa and Buxton should quit shrugging their shoulders and saying that's baseball.  Buxton In an 0 for 25 slump should be making plans for improving, not making excuses.

Brooks Lee is looking like a definite keeper, but as others have said, no need to rush him to the big show just yet. A few more months on the farm at least, and then maybe a late season callup. But as for being a savior ... I don't see him as that big of a difference maker. Good player, maybe even an all-star at some point, but that's a few years down the road. 

I would not call up Lee unless he forces the issue and he hasn't so far. I'd rather keep him off the 40 man roster this winter.

There is no reason the call up Lee unless he hits his way to AAA, and then keeps on hitting there. Lewis is more likely to be called up if he has a solid 20 game rehab stint. And he may be their third baseman of the future, given the defensive struggles Miranda has had a third. Lewis is an elite athlete and should be able to handle third base. 

I’d love to see a list of the position players this FO and coaching staff have developed into legit major leaguers reaching their potential.

At the moment we have at least twelve really, really good young players/prospects: Lewis, Lee, Julien, Larnach, Kiriloff, Miranda, Wallner, Gordon, Jeffers, Rodriguez, Martin, Miller and plus probably a handful of others.  Coupled with Buxton, Correa, Vasquez and an additional player or two, that’s more than enough talent to comprise a solid multi year contending core.

This FO and coaching staff need to be held accountable for how these players develop into their best versions over the next 12-18 months.

The state of our relief pitching means that this team will unlikely be in a position to truly contend this season. Soon it will be time to start investing in the future. 

43 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

The state of our relief pitching means that this team will unlikely be in a position to truly contend this season.

Relief pitchers are the easiest to get at the trade deadline and I predict that is the one and only area the Twins focus on, maybe getting two relief pitchers.

14 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

Relief pitchers are the easiest to get at the trade deadline and I predict that is the one and only area the Twins focus on, maybe getting two relief pitchers.

Ok, as long as it’s Kepler, Gallo, Castro, Solano, maybe Polanco etc. that get moved. As things currently stand, we don’t need to panic on trading our young top talent for this year’s club. 

Just no way anyone is asking for this

💯agree he needs to be stay in the minors and develop and improve, keeping guys in the minors until late age 23 early 24 or later as worked amazing well so far all the other prospects, I mean they are filling in the holes and succeeding on the major league level right? I am mean look at all the names on the Twins roster that this FO has developed, too many to list or maybe not enough to list, not sure.

I am not saying he should be called up, by why not call him up stick him at third for a couple of weeks and see how it goes, he may never see the minors again or he may need more time back in the minors to learn a few things. But the one thing he won't be is a savior and that shouldn't be expected, but now is the perfect time, Miranda is back in the minors Lewis isn't ready yet. There is plenty of trash on the 40 man so I am not worried about.

Just an FYI there are more guys in the majors that are younger than him, then there are guys on the Twins this FO has drafted and it isn't even close.

6 hours ago, Tibs said:

Just no way anyone is asking for this

I’ll take it a step further. Anybody asking for this doesn’t know baseball. The article was a waste of digital ink. 

Killeroff and maybe Lewis are supposed to be this years savior.  Lee is next years savior.  We can't call on all our saviors in one year.  We won't have any for next year if we do that.

Why would Lee be able to help the Twins?  I don't understand.  He's not really helping Wichita that much.  He's never shown he's anywhere close to being more than decent at the AA level.  He catches a bad pitcher every once in a while.

On that last point, he'd fit in with the Twins lineup well.  Over the years, they've hit mediocrity well and have shown near zero aptitude vs top pitching, the type you'd expect to see in the playoffs.