FORT MYERS, Florida — At the very beginning of his major league career, everything was going Brooks Lee’s way. Lee, who was a top prospect at the time, began his career with 11 hits in his first six games after debuting on July 3. He was cruising.
And then, he wasn’t.
“We’re all going to fail in this game and I happened to fail after being on top of the world for like two weeks,” Lee said. “It sucked.”
Pitchers started using more of the zone and he started chasing. Eventually, he developed shoulder soreness which robbed him of most of August. His numbers plummeted and he finished the year hitting .221 with a .585 OPS in 50 games played.
Now, Lee, who went 0 for 3 in the Twins’ 5-1 Grapefruit League loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday, is looking to show the Twins what he can do as he fights for an roster spot this spring.
“Those first two weeks, I think everyone knows what I’m capable of,” Lee said. “It’s not a standard, but I hold myself up to that competition, that level. I would like to do that again, sustain it for a season, a whole career, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Lee prepared at shortstop, second base and third base this offseason. With Carlos Correa at shortstop and Royce Lewis at third, Lee could be an option for the Twins at second base, both now and in the long-term.
The Twins selected Lee eighth overall out of the in the 2022 draft, and at the time he debuted, he was among the best prospects in baseball. Though he had a difficult introduction to the majors, there’s still plenty of belief in Lee as a big piece of the Twins’ future.
Lee, a switch hitter, said he spent the offseason working on his swing mechanics, saying he had “always hit differently” than he did last year so he was seeking to get back to that.
“My hands are relatively in the same area but just the way that they go back in my swing and they load is the biggest difference,” he said. “My hands would raise pretty high and I have always had a flat bat path but when they get too high, then I don’t enter the zone very efficient and I could only hit a few pitches.”
Lee noted that him chasing too much — he had a 35.8 percent chase rate, per Statcast — was a result of a bad swing and “just trying to get hits too hard.” With his mechanical tweaks in place, he said he believes he is now better equipped to impact the ball.
“Going out there and having quality at-bats and controlling the zone is going to be really important for him, something that challenged him during the season last year and something that is part of his focus going into this year,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think that doing it in spring training games, that’s all he can do right now.”
A spot on the team isn’t guaranteed, but the opening that the Twins have at second base could be his for the taking. Edouard Julien is also in the mix there and Willi Castro will see at-bats at second.
But Lee’s focus, instead of a roster battle, is just on getting better every day. And if he does, that will lead him where he wants to be.
“I really wouldn’t view it too much as competition,” Lee said. “If we all get better at what we’re doing, then it’s great to be a better team, and that’s what matters.”
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