{"id":473854,"date":"2025-12-12T12:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T12:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/473854\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T12:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T12:50:12","slug":"what-should-the-twins-do-about-the-middle-infield-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/473854\/","title":{"rendered":"What Should the Twins Do About the Middle Infield? – Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tStarting in early 2023, the Twins appeared to have the shortstop position figured out for the foreseeable future, with a Carlos Correa<\/a> megadeal. Correa has since been shipped back to the Astros, though, and we now have a 189-game sample of Brooks Lee<\/a>. According to Baseball Savant, last season, he was well below average in batting, baserunning and fielding. However, he did do two things well: squaring up the ball and avoiding strikeouts. In total, he tallied -0.8 bWAR last year. It was really, really bad, but there’s a glimmer of hope.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s the answer for a player like Lee, who needs to get better and is on a team that claims it would like to compete in 2026? He profiles substantially better at second base. With his poor arm strength and slow feet, he is far more palatable on the right side of the infield. He has good actions as a defender, but the reality of the majors is that if he\u2019s going to be a soft-hitting shortstop, he needs to bring above-average defense to that spot. I just don\u2019t see it. Swing him over to second base, and let him continue to develop the bat. He needs to be a high-contact switch-hitter, and a Swiss army knife when constructing a batting order.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThat introduces a new question: What should the team do with Luke Keaschall<\/a>? I love his offensive makeup, but he was extremely clunky at second base. His arm was also a source of tsuris and agita. The Twins have been searching for another right-handed bat in the outfield every offseason for a few years now. Left field could be the long-term fit for Keaschall The organization should obviously continue to rehab his arm and have him on a strict throwing program, but with his athletic ability, a move to left could be great for him and the ball club.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, what about the Twins\u2019 need for a shortstop? They have a great candidate to be a long-term solution, in Kaelen Culpepper<\/a>. I love his swing, and I expect him to knock on the door of the big leagues in 2026. But again, we return to the fact that they want to compete in 2026. It\u2019s not a real answer to say this guy who finished in Double A is going to hop onto the big club after spring training, and they\u2019re rolling with the rookie. That is, it\u2019s not a real answer if you\u2019re trying to be a serious threat in 2026. Regardless of how well he hits in Fort Myers this March, we should expect to see Culpepper in St. Paul, where he will likely be hitting in front of Walker Jenkins<\/a> for a month or two (talk about a fun Triple-A squad).\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, now what? I just moved Brooks Lee to second base, Keaschall to the outfield, and declared Culpepper to be unready for a club trying to be a contender. With some alleged spending money, the Twins can go to a tried-and-true method: the stopgap shortstop. It\u2019s an extremely unsexy play, but it makes so much sense for the current state of the ball club. Pending his price tag, a guy like Ha-Seong Kim<\/a> (coming off an injury =-plagued season, likely looking for a prove-it deal) would be a phenomenal fit.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThis gives us a good look at the infield, with Royce Lewis<\/a> improving defensively and Kim always grading well at short. Lee will get one final chance to be the answer in the big leagues, and if so, the team will have a long-term home for Keaschall\u2019s top-of-the-order bat and legs. If Culpepper rakes and he gets the call, bump Kim to second or keep Lee rolling, depending on who is playing better. This will allow the other to fall into the \u201cday-off\u201d infielder role, since they can each fill in at all the infield spots.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe stopgap move is flat-out boring, but I think it would be a sneaky big move with the Twins’ current personnel. This could also give Culpepper a smooth runway to the bigs letting him take the reins as the shortstop when he is ready. The move puts the roster in a very healthy spot to potentially move Trevor Larnach<\/a> for a bullpen arm or a prospect, which seems increasingly likely as we get further into December. This course of action isn\u2019t ESPN headline-worthy, but it\u2019s a sensible move that could pay huge dividends in the short- and long-term outlook for the Twins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starting in early 2023, the Twins appeared to have the shortstop position figured out for the foreseeable future,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,1391,633,413,822,60,3190,4,408,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-473854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brooks-lee","10":"tag-ha-seong-kim","11":"tag-luke-keaschall","12":"tag-minnesota","13":"tag-minnesota-twins","14":"tag-minnesotatwins","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-royce-lewis","17":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115706687152774636","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}