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I umpired Brooks' games from Youth Ball, into Babe Ruth and through high school. When he went to college, I got behind the plate during Fall Ball. Brooks has an incredible eye and command of the strike zone. In high school he just overpowered the opposing pitcher. In college he became a very disciplined hitter. Can't wait to see what he does next. Twins are now my favorite team...right behind my Giants. In my opinion, you drafted a really good player and a great person.

Great write-up, Nick! I think it's hard to understate how great it is to have a player of Correa's caliber taking the time to help prospects like Lee. I tend to think that the best teacher is a fellow player. Coaches and managers are a good source too, but some things just seem to be absorbed more from another player. Particularly a guy like Correa.

You can say this about every single player, so what is your point? Do the few games at AA really mean nothing? if he would have gone hitless and looked overmatch I guarantee those games would have been a hot topic among the naysayers. Those games mean something because it shows that the player is able to adapt easily and immediately to a higher level of baseball, something that might show the ability to continue to advance quickly.

Said this from day one and will say it again. The Orioles will rue the day they passed on a guy named after Brooks Robinson.

There's very little not to like about Brooks Lee. He's had about as good a start to his professional career as you could ask for. I love the fact that he's a switch hitter, he can/should be a superior defender at 3B/2B, and I wouldn't be surprised if he adds a little more power as he matures. The approach at the plate is terrific. I honestly think the only reason he's not ranking higher on global prospect lists is he was a college player and many prospect rankers tend to value younger players with tools that they can "project" over older ones with demonstrable production.

I just think of Miami every time i see the M hat.

The Varsity team hasn’t looked this good in years with Lee and co. coming up soon. What a great time to be a twins fan!!

You're allowed to have fun. It's one of my favorite things to do, is have fun. I urge everyone to try it.

Welcome to Twins Daily, and Twins territory! Thanks for this inside look into our next star!

The signing of Correa is looking better every day. He is a top tier SS, a great mentor for the younger players, and it appears that he is also an assistant coach and assistant general manager.

MLB is now All Star Wrestling. Unfortunately, the Twins are Kenny Jay.

Brooks Lee has a plus hit tool tag and thus far we have seen it in a limited sample. I'm a big believer in his future because of his unique package of skills. That said, Lee seems like a solid player who may be a long time regular at the top of the lineup, but he does not have the freak skills of a Robin Yount or Joe Mauer. We just may have that guy in Emmanuel Rodriguez. It is natural to look at prospects and hope for the best; fans. I could see Lee forcing the Twins hand by late July. If the stars align we could also see the rise of Emmanuel by next season. In the meantime it is nice to have the depth and experience on the current roster. This allows the younger players an opportunity to prove themselves in a more relaxed fashion as opposed to how the Detroit and Kansas City teams need production now from their young guys. Lee, Lewis, Rodriguez, and Julien are coming along nicely.

Really looking forward to seeing him make it to the bigs, and I don't think it'll be very long. He looks to be a good one.

Lee has been very fortunate. The year he got hurt was during covid. Being a coach's kid he has a very good understanding of who he is. So he won't take everything in, he'll take in what is pertinent to who he is & let everything else roll off him. Plus his great ability to adapt, I expect him to have even better year. Being a switch hitter, he'll bring a great LH bat to left side of the INF. He'll be a great asset very soon. He'll settle in at 3B & be a HOF next to his name sake.

The future looks good with Lee(3rd, SS), Correa, Julien(2nd), Kiriloff(1st), Lewis(2nd, SS, 3rd), Miranda(3rd, 1st, DH). Excited for the future of the team.

College pitchers have the same relative velocity and breaking stuff as pitchers in MLB. There is, however, a huge separation in how a pitcher below the majors leagues controls and commands their pitches. A guy like Brooks Lee with his mental approach seemingly higher than many can adjust quicker to the pace of play at the top level. It is a big plus that Lee keeps his bat on plane and looks to make contact in pitcher's counts while looking to rip on mistake pitches early in an at bat. The repetitions this year will help him and I believe he could move quickly through AA and AAA. He will be a fun player to follow this season.

2b or 3b will be his for a long time. Excited to see him

While the Twins have established a sad record of playoff futility for twenty years now, they have a record of remarkable accomplishment in another area: they have conditioned their most devoted fans to accept that the team will operate in a way that is likely to perpetuate that futility. That is, the Twins will continue to be cheap spenders. I already know well the eye-roll this complaint elicits among many of the Twins’ most devoted and intelligent fans: How can anyone say that now? Look at the money the Twins shelled out to bring Carlos Correa back (with more than a little help from some extraordinarily bizarre events). Look at the other big name free agents the Twins have brought in in recent years: Nelson Cruz and Josh Donaldson, for example. Look at how they secured Byron Buxton through the prime of his career. Carl Pohlad is not with us anymore. This isn’t 2000. Thank your lucky stars the current Pohlads aren’t the cheap hucksters like those who currently run the Pirates, Athletics, or Orioles, to name a few of the truly poor unfortunate souls. Certainly I’m glad the Twins aren’t being run like those ponzi schemes, but if we love this team, we shouldn’t let being better than the absolute worst be our standard for satisfaction. Right now the poster child for small-market teams spending like high rollers is the San Diego Padres. They are stacking their roster with talent by writing checks so large that even the late George Steinbrenner might’ve hyperventilated to write them. This is despite San Diego being ranked by Sports Media Watch as one of the smallest markets in Major League baseball, with only three markets (Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee) being ranked as smaller. San Diego ranks 30th of all sports markets. Minneapolis ranks #15, But San Diego is not actually a brand new outlier and unique case in this. According to Spotrac.com, in 2012 the 5th-highest payroll in baseball belonged to the Detroit Tigers. Detroit is ranked as the #14-sized U.S. sports market, just ahead of Minneapolis. Do you know what else the 2012 Detroit Tigers did? They made the World Series. Check any sources about MLB payroll history and you’ll find other examples of teams in markets close to the size of Minneapolis or smaller making appearances among the highest spenders. The St. Louis Cardinals are in a much smaller market than the Twins and they consistently outspend the Twins and are very often in or near the top 10. They are also consistently making the postseason, with two World Series victories and two other World Series appearances in the span of time that the Twins’ playoff losing streak covers. This brings up another favorite rebuttal for Twins commentators who defend the Twins’ spending habits as reasonable: spending guarantees nothing. This is certainly true. Until Mets owner Steve Cohen came along, the Yankees were the poster-children of big-market big-spenders, yet they haven’t reached the World Series since 2009. Spending is never a guarantee of anything, but being among the bigger spenders is a bigger advantage than most fans seem to realize. Take a look at recent history (information I compiled using payroll information from Spotrac.com): Looking at these trends (and going back at least until the mid-90s shows similar correlations), it’s not much of an oversimplification to divide MLB teams into two tiers: the Top 12 spenders and the Bottom 18 spenders. The large majority of playoff game victories and World Series game victories- the kinds of things that produce the most fan excitement- tend to go to the teams in the Top 12 club. The teams in the Bottom 18 club are generally fighting for scraps. And before you get too starry-eyed that MLB’s expanded playoffs will change this dynamic, you should know that last year’s World Series teams were 2022’s #4-spending Phillies and #8-spending Astros. Every season, the Twins and most of their fans seem to hold this idea that since the Twins play in the weak AL Central, all they have to do is win the division and then get to the playoffs where it’s all a crapshoot and anything can happen. Well, look at that table again. The World Series is the last round of the playoffs, and World Series game victories are still heavily clustered in the Top 12 club. In fact, from 2016 through 2022, the only team to win the World Series that was not among that season’s top 12 spenders? The 2017 Houston Astros. Know anything about them? Maybe the playoffs are a crapshoot but going deep in the playoffs still tends to be reserved for the high rollers. There are exceptions to this, of course. The Cleveland Baseball Team famously reached that classic 2016 World Series against the Cubs and the notoriously cheap-but-scrappy Tampa Bay Rays have been perpetual contenders since they reached the 2008 World Series. But note one thing about those two small-spending scrappy organizations: they haven’t actually won a World Series in recent history (or ever, in the Rays’ case). Same thing was true for the much-revered Moneyball A’s of the aughts. This is not to say a cheap team can’t win the World Series. The 2003 Marlins ranked around #22 in payroll that year. You might also have stopped reading this already to tell me about the 2014 & 2015 Kansas City Royals. Well the Royals were out of the Top 12 club both seasons but even they- the microscopic-market Royals- bumped up to #13 in MLB payroll the year they won their World Series in 2015. Just one spot out of the Top 12. So it can happen, but the odds are stacked heavily against any team trying to win a ring while spending with Bottom 18 club. A person with weights strapped to their ankles can also still win a race. The Twins have been in the Bottom 18 every season this century save for the first two seasons in Target Field, and even in those years they were near the bottom of the Top 12 club (around #9-#11 depending on your source). Looking at the success trends in that table, it really should be no surprise that a team consistently in the Bottom 18 club would be the team to suffer a record playoff losing streak. They perfectly fit the spending profile of a team whose ceiling is an early-round exit in the playoffs. For 2023, I think the Twins have put together a roster that could win the AL Central. I also think their absolute ceiling looks like a divisional round exit, much like last season’s AL Central champs. I also don’t think anyone should be surprised if the Twins miss the playoffs for a 3rd straight season. Their offense needs a lot of things to go right and very little to go wrong. And Emilio Frickin’ Pagan is likely to be on the team. If the Twins want to get past the likes of the Astros or Yankees or any team of a similar caliber, they need a lineup that can put up a couple big innings against elite aces. But the Twins lineup only has two truly established elite bats, and both of them have well-publicized injury risk. While nearly every other bat has potential, it’s just not the kind of established potency that a team can rely on to deliver in October. I am more hopeful about the Twins pitching, but still think they would have to be regarded as underdogs against the elite lineups they would see in the playoffs. The Twins have an outline in place to build a deep-run contender. Every dimension of the team only looks one or two pieces away from looking very formidable. And I mean playoff formidable, not AL Central formidable. Maybe just one true-ace kind of starting pitcher, like a Justin Verlander, Jacob DeGrom, or Carlos Rodon. Maybe two more established, reliable bats in the lineup like Josh Bell and Mitch Haniger (whom Nash Walker of Locked On Twins said would’ve been a “perfect match”). All those players I named were free agents this past winter. Let’s imagine the Twins had outbid the teams that signed Rodon, Haniger, and Bell and landed those three. That probably adds about $60 million to the Twins payroll. Sounds absurd, but it would still only place the Twins around #8 in 2023 MLB payrolls. And it sounds even less egregious when you consider that the Twins are dropping $19 million on just Max Kepler and Joey Gallo in 2023, two much bigger gambles even with less money at stake. Even if you have quibbles with Bell, Haniger, and/or Rodon, the point is that spending some money on three or four more big pieces could take them from looking like a 2nd-tier playoff team at best to a much more serious contender. And the Twins don’t even have to spend like the much-smaller-market San Diego Padres to get there. They don’t even necessarily need to spend like the 2012 Tigers did. Given that the Twins have now locked up Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton for the rest of their prime ages, that they have 6 or more potential quality starting pitchers on their roster, an improved bullpen, and a lot of young offensive talent potentially on the rise like Jose Miranda, Royce Lewis, Edouard Joulien, Alex Kiriloff, Brooks Lee, and Matt Wallner, the time to make a big push for a World Series is very soon, Twins fans should not be content with starting the next 4 or 5 seasons thinking “we have a decent shot to win the AL Central.” They should take Carlos Correa’s mindset about building a championship culture seriously and demand that mindset be adopted all the way up to the Pohlad family. In a superb article for The Ringer in November, 2022, which I highly encourage you to read in full, Dan Moore wrote: “Over the past 40 years or so, every single team in all four of the United States’ major sports has increased exponentially in value—inexorably through all manner of catastrophe, and at an average rate that far outpaces that of both inflation and the S&P 500… Today pro sports teams rank among the most reliably lucrative, rabidly coveted investment opportunities there are. They’ve proved practically impervious to the busts, recessions, foreclosure crises, and plagues that have at the very least stalled growth in other industries.” The Pohlad family, like all owners, are sitting on a gold mine. All major sports teams, even the crappy ones, have continuously grown exponentially in value for decades, and Moore’s excellent article goes into great detail about the many conditions that make it likely that teams will continue to grow in value for the foreseeable future. I’m not even saying the Twins need to be a top 5 spender for decades to come. But I am definitely saying that they should be making a strong push for the World Series for the next 5-6 years and at minimum that probably means pressing into the top 10 spenders to make it happen. Twins fans should be content with no less. It is certainly a risk to spend so much money on a handful of players. If one or two suffers a serious injury that is a lot of resources flushed away. It could very well fail. But you know what else is a pretty well-established risk if your goal is to make it back to the World Series for the first time in over 30 years? Being in MLB’s Bottom 18 spenders club. The Twins have been trying that for over two decades now. An entire generation of Twins fans have now reached adulthood with no memory of their team even winning a playoff game. It’s time to take some different risks.

Kyle Farmer is a starting quality MLB SS will fill a bench role for the Twins this year. While he is valuable in that role, his biggest value might have just come in - as a trade chip to the Dodgers to replace Gavin Lux at SS after Lux tore his ACL yesterday. The Dodgers other option is 34-year-old Miguel Rojas who they acquired from the Marlins before spring training. You have to think the Dodgers are looking for a starting caliber SS that's locked into a reserve role on another team, particularly one who can be a 1 or 2 year option while Lux recovers or they get a free agent next winter. Voilà! 32-year-old longtime starting SS Kyle Farmer seems to meet all of those criteria. Interestingly enough, the Dodgers could also use a proven outfielder. They do have Mookie Betts in right, but are looking at an aging Chris Taylor and an unproven Trayce Thompson to play center with a very unproven James Outman in left. It seems like a respected veteran like Max Kepler might be a good fit. I think there's a real possibility that Kyle Farmer becomes a trade talking point between the Twins and the Dodgers. It would not surprise me if Kepler is also in the discussion. The Dodgers have a deep farm system particularly in pitching and catching. I do think there's a match. May be a Caleb Ferguson or Andre Jackson might be a good piece for Farmer. Add Kepler and maybe you can get Outman, Landon Knack, or Nick Mastrini or 1 of them plus someone a little farther down the list? Who knows, maybe there's a way to pry Ryan Pepiot away if you offer, Farmer, Kepler and maybe a solid AA guy. I think there's a real opportunity here for the Twins to trade what are now somewhat redundant pieces - a 32-year-old starting caliber Shortstop who will be relegated to a reserve role for the one year he is with the team and a 30-year-old good fielding, roughly average hitting outfielder for whom there seemed to be adequate replacements. The Dodgers are a win now team that needs both those kinds of players. What you guys think?

Nice writeup! I agree with the others above. Just need solid production and eat innings if possible. Holding out hope the arm lasts the year but they probably should give him IL stint mid year to let the arm bounce back toward the end of the year. I am excited to have him back as I love his mentality on the field and personality off of it.

I don't really understand pitcher picks all that much other than those in the first couple of rounds. I thought the pick was OK but being he was a Senior sign I thought the Twins would save a bit more money on that pick to spread to later picks. As most people say pitchers seems to be a numbers game to some extent. Grab as many quality arms as you can get and hope the development team can turn them into something. I will say at the time of their picks I gave Varland and Festa no chance to be starters and thought they might not even be viable relievers. Nowlin seemed like a dart pick to me as well. All three look like they are developing good stuff. Which goes to show I don't know much about pitching prospects especially just out of the draft. The Twins picked him high and gave him close to slot so they are believers and they know far more about this young man than I do. Hoping this is another arm in the Povich mold who I also thought was a reach where they picked him. I will be watching all the 2022 pitchers closely hoping to pin my hopes on a dominant arm that can make it in the Majors. Hopefully Morris is the one.

Loved the pick. Really hope we see him this year.

No matter how the ball is flying, this year's Twins feel fairly well-prepared to handle it. If the ball is flying like 2019, Buxton, Gallo, and Correa are likely to hit 30+ homers and Miranda, Kepler, Polanco, and Kirilloff are likely to hit 20+ homers. If the ball is dead like it has been the last few years, our elite OF of Buxton, Gallo, Kepler, and Taylor will eat up fly balls.

If the Twins promote on merit, Brooks Lee could be in the lineup by mid-season. A switch hitter that recognizes pitches right out of the hand. Hits for power as well as average, Relaxed, confident, reliable fielder wherever you put him. Appears to play within himself, nothing reckless about his approach. This kid's floor is a top-ten MLB infielder. His ceiling is a perennial All-Star and HOF. That said, Lee does present a problem...for Jose Miranda. Lee already is an excellent infielder, where Miranda is working his butt off to become adequate. Whaddaya do with Miranda (and Polanco) when Lee and Lewis both hit town? Sadly, the answers may come down to injuries, which the Twins have not lacked in recent years. Baseball is very hard on knees, ankles, elbows, wrists, and fingers. And then there's foul balls off your instep, sliding head-first into a knee, crashing into walls, and pitches fouled right into your face mask. Have I listed even half of the dangers? Anyway, Brooks Lee looks as much as I've ever seen like a sure bet. Fasten your seatbelt, kid.

Unfortunately, MLB still plays favorites. So they'll place which balls they want in each stadium. And still gets away with it.

I would disagree the games at AA mean nothing. When in the past have you seen the Twins move a guy so quickly? The hype was big on Lee before the draft. Many said he could go number 1, and could not believe he fell all the way to us. I do not think anyone is trying to say he will be best in the game or HOF bound even, but he has shown that he clearly can handle himself very early on. Yes, he may be more advanced and not a lot left to learn, which is even more of a reason to move him faster. I am not reading from people saying he will be MVP or anything. He very well may be or may get overpowered when he makes MLB debut. I believe the hype for him though.

MLB needs to be transparent with teams regarding the baseball. This is a joke and teams are investing millions of dollars in players which may be negated based on which ball shows up each year. I was especially appalled last year where I feel, and others seem to agree, that MLB juiced up the ball for Sunday night prime time games and the Yankees so Judge could get the HR record. It was all about increased ratings in large markets. I like the rule changes but MLB... get your stuff together with this ball situation and be consistent from year to year.

I think the Twins best 3 infielders are Correa, Lewis and Lee which pushes Miranda and/or Julien to 1B and Martin to the outfield. I'm not sure Correa is going to be a better SS than Lee for much longer. I need to see some reps but usually you bet on the young player at SS and move the older player to 3B. Lee might start at 2B - he has range and he's smart - because Lewis and his twice repaired ACL makes more sense at 3B. These are good problems to have.

I don't remember which game it was but was watching the away broadcast and the announcers both commented on the M looking like Miami and if we're paying Miami for it or got in the trade with Lopez. Not a great sign when people outside the organization immediately jump to another team when seeing your logo

Our 3B for the next 10 years, hopefully! Move him off SS now and let him get comfortable playing 3B. We have some fun minor leaguers knocking really loudly on the big clubs door

It should not be a huge surprise he could crack soon. If he would have signed out of HS, he could have been high draft pick if his dad was not a college coach, he would be talked about ready to break with a team this year. If he lights up AA like he did every level after draft last year, he will be taking some at bats at MLB level this year.

Barring injury (loud knock on wood), 2024 is virtually a no lose proposition as a Twins fan. We win, great - winning is always fun, We lose, we get to see Lee, Lewis, Julien, and Martin (plus others, including pitchers) sooner rather than later. That’s a lot of fun too. I guess the only downside case is if we kind of contend, the FO gets delusional about our chances, and we end of flailing while not seeing much of the youngsters.

It's another example of how much time we became accustomed to watching baseball players simply waste. Get in there and play baseball, you aren't performing brain surgery.

Given Winder has been stricken with the Twins' Dreaded Impingement Malaise, thus suggesting reduced time on the mound until, if ever, he fully recovers I'd say the logical path forward for the man leads straight to the bullpen. With a slow build-up he might actually prove to be the proverbial long reliever much bemoaned as lacking by many TD followers. And there is nothing to prevent moving Winder from the pen into a starting role, if he's no longer impinged, as other starters fall by the wayside. Impingement, as we have come to learn, runs rampant through the Twins staff, as well as through Twins fans; the latter perhaps from hoisting too many desultory libations.

For all of you complaining about too much video, you can exit here 🙂 The Twins put out this video, and it seems it’s going to be a series. But here’s the first installment. Gets me so excited for the season!

San Diego isn't doing it with TV revenue. Their TV contract isn't very good. They're doing it by: Siedler is a crazy person in a delightful way He bought up a ton of real estate around Petco and then developed the hell out of it Why do you think San Diego is 60% the size of Minneapolis? The San Diego and Twin Cities markets are damned near identical in population size.

I think this kid is the real deal. He's probably going to end up being the Twins #3 hitter really soon. My only question...about his bat...is how much pure HR power is he going to have. Is he going to be a consistent 35-40 doubles hitter with around 20 HR per? Or will he translate 8-10 of those doubles in to HR's? IMO, he and Lewis are the 3B and 2B of the future, and neither is a waste of talent at either spot. Both will have the ability to be excellent defensively and All Star caliber players. Miranda should play 1B/3B/DH. Kirilloff with hopefully reach his potential. Julien will play 1B/2B/DH. This could all transpire before or during the 2024 season. The Twins would have one of the best infields in all of MLB, especially when we add Correa in to the mix. But where does it leave Polanco, who I'm not anxious to see go anywhere? Wow!

If he can come back Syndergaard like with a sub 4 ERA, 120+ innings, and 1.50 or better WAR I will be a happy camper enjoying a Happy Camper.

There seem to be a great many unrelated things being discussed here. Eclectics unite!

I won't get fooled again. 😉

I'll be super disappointed if Moran doesn't make the Opening Day roster. He deserved better last year and I think sending him back to AAA does nothing more than waste his innings as his walk issues aren't going to get fine tuned in the minors. If they can look past Pagan's record setting HR issues that can break a game on one pitch, I think we can put up with Moran walking a few too many hitters.

Baseball Savant had Alcala up to 95.3 yesterday. He threw mostly changes and sliders. His pitch selection looks like a guy working on his off-speed stuff yesterday. 10 out of 16 pitches were off-speed. The 6 likely fastballs look like they may even include 2 or 3 changeups that he didn't execute well and had low 90s velo. Spin rates match his change, but they're marked as 4-seamers likely because the movement just wasn't there, and the velo was higher than his normal change.

Understand that early spring training outings don't mean all that much, but, Santana sure didn't help his case yesterday. Hopefully, will be more settled in next time out.

Look up what the Twins gave up to acquire Farmer. They aren't much in return. Good teams have starter quality backups. Farmer is a perfect fit for this team right now and the Twins can always reevaluate at the trade deadline.

I have loved the acquisition of Farmer since the day it happened. Now, I wasn't thrilled with him as the full-time SS, but he actually provides a league average infield starter with a great bat against LHP, and has normally been around league average-ish or slightly below against RHP. That's a really outstanding utility player and well worth the $5M he's going to be paid this year. It's nice that he's still got team control as well. That provides a lot of roster security and possibilities over the next few years. And Solano provides a really solid 1yr fill-in if Farmer has to step in to an every day spot for any extended time. Lewis, Lee, and Julien will all get their shot and force their way on to the roster, but don't have to be rushed. And while there's a couple non roster guys who might provide additional opportunities at some point...27yo Helman and the still 26yo Will Castro...there's probably no need for them right now barring a huge rash of injuries. Just a very smart acquisition.

Hopefully, the team has implemented strength and condition regimens that are paying off. It could just be spring training radar guns a little off on the high side.