What a difference a half-season makes.
At the end of the 2023 season, it appeared that three Twins rookies — Royce Lewis, Edouard Julien and Matt Wallner — had cemented places in the Minnesota lineup. At the same time, Jose Miranda and Trevor Larnach seemed to have been pushed aside, with no clear path to playing time.
Today, roughly a week from the All-Star break, Miranda is fresh off a historic hot streak (more on his 12-for-12 later) and Larnach is a fixture in the top third of the Twins batting order against right-handed starters. Meanwhile, Lewis is sidelined by injury for the second time this season, Julien is struggling in St. Paul, and Wallner just returned Sunday to the major league roster after a horrific start to the season.
Those five aren’t the only highly touted but young Twins hitters whose status has changed over the course of the first three-plus months of 2024. Alex Kirilloff is back on the injured list, while Brooks Lee, whose season was delayed by injury of his own, arrived in the majors with a bang, popping seven hits in his first 15 at-bats with the Twins.
Just as Miranda’s and Larnach’s outlooks were cloudy last winter, it is suddenly difficult to see where Julien or Kirilloff figure in the Twins’ plans.
Certainly it is tempting to dream on a Twins infield with Lee at second base, Lewis at third and Carlos Correa at short — three shortstops in the field whose bats play in the top half of a quality lineup. But it’s been difficult enough for the Twins to have two of the three active at the same time, much less all three.
Still … if Correa, Lee and Lewis were each healthy, that really squeezes Miranda, Kirilloff and Julien. Designated hitter and first base are obviously options for all three, and Kirilloff would be in the corner outfield mix as well.
Which is a question in itself. Even ignoring superutility man Willi Castro, the Twins have four left-handed corner outfielders in veteran Max Kepler, Kirilloff, Larnach and Wallner. And while Kepler’s contract expires after this season, he’s both the best defensive outfielder of the group and the one manager Rocco Baldelli is most willing to see face a left-handed pitcher.
Two longstanding clichés apply: “It’s a good problem to have” and “These things tend to solve themselves.” The Twins don’t need to worry about how to use Julien until he figures out his bat again, or how to find playing time for Kirilloff until he gets healthy.
(Indeed, as I typed the preceding sentence, Correa left Sunday’s game after being hit by a pitch.)
The late Hall-of-Fame manager Earl Weaver used to talk about having “deep depth.” The Twins have that, but who the depth pieces are keep changing.
12-for-12
Miranda’s remarkable streak — hits in 12 consecutive official at-bats — was last achieved in 1952, which was so long ago even I wasn’t alive.
But such an accomplishment doesn’t carry the stamp of greatness. Walt Dropo, Pinky Higgins and Johnny Kling were all good players, but none of them are serious candidates for Cooperstown.
Higgins, in fact, carries a bit of infamy to his reputation. As an executive for the Boston Red Sox in the 1950s, he had a central role in ensuring that the Boston roster remained stubbornly whites-only. It was the last team in the majors to integrate.
Edward Thoma is at ethoma@mankatofreepress.com.