April 12: The Twins formally announced that Julien has been recalled from Triple-A St. Paul. He’ll make his big league debut today at second base, Twins vice president of communications Dustin Morse tweets.
April 11: The Twins are promoting Edouard Julien before tomorrow’s game against the White Sox, reports Aaron Gleeman of the Athletic (Twitter link). That’ll be the corresponding move for the placement of Joey Gallo on the 10-day injured list.
It’s the first major league call for Julien. An 18th round pick out of Auburn in 2019, he signed for a well overslot $493K bonus after a down sophomore season. He’s significantly elevated his stock in pro ball. Julien has been an excellent offensive player throughout his time in the minors. He hit .267/.434/.480 in 2021, his first full minor league season after the cancelation of the previous campaign. The left-handed hitter spent all of last year with Double-A Wichita, raking at a .300/.441/.490 clip with 17 home runs over 508 plate appearances.
Julien showed top-end patience at the plate. His 19.3% walk rate was more than double the MLB average. That willingness to work deep counts translated to a slightly higher than average 24.6% strikeout percentage, though it’s a tradeoff with which the Twins are surely comfortable given Julien’s huge on-base marks.
The Quebec native played for Canada during this spring’s World Baseball Classic. He was assigned to Triple-A St. Paul to open this season. Julien has picked up right where he left off, collecting eight hits and seven walks through his first 36 plate appearances. He’s homered twice and doubled over his first eight games at the top minor league level.
Over the winter, Julien generated some top prospect attention. ESPN and FanGraphs placed him near the back of their respective Top 100 lists, while he finished just outside the Top 100 at Baseball America. Prospect evaluators unsurprisingly praise his plate discipline and strong left-handed power potential. He’s widely expected to be a productive offensive player at the MLB level.
Julien’s defensive profile is more spotty. He’s split his time between second base, left field and first base in the minors. Evaluators have offered bearish reviews on his glove at the keystone, suggesting he’s better suited for left field or first base long term. With Gallo’s injury vacating first base, it seems likely Julien will break in primarily there.
The Twins added Julien to their 40-man roster last offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. They won’t need to make any additional moves to call him up. The 23-year-old still has three minor league option years remaining, so the Twins can shuttle him between the majors and St. Paul as needed.
While Julien didn’t break camp with the MLB club, he’s still in position to potentially secure a full service year in 2023. Players need to accrue 172 days on the big league roster to reach one year. Julien would narrowly meet that cutoff if he’s in the majors for good, though any optional assignment back to the minors would keep him shy of a full season. The Twins aren’t in position to recoup any draft compensation for his promotion, as he only appeared on the preseason Top 100 list at one of ESPN, Baseball America and MLB Pipeline.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
War Eagle
Check out guys on base numbers. Holy hell!
Yes, extremely impressive.
Although, his extremely high walk rate coupled with his high K rate, makes me wonder if he isn’t overly selective at the plate. It also makes me wonder if he could unlock more of his power and lower his K rate if he were more aggressive.
I’m curious how his outcomes would change if he were more aggressive at the plate. Are his K’s due to his overly selective nature, and would a more aggressive approach lead to better results, or does he just have a tendency to swing and miss??
Like I said before, could a more aggressive approach unlock more of his power??
Who knows, but I’m sure his coaches are just fine and happy with his absurd on base percentages, and are happy that he’s still putting up solid power numbers all the while remaining patient at the plate.
Both his homers in the WBC were on 0-0 counts
@David Sampson
Whoah, super interesting contrast to the extreme patience. That’s a great little tidbit you gave us right there. Kid sure looks like a ball player to me.
It was either before the 2021 season or before the 2022 season, the Twins encouraged him to be more aggressive in the strike zone.
Cool, thanks for the extra info guys. Didn’t know any of that..
All in all, it looks like the Twins got themselves a good one. I think any coach would gladly put up with some slightly elevated strikeout numbers if their player is putting up his kind of power numbers and OBP.
I’m a Braves fan, but I still cannot wait to see how this young man performs at the ML level. Sometimes it is tricky to measure AA and AAAA numbers, and then trying to see how player X will perform at the ML level, just because some minor leagues are known for being extremely hitter friendly..Hopefully he’s able to continue playing at such a high level though..
The Twins are moving forouard
And the depth continues to deplete…
Here’s the replacement for Arraez.
In the words of the great Jay Onrait, CANADIAN!
This will be fun to see how he does at The Show. I don’t think this will be just a cup of coffee. This prospect is legit and I think he will be here to stay.
Miranda did last year. His call up after being sent down wasn’t thought be for good, but he hit the crap out of the ball.
He rocked Fall Ball. He rocked the WBC. I hope the best for him.
Hate to rain on the parade but no space for him once Polanco and Gallo are back, the latter or whom will be soon. And then you have Royce Lewis in maybe late May too, and Kirilloff at some time or the other
Hard to see how he fits in short term without a cascade of bad injury luck for the Twins, particularly with the service time concerns
When Twins decide to play Buxton at CF and use Taylor as a backup OF rather than a starter, Julien can get some ABs backfilling Bux at DH.
It depends on how well Edouard Julien performs. You never know, he could make himself indispensable.
@GarryHarris You’re absolutely correct.
Regardless how many players they have eventually coming back into their lineup/rotation, if Julien starts off hot and continues to hit for power and get on base, he’s going to get more than his own fair share of at-bats.
Either way, when they’re fully healthy, it’ll be a good problem to have for the Twins. You can never have enough quality depth, especially because there’s always another injury right around the corner. Even when they’re fully healthy, this provides their manager with options, and it’ll hopefully allow him to maximize their potential by putting these players in the best situations to succeed.
Besides, if it turns out they have a surplus of solid, everyday players, they can always maneuver some assets around to help plug in some of their other remaining holes, if that’s a route they want to take.
There are certainly worse problems for a team to have, rather than finding at-bats for a number of young, up and coming position players.
He looks very good in the field
Solano is playing 1B right now and Buxton is at DH, so if he hits well both of those situations could easily change.
And beginning against Giolito – I suggest to pick him up for your fantasy teams now.
I honestly think his numbers will be like a left handed version of Dan Uggla with the Marlins. 30 HR. > 10% BB rate. Enough offense you’ll ignore the so-so defense at 2B
Dan Uggla was a tank but his defense wasn’t terrible.
Uggla had some of the biggest forearms in baseball that I’ve ever seen…Dude looked like Popeye out there…lol
Yeah but he wasn’t pumping Olive Oyl into those tissues to get those arms.
I could see a similar profile, especially being a doubles machine like Uggla in his prime, but I’d lean more towards Julien being closer to a consistently lower 20s HR type of player.
However, if he can become a bit more aggressive in the zone, I think he might be able to tap into some more power.
Not necessarily true… Both Lewis and Kiriloff will need time to get up to speed in the minors and there’s no guarantee they’ll be up with the big league club if they’re not performing in the minors, especially Kiriloff with his lingering wrist issues. A simple DFA of Willi Castro opens up an extra spot to give the team some flexibility.
If and when Julien hits He will stick and get playing time to boot
The Twins aren’t that committed to.guys like W Castro and N Gordon even Kirilliloff and Gallo as well those are players that will not take AB’s away from King Eduord Jules
I hope next year at this time, Target Field’s top concession item is Julien Fries!! Let’s go, Twins!!
Good news.
Now fix that name spelling. Edward, E-d-w-a-r-d.
Good luck Eddie.
Yea Canadian ballplayers! Need more of em
Great White North!
I will be checking out Pete Crow Armstrong for the Smokies next week.
Bellinger’s one and done should concern not a soul.
Racks up a zed on day 1.