The Twins’ experiment with Brooks Lee at shortstop has apparently run its course. The former No. 8 overall pick has been playing third base since Royce Lewis‘ demotion to Triple-A St. Paul, and manager Derek Shelton told the Twins beat this week that Lee’s defensive home moving forward will be the hot corner (link via Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune).
It’s not a terribly surprising development, but it’s one that has plenty of ramifications for the organization as a whole. Lee was a shortstop in college at Cal Poly, but scouting reports questioned whether he’d be able to stick there even back at the time of the draft. He logged 803 innings at short in 2024-25 and didn’t grade especially well there. For much of that time, he was focusing on multiple positions because the Twins also had Carlos Correa signed long-term. Last July’s trade sending Correa back to Houston freed up a potential long-term opportunity at shortstop.
Lee, 25, entered the year with a legitimate opportunity to seize the position. It hasn’t happened. He’s delivered a solid .259/.315/.416 batting line (105 wRC+) in 201 trips to the plate, but he’s been dinged with negative grades from Defensive Runs Saved (-8) and Outs Above Average (-1). The switch-hitter’s bat has come to life after a slow start — .292/.344/.460 in his past 123 plate appearances — and he’ll try to keep that momentum going at a different position. It’s probably more anecdotal than anything else, but Lee has tallied multiple hits in three of five games since moving to third base.
Lee’s move to third base creates some short-term opportunity for one of the organization’s best prospects and also raises some long-term questions about Lewis’ role within the organization.
Kaelen Culpepper, Minnesota’s first-round pick in 2024, is currently a consensus top-100 prospect. He had a slow start to his season in Triple-A but has heated up with a .266/.392/.557 slash this month — all while walking nearly as often (14.4%) as he’s struck out (16.5%). He’s already swatted 11 homers in only 46 games/218 plate appearances, and he’s 11-for-11 in stolen base attempts. That comes on the back of a 20-homer, 25-steal showing in 113 games between High-A and Double-A last year.
The 23-year-old Culpepper could get a look before long, and Lee’s move over to third base opens Culpepper’s natural position at the big league level. However, if Lee and Culpepper are the left-side infield of the future at Target Field, it doesn’t leave much room for Lewis unless he can either slide across the diamond to first base or take on more of a designated hitter role. Lewis has limited experience at second base, but the Twins still hope that Luke Keaschall can claim that as his long-term home. Another former top prospect, Keaschall hit the ground running in 2025 before a broken forearm cost him more than three months. He then ended the season back on the IL due to a thumb injury.
Whether it was the cold weather, lingering effects from those 2025 injuries, some small-sample noise or a combination of the three, Keaschall got out to a dismal start in 2026 and at one point looked like he could be at risk of being optioned. He’s righted the ship with a .271/.388/.353 slash over the past month (103 plate appearances). He hasn’t exactly cemented his status as the long-term second baseman, but the still-23-year-old Keaschall has now played in 100 major league games and turned in a solid .268/.349/.374 batting line despite navigating a pair of arm/hand injuries. He’s trending in the right direction.
First base and designated hitter are a bit more unsettled in the long term. The Twins signed Josh Bell to a one-year, $7MM deal to split time between those spots this past offseason. Utilityman Kody Clemens has seen plenty of time at first base this season. Offseason pickup Victor Caratini — signed through 2027 — has seen a handful of games there as well. None of the Twins’ best prospects are first basemen. Former first-round pick Aaron Sabato was perhaps viewed as a long-term option there or at designated hitter when he was selected 27th overall back in 2020, but he’s about to turn 27 and hasn’t made his debut yet. He’s hitting .298/.358/.661 in Triple-A, granted, but he’s doing so with a strikeout rate just under 30%.
Perhaps if Lewis can continue his early production since being demoted to Triple-A, the right side of the diamond and/or designated hitter will be a more serious consideration. He’s played in five games since being optioned and already has four home runs. Including a pair of rehab games in St. Paul earlier this season, Lewis is slashing .296/.367/.963 with six homers in only 30 Triple-A plate appearances.
There’s little doubting Lewis’ inherent physical talent, but he’ll need to curb this year’s alarming spike in chases and whiffs — while avoiding further entries to his lengthy list of injuries — to rebuild his stock within the organization. Given all this surrounding context, it’s also plenty fair to wonder whether he might eventually emerge as a change-of-scenery candidate ahead of this summer’s trade deadline.
