The Minnesota Twins lineup has been what's kept them in the American League playoff race this season. With just 26 games left to play, they rank second in the AL in runs per game, averaging 4.59 per contest. A big reason for the Twins' offensive surge this season has been because of several players making big improvements compared to the numbers they put up last season. Outside of the last couple of weeks, Trevor Larnach has been maybe the team's most consistent hitter, Luke Keaschall has been an on-base machine, and Kody Clemens has been maybe the team's best power hitter.
Possibly the most encouraging turnaround from the Twins' crop of hitters has been from Brooks Lee. The 25-year-old has always had high expectations since he came into the organization when Minnesota drafted him 8th overall out of Cal Poly University in the 2022 MLB draft. So far this season, Lee has been one of the team's most consistent hitters. His 128 games played this season are tied with Josh Bell for the most on the team. Lee hit his 21st home run of the season on Wednesday night in the series finale in Sacramento against the Athletics. It's a career high in home runs at the MLB level for Brooks; he's had a very notable power surge this season, as last season he hit 16 home runs in a total of 139 games. Lee also ranks second on the team in runs batted in with a total of 70 for the season; this is also a career high for him.
So far in his career, Lee has played 317 games at the major league level. His offensive numbers have increased notably in all three seasons so far. When the Twins called him up for his debut during the summer of the 2024 season, he had a tough time adjusting to major league pitching. In 50 games played that season, Brooks batted just .221 and had a .585 OPS. He would show some improvement during the 2025 season in an everyday role for the Twins, but he was still below average offensively. In 139 games that season, Lee would hit .236 and put up a .654 OPS. Going into the 2026 season, Lee had put up a career WAR of -1.0 over his first two seasons, with below-average offense and below-average defense.
It was clear that the 2026 season would be a crucial campaign for Brooks. He had just turned 25 years old at the beginning of the season. Still a young player, but old enough that it's fair to have high expectations, given the fact that he's a former top-ten pick. Lee hasn't had a monster season by any means, but he's still been a very reliable player in the Twins lineup, and he's improved dramatically at the plate. The real improvements have been in the power department. As mentioned earlier, he's already surpassed his career high in home runs with 21 of them, and we still have over a month to go. Lee also has 21 doubles this season, which is tied for second on the team. One thing that Brooks has done a good job of during his first two seasons is his ability to put the ball in play and rarely swing and miss. He's done a great job of continuing that trend this season with a strikeout rate of just 16.2%.
Other than increasing his power, it was clear that Lee also had to do a better job of not chasing out of the zone this season, something he has struggled with at the major league level. His chase rate has actually gone up to 34.3% this season compared to last year, when it was at 31.8%. Both are below league average. While it is discouraging that he wasn't able to improve that part of his game this year, it does show that there is still more untapped potential with Brooks, as improving his on-base ability seems like the next step forward he can take.
From what we've seen this season, it seems pretty clear that Brooks Lee's hitting ability is good enough to be a big part of the Twins' future plans for their lineup. The big question is where he is going to play defensively long-term. The Twins drafted him as a shortstop, and that's also where he's played the most in the majors. However, his defense at the position has gotten worse this season, as he's put up a minus-six outs above average there in 2026 compared to just minus-two in 2025. Third base seems to be where the Twins see him playing mostly from now on. He's actually been drastically better at the hot corner this season compared to at short, with a plus-one outs above average at the position.
Brooks Lee is one of many talented infielders in Twins organization
I think the big reason why Brooks Lee's long-term future with the Minnesota Twins could be in question is due to the young infielders they currently have in the system. Specifically, with Kaelen Culpepper and Marek Houston. Culpepper, a 23-year-old who was the Twins' third-best prospect, was promoted to the majors recently and has gotten off to quite a hot start, despite the team struggling over that period of time. He's hitting .333 and has a .907 OPS through his first 16 career games in the majors. Culpepper has been the team's primary shortstop since being called up, and that's the position he's played the most by far up until this point.
Twins fans are also seemingly very high on their first-round pick from the 2025 draft, and for good reason. Marek Houston, who also plays shortstop, is seemingly the favorite to be the Twins' minor league player of the year with the monster season he's put up. Houston is still yet to reach Triple-A, but he's been very good at High-A and Double-A this season at 22 years old. He's batting .308 with an .845 OPS between the two levels and has also stolen 49 bases this season while being one of the best defenders in the minor leagues. He's the 74th-best prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline.
All things considered, it's difficult to make a confident prediction as to what the Twins infield group could look like long-term. Do they maybe try to move Keaschall back to second base if he can figure things out in the outfield? Do they think of Kody Clemens as a guy who could hold down the second base position for a long period of time? Both of these decisions could seemingly have a butterfly effect on either Marek Houston or Kaelen Culpepper to force the Twins to consider trying them out at third base. However, as things stand right now, Brooks Lee seems to be in the driver's seat to be the Twins' third baseman long-term. He’s been a much better defender there than he has at any other position, and you can’t help but think that if that’s the only position he has to focus on getting better at this offseason, the glove could improve even more there.
There are several talented young infielders who could eventually challenge Lee for playing time and force themself into the team’s long-term plans. Nonetheless, Brooks Lee’s improvements at the plate this season have given the Twins every reason to keep him in the lineup. If he can continue developing offensively while settling in defensively at third base, he could finally be establishing himself as the long-term piece we all thought he would be when the Twins drafted him with the eighth pick four years ago.
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