To make room for Royce Lewis, Twins set to demote Edouard Julien: why they’re making a tough decision

HOUSTON — With Royce Lewis expected to return to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, the Minnesota Twins find themselves in a difficult situation with no easy answers.

As their young star began a rehab assignment at Triple-A on May 25, the Twins suggested it would be a good problem if all the players on their roster remained healthy as Lewis prepared to return. But the natural assumption in baseball is that tough decisions rarely have to be made because another player often suffers an injury or someone else on the active roster gets into a bad patch and makes the decision easier to take for direction.

Yet, the day after another very good win for the Twins on Sunday afternoon, a 4-3 win over the Houston Astros in the rubber match of a three-game set, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said was forced to summon second baseman Edouard Julien to his office to deliver bad news.

The Twins have made no official move – neither their plans for Lewis nor Julien’s demotion. But with a roster full of healthy bodies, it appears the Twins will make room for one of their best hitters by sending out one of their biggest spark plugs from a season ago.

“The vast majority of the time when a roster decision comes, on the day it comes, there’s a pretty simple decision that makes the most sense,” Baldelli said. “Sometimes this information is only taken into account the day or two days before. Sometimes there is no right decision or right decision.

There are many factors at play in the team’s impending decision to send Julien to Triple-A St. Paul.

First and foremost, there was no chance the Twins would designate Kyle Farmer or Manny Margot, who the club is paying $6.3 million and $4 million, respectively, this season.

Although her overall numbers are down, Margot was acquired to hit left-handed pitchers and that’s exactly what she’s doing, hitting .278/.344/.370 in 61 plate appearances against lefties. Meanwhile, Farmer, who has a total of 54 weighted runs created plus, is Baldelli’s go-to backup defender at multiple positions and a popular veteran, an important voice in the clubhouse who the Twins will give every chance to change things before separating from him.

About to begin a 13-game streak on Tuesday, the team also wouldn’t consider going with a 12-man pitching staff.

With underperforming veterans and a shorter pitching staff out of the equation, the picture becomes bleaker. Essentially, the decision came down to which young player to move down with the pool, including Julien, Jose Miranda, Trevor Larnach and Alex Kirilloff.

“It’s good to have tough decisions like that,” shortstop Carlos Correa said earlier in the week. “That says a lot about the depth we have in this organization.”

José is having a day! pic.twitter.com/6xETpv1rN4

– Minnesota Twins (@Twins) June 2, 2024

Long before he played the hero Sunday afternoon, hitting the game-tying homer in the sixth inning and doubling the go-ahead run in the eighth, Miranda removed himself from the equation completely. Although he will lose playing time at third base to Lewis, who is a superior defender, Miranda is healthy again and one of the team’s best players at hitting with runners in position beginning. The Twins can rotate Miranda between the two inside corners and designated hitter to keep him in the lineup.

“We’re going to move him around and find ways to get him in the lineup most of the time,” Baldelli said.

Larnach’s improved play has also reduced his chances of being sent off. He handled off-speed pitches better this year, leading to a 13 percentage point reduction in strikeout rate and a strong season at the plate. Recalled in mid-April, Larnach scored to start Sunday’s game and issued an eighth-inning walk against Ryan Pressly, which jump-started the team’s go-ahead rally. Through Sunday, Larnach carries a 130 wRC+ and is hitting .270/.333/.470 in 111 plate appearances.

These performances essentially pitted Julien against Kirilloff, who has also struggled to hit with consistency this season.

A week after homering in back-to-back games against Texas, Kirilloff doubled in a leadoff run Sunday to give the Twins a 2-0 lead. Despite having a good week, Kirilloff is only hitting .218/.283/.415 in 159 plate appearances with a 97 wRC+.

Julien is outperforming Kirilloff for the season, but his recent inability to drive the ball has likely been the deciding factor.

Even after going 0 for 2 with a walk in Sunday’s comeback win, the team’s 14th this season, Julien was hitting .207/.309/.367 with seven homers, which equaled at a 99 wRC+.

However, Julien last hit a home run on April 26, totaling 103 plate appearances without a round trip. During that span, Julien only had three extra-base hits, all of them doubles.

Baldelli may have indicated which direction he was leaning by facing Willi Castro twice at second base last week, his only appearances of the season. Castro has played in 120 games at second in his career, but most of those came in 2021 when he made 91 appearances for Detroit.

“I know he hasn’t played second base much the last couple of years, but he’s a good infielder and he can play second base,” Baldelli said Saturday.

By choosing Kirilloff over Julien, the Twins sacrifice valuable roster flexibility that Baldelli loves. Julien’s demotion leaves second base duties to Castro and Farmer, reducing their ability to move around the field. If the Twins had chosen to fire Kirilloff, their roster would still have had five players capable of playing in the outfield. However, with Lewis and Correa occupying the left side of the infield, the Twins are less likely to need defensive substitutions late in the game, as they have needed, with Miranda regularly playing third.

In the end, they appear to have chosen Julien, who was seen on Sunday shaking hands and hugging his teammates after leaving Baldelli’s office.

“It’s just that you have to make the best decision in a difficult scenario,” Baldelli said. “I won’t tell you which one it is yet.”

A launch in Larnach!! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/HMnZg95ZzQ

– Minnesota Twins (@Twins) June 2, 2024

Bullpen’s performance carries Twins

With a new end of the bullpen and an off day on Monday, Baldelli had plenty of options at his disposal to handle Sunday’s game. Although he was pleased with the release of starter Simeon Woods Richardson, who allowed three earned runs and three hits while striking out six in 4 1/3 innings, Baldelli did not let his rookie face the lineup from Houston a third time.

With a pair of lefties batting first (Kyle Tucker) and third (Yordan Alvarez), Baldelli called on Caleb Thielbar in the bottom of the fifth inning with the Twins down a run. Thielbar retired Tucker and Alex Bregman to end the fifth, then gave up a leadoff single to Alvarez in the sixth.

Jorge Alcalá followed Thielbar and was nasty in the sixth inning. Alcalá came back in the seventh and issued a walk to José Abreu, then found real trouble when Chase McCormick reached on an infield single. But Baldelli brought in Steven Okert, who sent Tucker away. Bregman then hit a hard single to load the bases, which brought Alvarez up. With everyone in the park expecting a grand slam, Okert struck out Alvarez on a fly ball to shallow left field to keep the score tied at 3.

“(Alvarez) and Tucker, they don’t really hunt much and they don’t miss whoever’s in the area,” Okert said. “I was basically trying to throw him two pitches at bat and hoping he would do what he did. It worked, but it’s scary for the batter to have his bases loaded.

Usually exceptional at stranding inherited runners, Okert has now blocked four of 11 this season. The Twins took the lead in the eighth inning on Miranda’s RBI double, then handed the ball to Griffin Jax, who recorded a perfect inning. Jax threw a 98.6 mph fastball, the hardest of his career to secure his 11th catch of the season.

Jhoan Duran pitched a perfect ninth to secure his 10th save, including retiring pinch hitter Jose Altuve. Bucking his recent trend, Duran threw eight curveballs, eight spliinkers and just one fastball.

“When I saw (Altuve), it excited me,” Duran said. “I felt more comfortable today with the off-speeds. My curveball is better. My splinker is better.

Overall, the Twins relievers combined allowed three hits, walked one and struck out two in 4 1/3 scoreless innings. Over the team’s last twelve games, Twins relievers have posted a 1.31 ERA in 41 1/3 innings.

“We have a great group,” Okert said. “Everyone has really good stuff and everyone comes to do their job. It was like a snowball: one guy comes in and he pumps the zone, does his job and the next guy has confidence, comes in, pumps the zone, does his job and moves on to the next guy.

Pot pourri

The Twins improved to 7-2 thanks to starts made by Woods Richardson. “He gave up a few home runs, but he threw a lot of good pitches in front of a lot of hitters,” Baldelli said. …Houston native Woods Richardson was 17 when the Astros won their first World Series in 2017. He had never pitched at Minute Maid Park before Sunday, not even in high school. He left tickets for 40 friends and family members. “You watch it as a kid, you watch these guys come and play,” he said. “You try to be like them, see how they throw the pitch, see how they run, see how they take ground balls. So yeah, it was cool to see. … Lewis finished his rehab assignment with Triple-A St. Paul by going 1 for 4 with a walk and a run scored. Lewis went 4 for 23 overall with eight strikeouts during the rehab assignment, including going hitless in 16 consecutive at-bats before walking his penultimate trip Sunday. … Catcher Ryan Jeffers made the decision to field a bunt before Miranda’s game-winning double, Baldelli said.

(Top photo of Edouard Julien: Leslie Plaza Johnson / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)