Image courtesy of David Richard and William Purnell-Imagn Images
This season is only two months old, but already we’ve seen plenty of examples that illustrate the massive chasm in competition level between the major leagues and the highest rung of the minors. It has been routine for players to look completely overmatched against MLB pitching before heading down to Triple-A and feasting (or vice versa).
Case in point: Mickey Gasper. During his time with the Twins, he’s looked like a total non-threat, tallying six hits (one double) in 39 plate appearances. In his overall MLB sample, Gasper has slashed .115/.258/.135 in 62 trips. But when he returns to the comforts of Triple-A he instantly looks like Babe Ruth; in 109 plate appearances with the Saints, Gasper is slashing .348/.450/.717 with nine home runs and 18 RBIs. This after leading all of Triple-A in OPS last year, while in Boston’s system.
Another prime example: Carson McCusker. He’s been destroying minor-league pitching this year, with a 1.032 OPS that leads the International League. Yet despite this dominance, the Twins were extremely reluctant to call him up, and when they did — for a handful of days — they showed no inclination to play him.
And then you see what happens when actually really good hitters get a chance against Triple-A pitching. Matt Wallner was utterly unstoppable during his rehab stint with the Saint this past week, crushing five home runs and driving in 13 men in just 27 plate appearances. The reaction from the opposing pitcher on his latest bomb — a three-run shot in the eighth that turned a loss into a win — was very much giving the vibe of, “Why am I facing this guy in the minor leagues, this is stupid.”
I mention all this to set up a review of José Miranda and Edouard Julien‘s and performances in Triple-A since they were optioned there on April 13th and May 5th, respectively. It’s been ugly. Really ugly.
Miranda immediately landed on the minor-league injured list after being sent down, due to a hand injury suffered while handling a case of water at Target. Since being activated, Miranda has exhibited the same fatal flaws that plagued him in the second half last year and out of the gates with the Twins this season. He’s putting the ball in play but his quality of contact is atrocious. Miranda has struck out only seven times in 65 plate appearances with St. Paul but he is batting .224 with a .310 slugging percentage. He has five doubles and no home runs.
In fact, between the minors and majors, Miranda has hit just one homer in his past 78 games and 272 plate appearances, dating back to before the All-Star break in 2024. That one long ball came on this breaking ball hung by Houston’s Spencer Arrighetti.
Now, before you write Miranda off, bear in mind that he’s still only 26 years old and around this time last year he started locking into an unbelievable hot streak that saw him clobber everything thrown his way. At the All-Star break, the third baseman was slashing .325/.366/.522 with nine homers and 21 doubles in 276 plate appearances. Then, his back flared up, and he’s never been the same again since.
It’s unnerving, in light of what we just saw back injuries do to the career of Alex Kirilloff. But let’s not allow that one example to guide our expectations. In plenty of cases, injuries clear up, and their lingering after-effects wear off. Miranda has shown how quickly fortunes can change for the worse. Why can’t the opposite be true? We know what kind of hitting ability resides within him at his best.
Julien is a trickier one to find optimism with. There is no apparent health-related factor contributing to his downfall. It seems like pitchers and scouts just figured him out, or his skills regressed, or likely some combination of both. The version of Julien that we saw two years would’ve dominated in this offensive environment, and did. In 2023, before being called up for good, Julien had a .932 OPS with the Saints. Even last year, during his performance-driven demotions, he put up an .803 OPS and popped some extra-base hits.
This year, there’s been nothing positive to cling onto. He’s drawn some walks from time to time, leading to a .388 OBP, but when pitchers come into the zone he can’t do much, batting .231 with a .308 slugging percentage in 85 plate appearances while striking out at an exorbitant 27% clip. He hasn’t had an extra-base hit in two weeks.
Julien, like Miranda, is only 26 years old. It’s too soon to give up on him, although both players’ defensive shortcomings only magnify the implications of their offensive freefalls. The clock is ticking on these former standouts to turn it around and become viable options for a Twins hitting mix that could sorely use an infusion of explosiveness. Right now they’re both a long way from forcing that conversation, and trending the wrong way, but their time hasn’t run out yet.
There is no doubt: Even as they return to nearly full-strength this weekend in Seattle, the Minnesota Twins are going to need more reinforcements over the course of the summer. Heck, they could use one or two right now, even with their full complement of planned starters. Julien and Miranda are down but not out. Can one or both find the lost spark before writing their way out of the organization’s plans?