Hunter McCall

Absolutely! Thanks for the comment!

Right now it looks like DH is his best route. He has to improve his feet in order to play either of the corner infield spots. Hopefully his bat gets right in AAA to make up for his poor ability in the field. The Twins will sacrifice a little with the glove if he is able to produce at the plate.

Okay? I had a couple hundred at bats in high school, am I ready for the major leagues? My original point was, why take a guy like Brooks Lee and bypass AAA just to thrust him into a position he isn't ready for? If he had a 1.000 OPS and was just tearing everybody apart you could maybe make the argument, but that's not the case. Lee is going to be a very good big league player, but he's not a phenom prospect who is major league ready immediately. I think he needs to spend a full year in the minors getting familiar with professional baseball.

Understandable, I just think this is a better option than wasting Castro's last option. Let him figure out his struggles in Saint Paul. That's my thought.

My apologies! I thought you were insinuating essentially punting on this year and getting guys ready for the future! Sorry about that! Thank you for the comment!

This is exactly right! I agree!

There's not one part of this that's true lol. Michael Harris has 746 career minor league at bats, Grissom has915, Rodriguez has 838, Volpe has 1044, Gorman has 1344, Dylan Carlson has 1494, and on and on... Brooks Lee has 229 TOTAL at bats in the minors. The point you're trying to make is not only ridiculous but it's not even close to being true.

When Royce Lewis is ready, he will be added to the big league roster because he will be their best option. I personally don't see them adding Brooks Lee to the major league roster until the rosters expand. He just hasn't played enough. The Twins roster is still built to win a division right now. I think about guys like Sonny Gray, Tyler Mahle, and Joey Gallo, all players who likely won't be around next year. The Twins will look to compete. They will play the best players they have healthy and available. For that reason, I don't see this as a year to just throw young guys in there and get them experience for the future. Young guys may play, but that's only because they are the best players available.

Brooks Lee has 229 career minor league at bats, none of which are higher than the AA level. He has played pretty well, but it's not like he's absolutely miles above his current competition. He has a .825 career minor league OPS. That's solid, but not good enough to say that he could jump right in and hit major league pitching. I think he is a future all star, but he needs to get more professional experience before they do so.

See, I think the hitting is the part that will be good. His hitting profile suggests that he'll hit in the MLB if he makes the proper adjustments. He's had success in the past. The defense I can't guarantee. He was awful at first last year which is a problem because he's equally awful at third. He needs to improve defensively in order to avoid being a lifetime DH.

UPDATE: Twins optioned Miranda and reinstated Farmer. Hope he gets going down there.

Absolutely! Great point!

This is exactly right. Miranda was awful at first base. That is not the ideal landing spot for him. I'm starting to wonder if he's not destined to be a DH only. He still has time to improve, but he's got a lot of work to do at both corner spots if they want him to play defensively.

The approach desperately needs to improve. There was a stretch there during that home stand when the whole lineup came to the plate with excellent approaches and looked really locked in. That's not the case at the moment. Teams go on slumps like this, it's frustrating, but it's the name of the game. The important part is coming out of it and going on a hot streak.

As I noted, Miranda is really really hurting the team. The other guys have brought positives to the table that Miranda has not. Every metric agrees that Miranda is the biggest problem on the team at the moment. Ranks 18th on the team in Win Probability Added and dead last in Wins Above Replacement at -0.5. I know there are other people slumping, but I think Miranda needs to see inferior minor league pitching in order to get going and return to the Twins.

It's worth noting that Miranda spent most of his time at first base last year and was really bad defensively. I agree that the future third baseman will be either Lee or Lewis (and eventually Correa), but I don't think first base is the best landing spot either. We may be looking at a guy who will end up as a DH only if he can't figure out how to play some defense.

I think if they send him down, it will be until he shows that he is coming out of his rut. If he goes on a tear in AAA, the Twins should happily add him back. He could also be brought back in the event of an injury like we saw last year during his one-day demotion. There are a few different factors, but I don't believe this will be a permanent thing.

I personally believe it's too early for Lee. They have to allow him time to develop. Rushing him to the majors could hinder his development. There are other options that will provide an increase in production at third base without having to bring up Lee.

I think taking a step back and seeing some minor league pitching would be very beneficial for Miranda. He tore it up in spring training, but just hasn't gotten going yet. Some time apart would do both parties well.

Jose Miranda has had a nightmare start to the 2023 season. How could the Twins handle the young third basemen going forward? Image courtesy of David Richard-USA TODAY Sports In 2021, Jose Miranda set the world on fire in the minor leagues to the tune of 30 home runs, 94 RBIs, and a .972 OPS across AA and AAA. Miranda was named the Twins' minor league hitter of the year and catapulted himself into the MLB.com top 100 prospect list. In 2022, his performance was rewarded by being called up early in the season to replace an injured Kyle Garlick. Miranda sputtered out of the gate in his first taste of the big leagues. On May 29th, while hitting .164 with a .472 OPS, the struggling Miranda was sent back to AAA, and the Twins recalled Royce Lewis. As we know, the very next day, Royce Lewis tore his ACL, and Miranda was back with the Twins. Following his one-day demotion, Miranda quickly turned it on as the calendar flipped to June, posting a .306 BA and a .856 OPS for the month. Miranda put together a solid freshman campaign with a .268 BA, a .737 OPS, and a team-leading 66 RBIs on the season. With Miranda struggling offensively and defensively out of the gate, what do the Twins do with him going forward? The first option is to let Miranda ride out the slump and hope he comes out of it as he did last year. At the moment, Miranda is hitting .219 with a .588 OPS, which is a better first month than he experienced last year, but it is still tough to stomach. The Twins' lineup has struggled to get consistent production out of some critical bats, and Miranda has provided minimal production out of the middle of the order. Miranda has also struggled defensively. Through 34 games this season, Miranda has accounted for -4 outs above average (OAA) and -3 runs above average (RAA). This puts Miranda in the bottom 2% of fielders in 2023. If you happened to watch the recent Cleveland series, you got a glimpse at just how frustrating it has been watching Miranda man the hot corner this season. If the Twins continue to let him ride out his struggles, he will not only have to improve offensively, but defensively as well. The second option is to send Miranda down and let him figure it out in AAA. The Twins just decided to send Trevor Larnach down to AAA to let him figure his struggles out, and Larnach was far more productive over the first month than Miranda, so this option is far from impossible. Miranda ranks dead last amongst Twins hitters in win probability added (WPA) and wins above replacement (WAR). These stats support the eye test that tells us Jose Miranda has been the worst player in the Twins lineup this season. If the Twins were to demote Jose Miranda, it would likely come when Kyle Farmer is reinstated from the injured list. Matthew Taylor wrote on Saturday about who could be demoted to make room for Farmer when he makes his return. Miranda's struggles are well documented in his article. If the Twins go this route, they will likely use multiple players at third base, with Kyle Farmer acting as the primary beneficiary. Willi Castro is also likely to see some time over there, and if the Twins want to get really fancy, Joey Gallo also spent a lot of time at third base in the minors and early in his MLB career with the Rangers. Miranda would then be given time to figure out his struggles in Saint Paul. In my opinion, option two is the best option. In a lineup needing a spark, Jose Miranda has acted as an anchor holding the Twins down over the season's first month. He has been awful in the field and looks lost at the plate. A few weeks in AAA could benefit Miranda and help get him back on track. The Twins will need to have Miranda playing well down the stretch if they want to make a playoff push, but they can't afford to have him continue to hurt the team with his struggles right now. Some time away from the big-league pressure could be necessary to help him in the long run. What are your thoughts? How should the Twins handle Jose Miranda? Let me know in the comments! Go, Twins! View full article

I agree it was a good trade, but I will again say that every metric available says he's one of the worst defenders in the league. Just because he hasn't made an error doesn't make him good. -3 OAA 25 games into the season is really really bad. I understand that the Marlins say they've been satisfied, but the analytics don't lie.

You're right, outside of Taylor, the Twins aren't really going to send anyone frequently. We've seen Kepler try a couple times (unsuccessfully) but Buxton won't because it's an injury risk. It will be interesting to see if they expand the stolen base attempts with guys like Royce Lewis when he gets healthy. The Twins have always been conservative stealing bases under Rocco, so I doubt anything changes too much, but who knows.

I agree that the team doesn't have the same power (or juiced ball) the 2019 team had, I just think that mindset might still be there. I also agree that the Twins don't have the most elite footspeed, but Kepler, Polanco, Taylor, Larnach, and Buxton are all above league average in sprint speed. You're right that Buxton is the only plus plus speed guy (Taylor is in the 76th percentile). I guess what I'm trying to say is they aren't the slowest team in the league, but yes, some of their range is impacted by some overall speed. My main point about stealing was I think it's more of an approach by Rocco compared to just being absolutely incompetent in the speed department.

Luis Arraez has accounted for -3 outs above average and -2 runs above average already this year. That puts him in the bottom 5th percentile of all players as a fielder. Yes, he is hitting the ball well, but the defense remains as bad as it's ever been. The Twins traded an asset to get a more important asset for their team. I do agree that as bad as it hurt to see him go, it was a very necessary deal to make for the Twins.