It wasn’t all that long ago that Edouard Julien was putting together an impressive rookie campaign and looked as if he would be an important piece of the Twins’ core moving forward. Julien finished seventh in Rookie of the Year voting for a 2023 season in which he hit .263 with a .839 OPS, boosted in part by his .381 on-base percentage and 16 home runs.

But he was never able to replicate that level of performance, and on Wednesday his Twins tenure came to an end when he was traded, alongside recently designated-for-assignment pitcher Pierson Ohl, to the Colorado Rockies for minor league pitcher Jace Kaminska and cash.

Julien spent last season up and down between the majors and minors, finishing the year hitting .220 with an OPS+ that was 24 percent worse than the league-average hitter.

While Julien played some first and mostly second, he was a below-average defender, and his fit on the roster was in question with others ahead of him on the depth chart at those positions. He also was out of options, meaning the Twins would have had to carry him on their major league roster or expose him to waivers.

Both Ohl and catcher Jhonny Pereda, whom the Twins sent to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday for cash considerations, had been designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for newly-signed reliever Taylor Rogers and catcher Victor Caratini.

Kaminska, a 24-year-old right-handed pitcher, spent last season at Single-A, where he pitched to a 2.78 earned-run average in 17 games (16 starts). He was a 10th-round pick in the 2023 draft. With the move, the Twins’ 40-man roster now sits at 39.

Keaschall progressing

Luke Keaschall spent his second straight winter rehabbing from a surgical procedure.

This time around, though, it was a much easier recovery. Keaschall suffered a thumb sprain in the final week of last season, necessitating a surgery just days later. Keaschall spent the early days of the offseason getting range of motion back and strengthening the finger before quickly getting back into baseball activity.

“I’m excited to be able to into (the season) healthy and be able to get ready for a season like a normal player and compete,” Keaschall said.

Keaschall underwent Tommy John surgery in August 2024 to repair his ulnar collateral ligament, which limited him to strictly second base last season as he was building back his arm strength and took the outfield, which he had played in the minors, out of the picture.

Now fully healthy, that could change this season.

“Playing baseball a year and a half out of TJ is going to be a little bit easier than playing six months out of TJ,” he said. “My arm’s going to be a little bit more comfortable, a little smoother, and more confident in my throwing 100 percent than I was last year. … I’m a ballplayer. I’ll play wherever you want me to play. If you want to move me somewhere, cool. I’ll be able to play winning baseball there.”

Briefly

The Twins’ equipment truck will depart for Fort Myers, Florida, on Monday from Target Field. It’s scheduled to arrive four days later. Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report by Feb. 12 for their first workout.

Edouard Julien #47 of the Minnesota Twins celebrates after scoring a run in the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field on August 23, 2023 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

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By KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — FBI agents were executing a search warrant at the Fulton County elections office near Atlanta on Wednesday, an agency spokesperson confirmed.

An FBI spokesperson said agents were “executing a court authorized law enforcement action” at the county’s main election office in Union City, just south of Atlanta. The spokesperson declined to provide any further information, citing an ongoing matter.

The search comes as the FBI under the leadership of Director Kash Patel has moved quickly to pursue the political grievances of President Donald Trump, including by working with the Justice Department to investigate multiple perceived adversaries of the Republican commander-in-chief.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment.

A spokesperson for Fulton County did not immediately have a comment or any information on the search.

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Trump has long insisted that the 2020 election was stolen even though judges across the country and his own attorney general said they found no evidence of widespread fault that tipped the contest in Democrat Joe Biden’s favor.

He has long made Georgia, one of the battleground states he lost in 2020, a central target for his complaints about the election and memorably pleaded with its then-secretary of state to “find” him enough votes to overturn the contest.

Last week, in reference to the 2020 election, he asserted that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.” It was not clear what in particular he was referring to.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in August 2023 obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That case was dismissed in November after courts barred Willis and her office from pursuing it because of an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship she had with a prosecutor she had appointed to lead the case.

The FBI last week moved to replace its top agent in Atlanta, Paul W. Brown, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a non-public personnel decision. It was not immediately clear why the move, which was not publicized by the FBI, was made.

The Department of Justice last month sued the clerk of the Fulton County superior and magistrate courts in federal court seeking access to documents from the 2020 election in the county. The lawsuit said the department sent a letter to Che Alexander, clerk of superior and magistrate courts, but that she has failed to produce the requested documents.

Alexander has filed a motion to dismiss the suit. The Justice Department complaint says that the purpose of its request was “ascertaining Georgia’s compliance with various federal election laws.” The attorney general is also trying to help the State Election Board with its “transparency efforts under Georgia law.”

A three-person conservative majority on the State Election Board has repeatedly sought to reopen a case alleging wrongdoing by Fulton County during the 2020 election. It passed a resolution in July seeking assistance from the U.S. attorney general to access voting materials.

The state board sent subpoenas to the county board for various election documents last year and again on Oct. 6. The October subpoena requested “all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County.”

The Justice Department sent a letter to the county election board Oct. 30 citing the federal Civil Rights Act and asking for all records responsive to the October subpoena from the State Election Board. Lawyers for the county election board responded about two weeks later, saying that the records are held by the county court clerk. They also attached a letter the clerk sent to the State Election Board saying that the records are under seal in accordance with state law and can’t be released without a court order.

The Justice Department said it then sent a letter to Alexander, the clerk, on Nov. 21 requesting the documents and that she failed to respond.

The department is asking a judge to declare that the clerk’s “refusal to provide the election records upon a demand by the Attorney General” violates the Civil Rights Act. It is also asking the judge to order Alexander to produce the requested records within five days of a court order.

The State Election Board in May 2024 heard a case that alleged documentation was missing for thousands of votes in the recount of the presidential contest in the 2020 election in 2020. After a presentation by a lawyer and an investigator for the secretary of state’s office, a response from the county and a lengthy discussion among the board members, the board voted to issue a letter of reprimand to the county.

Shortly after that vote, there was a shift in power on the board, and the newly cemented conservative majority sought to reopen the case. The lone Democrat on the board and the chair have repeatedly objected, arguing the case is closed and citing multiple reviews that have found that while the county’s 2020 elections were sloppy and poorly managed there was no evidence of intentional wrongdoing.

The conservative majority voted to subpoena a slew of election records from the county in November 2024. A fight over that subpoena is tied up in court.

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report

Compassion to go around

Nearly every day I read articles in the Pioneer Press describing ICE activities as “massive, chaotic or aggressive,” and perhaps they are, sometimes even inappropriately so, but why are there no articles reminding readers that such “massive and aggressive action” is the necessary reaction, primarily to massive and aggressive illegal immigration orchestrated by the Biden administration, and secondarily to the massive, aggressive and often violent protests against ICE taking place in the Twin Cities?

Had not Biden illegally disregarded long-standing immigration law, millions of unvetted illegal immigrants, including thousands of violent criminals, terrorists and gang members, would not be in the U.S., Renee Good would not be dead and hundreds of documented violent crimes, perpetrated by some of those here illegally, would not have happened.

Obviously from my comments, I am a conservative, but do people really think that conservatives have no compassion for the large majority of those immigrants who are simply people seeking a new and better life? Of course we have compassion. President Trump stated Wednesday and has stated previously, that he, as do most conservatives, “has a heart” for such people, indicating that exceptions to deportation, allowed in immigration law, may be considered for some people here illegally.

Also obviously, those non-violent protestors who are not paid outside professional protestors, have great compassion for those being detained, arrested or deported, but where is their compassion for the hundreds of thousands of people assaulted, raped, murdered, killed from heat and cold, or trafficked enroute to the U.S.? Where is the compassion for the many people who have been, or will be, victimized by violent immigrants? Where is the compassion for the people who have lost jobs to immigrants, or for those seeking legal immigration who are bypassed for, or delayed in, the process of legal immigration? Where is the recognition that border control is necessary for the very existence of the US and for any country?

Richard M. Powell, Owatonna

 

To induce chaos?

I am wondering about whether there is a false flag set-up being instituted at the ongoing ICE protests.

It’s been said that there are professional agitators within the crowds to want to induce chaos and anarchy. Local, state and federal law enforcement would intervene with violence to put down protests should it move from peaceful assembly to rioting, chaos and destruction of property.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t put it past the Trump administration to embed its own paid professionals in these crowds to induce chaos and anarchy with the goal of invoking the Insurrection Act. The FBI, DEA, ATF and other federal agencies have been known to embed people in terrorist, cartel and other criminal groups. Militarily these tactics are used to create false-flag conditions. This possibility does exist.

Donald Trump has been itching to pull the trigger to invoke Insurrection Act, especially if  these professional agitators managed to cause the crowds to cross a line and start widespread violence, destruction, vandalism and damage.

It’s strange that the federal actions by the ICE, Border Patrol and others are seemingly trying to get the crowds beyond the threshold to cause Insurrection kinds of activities. It feels like a powder keg waiting for someone to light the fuse.

In this day and age, it seems that we cannot trust anybody. I am looking forward to the mid-terms to change the direction that our federal government has been heading. I am disappointed at our current Congress inability restrain the overreach that our Trump administration has demonstrated domestically over and over again. And now Trump is overreaching internationally, which threatens world peace, world trade and goodwill.

I hope with a changed Congress, our elected officials hopefully would act promptly to preserve our Constitution and our democracy. Enough already.

Barry Siebert, St. Paul

 

It may be hard to see right now, but …

A letter for my grandchildren:

I saw photographs of you and your school chums at St. Paul Central marching to protest ICE the other morning. Hundreds of you with creative sign boards, goofy hats, smiling faces of all colors and origins. Teenagers on the move. I am so proud of you. And at the same time, so sad and heartbroken at the world we are handing you.

This is not the America we once knew. It is not what our forefathers had in mind. Your parents scraped and borrowed to get you through school, to teach you to work hard, to care, to be honest, to love and appreciate your family, your neighbors, your country. Their parents did too. Your grandparents and great grandparents taught school, started businesses, created advertising, flew in the Pacific, invented things, raised dairy cows, worked on ore-freighters, ran for city council and applied their skills and intellect to improve the lives of their families, their country, their world.

That’s not what you’re seeing on your TV screens or I-phones today. You’re witnessing a dark period in American history — one filled with greed and hate and selfishness. One where the leader insults citizens with foul language and rude gestures, where government officials order and condone violence, where they dress up in makeup and jewelry for TV appearances, rationalize their crimes, and lie. And sadly, many support this behavior.

It is easy to get depressed about these events. Easy to give up, or to ignore what’s happening, or to rationalize it, or to excuse it. But it is not hopeless. You and your friends are coming along, full of hope, energy, caring and empathy. It may be hard to see right now, but your time will come.

Jim Force, Wausau

 

A Fair proposal …

A special welcome to Paul Hendrickson as new manager of the Washington County Fair.

Our former company had the pleasure of working with the great folks at both the Washington County and Ramsey County Fairs for many years prior to Covid. Now would be the time to bring forth the much talked about subject or merging the former Ramsey County Fair with the Washington County Fair.

I would guess that there are hundreds of food growers and exhibitors in Ramsey County that would like the opportunity to be involved in this great summertime event especially from the East Side of Saint Paul.

I like the sound of The Washington / Ramsey County Fair!

Gary Murphy, Vadnais Heights

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Friends of the St. Paul Public Library on Wednesday announced finalists for the 2026 Minnesota Book Awards, presented this year by sponsor Education Minnesota.

The finalists (* denotes titles from Minnesota presses):

Children’s Literature, sponsored by Beret Publishing:

“All the Stars in the Sky” by Art Coulson; illustrated by Winona Nelson (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
“Dear Acorn (Love, Oak)” by Joyce Sidman; illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Clarion Books/HarperCollins)
“Revolutions Are Made of Love: The Story of James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs” by Mélina Mangal and Sun Yung Shin; illustrated by Leslie Barlow (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing)*
“Saturday Morning at the Shop” by Keenan Jones; illustrated by Ken Daley (Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster)

General Nonfiction

“Enchanted Plants: A Treasury of Botanical Folklore and Magic” by Varla Ventura (Weiser Books/Red Wheel Weiser)
“Gentlemen of the Woods: Manhood, Myth, and the American Lumberjack” by Willa Hammitt Brown (University of Minnesota Press)*
“It’s Their World: Teens, Screens, and the Science of Adolescence” by Erin Walsh (Free Spirit Publishing)
“Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie” by David Hage and Josephine Marcotty (Random House/Penguin Random House)

Genre Fiction, sponsored by Macalester College

“Apostle’s Cove” by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster)
“Broken Fields” by Marcie Rendon (Soho Press/Penguin Random House)
“The Codebreaker’s Daughter” by Amy Lynn Green (Bethany House Publishers/Baker Publishing Group)
“The Quiet Librarian” by Allen Eskens (Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group)

Memoir/Creative Nonfiction

“Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage” by Kelly Foster Lundquist (Eerdmans/Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)
“The Book of Kin” by Jennifer Eli Bowen (Milkweed Editions)*
“The Lonely Veteran’s Guide to Companionship by Bronson Lemer (University of Wisconsin Press)
“What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Weirder and Harder to Relate To: A Memoir” by Mary Lucia (University of Minnesota Press)*

Middle-Grade Literature, sponsored by Education Minnesota:

“The House on Rondo by Debra J. Stone (University of Minnesota Press)*
“Scattergood” by H.M. Bouwman (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House)
“Weird Sad and Silent” by Alison McGhee (Rocky Pond Books/Penguin Random House)
“What Happened Then” by Erin Soderberg Downing (Scholastic Press)

Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction, sponsored by Annette and John Whaley:

“Enmity and Empathy: Japanese Americans in Minnesota During World War II by Ka F. Wong (Minnesota Historical Society Press)*
“Held Over: Harold and Maude at The Westgate Theater” by John Gaspard (self-published)
“Her Place in the Woods: The Life of Helen Hoover” by David Hakensen (University of Minnesota Press)*
“The War at Home: Minnesota During the Great War, 1914 – 1920” by Greg Gaut (Minnesota Historical Society Press)*

Novel/Short Story, sponsored by Minnesota Humanities Center

“Ashes to Ashes” by Thomas Maltman (Soho Press/Penguin Random House)
“If the Dead Belong Here” by Carson Faust (Viking/Penguin Random House)
“Lucky Tomorrow: Stories” by Deborah Jiang-Stein (University of Minnesota Press)*
“The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore” by Anika Fajardo (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster)

Poetry, sponsored by Wellington Management

“The Becoming Game” by Paula Cisewski (Hanging Loose Press)
“Enter” by Jim Moore (Graywolf Press)*
“I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always” by Douglas Kearney (Wave Books)
“Terminal Maladies” by Okwudili Nebeolisa (Autumn House Press)

Young Adult Literature

“Alice in Evermoor” by Karen Huss (self-published)
“The Flip Side” by Jason Walz (Rocky Pond Books/Penguin Random House)
“Seven for a Secret” by Mary E. Roach (Disney Hyperion/Penguin Random House)
“Worthy of Trust: That Word Honor Book 1” by Erin Makela (Beaver’s Pond Press)*

Winners will be announced at the Minnesota Book Awards ceremony May 6 at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. The Kay Sexton and Hognander awards will also be presented at the event. Tickets are $27 available at thefriends.org/mnba.

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