{"id":698641,"date":"2026-05-27T21:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698641\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T21:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:21:08","slug":"twins-move-brooks-lee-to-third-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698641\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins Move Brooks Lee To Third Base"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Twins\u2019 experiment with Brooks Lee<\/a> at shortstop has apparently run its course. The former No. 8 overall pick has been playing third base since Royce Lewis<\/a>\u2018 demotion to Triple-A St. Paul, and manager Derek Shelton told the Twins beat this week that Lee\u2019s defensive home moving forward will be the hot corner (link via Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a terribly surprising development, but it\u2019s one that has plenty of ramifications for the organization as a whole. Lee was a shortstop in college at Cal Poly, but scouting reports questioned whether he\u2019d be able to stick there even back at the time of the draft. He logged 803 innings at short in 2024-25 and didn\u2019t grade especially well there. For much of that time, he was focusing on multiple positions because the Twins also had Carlos Correa<\/a> signed long-term. Last July\u2019s trade sending Correa back to Houston freed up a potential long-term opportunity at shortstop.<\/p>\n

Lee, 25, entered the year with a legitimate opportunity to seize the position. It hasn\u2019t happened. He\u2019s delivered a solid .259\/.315\/.416 batting line (105 wRC+) in 201 trips to the plate, but he\u2019s been dinged with negative grades from Defensive Runs Saved (-8) and Outs Above Average (-1). The switch-hitter\u2019s bat has come to life after a slow start \u2014 .292\/.344\/.460 in his past 123 plate appearances \u2014 and he\u2019ll try to keep that momentum going at a different position. It\u2019s probably more anecdotal than anything else, but Lee has tallied multiple hits in three of five games since moving to third base.<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s move to third base creates some short-term opportunity for one of the organization\u2019s best prospects and also raises some long-term questions about Lewis\u2019 role within the organization.<\/p>\n

Kaelen Culpepper<\/a>, Minnesota\u2019s first-round pick in 2024, is currently a consensus top-100 prospect. He had a slow start to his season in Triple-A but has heated up with a .266\/.392\/.557 slash this month \u2014 all while walking nearly as often (14.4%) as he\u2019s struck out (16.5%). He\u2019s already swatted 11 homers in only 46 games\/218 plate appearances, and he\u2019s 11-for-11 in stolen base attempts. That comes on the back of a 20-homer, 25-steal showing in 113 games between High-A and Double-A last year.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old Culpepper could get a look before long, and Lee\u2019s move over to third base opens Culpepper\u2019s natural position at the big league level. However, if Lee and Culpepper are the left-side infield of the future at Target Field, it doesn\u2019t leave much room for Lewis unless he can either slide across the diamond to first base or take on more of a designated hitter role. Lewis has limited experience at second base, but the Twins still hope that Luke Keaschall<\/a> can claim that as his long-term home. Another former top prospect, Keaschall hit the ground running in 2025 before a broken forearm cost him more than three months. He then ended the season back on the IL due to a thumb injury.<\/p>\n

Whether it was the cold weather, lingering effects from those 2025 injuries, some small-sample noise or a combination of the three, Keaschall got out to a dismal start in 2026 and at one point looked like he could be at risk of being optioned. He\u2019s righted the ship with a .271\/.388\/.353 slash over the past month (103 plate appearances). He hasn\u2019t exactly cemented his status as the long-term second baseman, but the still-23-year-old Keaschall has now played in 100 major league games and turned in a solid .268\/.349\/.374 batting line despite navigating a pair of arm\/hand injuries. He\u2019s trending in the right direction.<\/p>\n

First base and designated hitter are a bit more unsettled in the long term. The Twins signed Josh Bell<\/a> to a one-year, $7MM deal to split time between those spots this past offseason. Utilityman Kody Clemens<\/a> has seen plenty of time at first base this season. Offseason pickup Victor Caratini<\/a> \u2014 signed through 2027 \u2014 has seen a handful of games there as well. None of the Twins\u2019 best prospects are first basemen. Former first-round pick Aaron Sabato<\/a> was perhaps viewed as a long-term option there or at designated hitter when he was selected 27th overall back in 2020, but he\u2019s about to turn 27 and hasn\u2019t made his debut yet. He\u2019s hitting .298\/.358\/.661 in Triple-A, granted, but he\u2019s doing so with a strikeout rate just under 30%.<\/p>\n

Perhaps if Lewis can continue his early production since being demoted to Triple-A, the right side of the diamond and\/or designated hitter will be a more serious consideration. He\u2019s played in five games since being optioned and already has four home runs. Including a pair of rehab games in St. Paul earlier this season, Lewis is slashing .296\/.367\/.963 with six homers in only 30 Triple-A plate appearances.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little doubting Lewis\u2019 inherent physical talent, but he\u2019ll need to curb this year\u2019s alarming spike in chases and whiffs \u2014 while avoiding further entries to his lengthy list of injuries \u2014 to rebuild his stock within the organization. Given all this surrounding context, it\u2019s also plenty fair to wonder whether he might eventually emerge as a change-of-scenery candidate ahead of this summer\u2019s trade deadline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Twins\u2019 experiment with Brooks Lee at shortstop has apparently run its course. The former No. 8 overall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[340402,64,63,33769,340403,33764,591,205258,85],"class_list":["post-698641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-sabato","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brooks-lee","tag-kaelen-culpepper","tag-luke-keaschall","tag-mlb","tag-royce-lewis","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}