3 moves Twins could have made instead of optioning Edouard Julien
Optioning Edouard Julien makes sense, but there were other potential options that might have made more.
After nearly 70 days and a quarter of the season, Royce Lewis is finally going to be playing baseball for the Minnesota Twins again.
It's impossible to overstate just how exciting it is to have Lewis back in the lineup, or how perfectly timed his return is. The Twins are headed to the Bronx for a potential revenge series against the New York Yankees, one in which they'll need all the help they can get.
Part of Lewis returning meant someone losing a roster spot, and that ended up rather surprisingly being Edouard Julien. Minnesota optioned him to Triple-A St. Paul on Monday as the corresponding move to activating Lewis from the IL, and it left some fans a bit perplexed.
It's not that Julien was undeservingly sent down; he's been struggling at the plate more than anyone would like to see and this assignment with the Saints allows him to iron things out. He was hitting .206 and had the most non-swinging strikeouts in the league, all of which is a farcry from the offensive giant he was for the Twins last season.
While optioning Julien makes sense from a certain point of view, so too did a few other moves the Twins could have made but opted not to.
3 moves Twins could have made instead of optioning Edouard Julien
DFA Kyle Farmer
Why It Made Sense
There might not be a bigger disappointment so far this season than how poorly Kyle Farmer has been playing. It's been a rather stunning fall from grace for a guy who made such an impact as a utility player last season and the team invested $6 million in this winter.
Farmer is dealing with perfect storm of reasons a player in this situation would have gotten DFA'd over optioning someone else. He's hitting an abysmal .163/.274/.239 with a -0.3 WAR, which is hardly what the Twins paid for when they brought him back after settling his arbitration case over the offseason.
Minnesota was unwilling to spend on starting pitching and essentially salary dumped Jorge Polanco, yet the most money the team put on its books was bringing Farmer back. So far the deal hasn't paid off on the field and it feels like he might be running out of time if things don't turn around.
His struggles at the plate are slowly boxing him out of a spot in the lineup defensively. Jose Miranda took over as the everyday third baseman after seemingly rediscovering his groove, while Willi Castro figures to replace Julien as the starter over at second base. With Lewis back, Miranda will likely get more looks at DH, which probably isn't an option for Farmer given how badly he's slumping.
Why It Didn't Happen
Had the Twins decided to open Farmer's roster spot for Lewis it would have likely ended his tenure with the team. Minnesota optioning Julien is a temporary measure, where Farmer would have been DFA'd and likely picked up elsewhere in the league.
Farmer is also highly respected in the clubhouse, and even though he's struggling the blow to morale losing him would have had might not be worth trying to navigate just yet.
DFA Manuel Margot
Why It Made Sense
It's been a tough season for Manuel Margot, who has sunk almost as low as Farmer has in terms of being someone the Twins were relying on who has totally let them down. So far this year Margot is hitting .209/.279/.264 with a .542 OPS and a -0.6 WAR -- which is worse than Farmer.
Compounding his struggles is the fact that he was brought to Minnesota in order to add some power to the lineup while doubling as insurance for Byron Buxton. It was Margot's offensive prowess that seemed to be the tiebreaker between trading for him or re-signing Michael A. Taylor and running things back. The Twins ended up sending Noah Miller to the Dodgers to make the deal happen, and thankfully found a way to reduce Margot's salary to just $4 million this season.
He's slowly started to turn things around, as he was hitting under .200 last week but has found at least some footing. It's overall been a bad experience, though, from Margot bunting in a two-outs bases loaded situation earlier in the season to his general unreliability at the plate.
Why It Didn't Happen
For as much of a letdown he's been at the plate, Margot is technically doing the main thing Minnesota needed him to do. Overall he's been pretty terrible offensively, but against left-handed pitching Margot is hitting .278/.344/.370, which seems to be his lone bright spot.
It's a pretty bright spot, to be clear.
Minnesota needed help against lefties and that was the skill underlined when comparing Margot to other potential outfield options this winter. How long he's able to live on that being his saving grace it yet to be seen, but if he can start turning things around overall at the plate it will go a long way in smoothing over some of his more painful early struggles so far this season.
Much like Farmer, the Twins likely would have needed to DFA Margot which almost certainly would have ended with him wearing another uniform. Given how much upside he still has, despite the struggles, it made more sense to keep him around.
Optioning Alex Kirilloff, Jose Miranda, or Trevor Larnach instead
Why It Made Sense
There could be reasons for each of these guys to have been sent down over Julien, but none of them make that much sense. If anything it helps soothe the pain of optioning Julien by pointing out that trying to pick one of the young guys on the roster to send down is harder than it should be -- which is a very good thing.
Why It Didn't Happen
Some silver lining to Julien getting optioned is that it means the other young players on the roster are playing well enough to have firmly secured spots. Nobody embodies that more than Jose Miranda, who has done a complete about face and turned things around in ways not many were expected but everyone is thrilled to see.
It seemed everything that happened last year pushed Miranda both to the edge of the roster bubble and out of mind for most fans. He was a victim of circumstance, as poor play and injuries forced him to regress at the same time Royce Lewis was rising to stardom. That appeared to have knocked Miranda out of Minnesota's long-term plans, but he's experienced a total resurgence this year, slashing .280/.311/.469 while making himself essential to the lineup.
Trevor Larnach is on a similar path. Like Miranda it appeared he had been bumped out of the picture by Matt Wallner, but Larnach replaced him on the roster earlier this year and hasn't looked back. So far this season he's hitting .270/.333/.470 with six home runs and has firmly established his place in the outfield platoon.
Alex Kirilloff is the only one out of the group where there might have been a conversation about optioning him over Julien, but he fills a few defensive holes that gives him an edge. He offers depth behind Carlos Santana at first, has played both right and left field, and has spent time at DH as well. Julien doesn't offer than much versatility, plus Kirilloff's .218 average and .699 OPS gives him a slight edge at the plate as well.
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