Minnesota Twins Prospect Retrospective

Brooks Lee has showcased his strong hitting abilities to start his big-league career. Let’s look back at his time in the Twins farm system, to see how he got to this point.

The top of the 2022 MLB Draft didn’t play out as many expected. The Twins were surprised and ecstatic when Brooks Lee fell to them with the eighth overall pick. He was the back-to-back Player of the Year in the Big West, and many evaluators considered him the top collegiate hitter in his draft class. Lee has come as advertised during his professional career.

“We were hoping to get a player who would make it to our pick who maybe we didn’t think would absolutely get there,” Twins scouting director Sean Johnson said. “Brooks Lee fits that bill. Our room was thrilled when we were able to select him, that he made it down that far. You just didn’t know how the board is going to fall.”

The Twins signed Lee for $5.675 million and began promoting him aggressively through tbeir system. Lee got his feet wet with four games in the Florida Complex League, where he went 6-for-17 (.353) with two doubles. Minnesota quickly promoted him to High-A Cedar Rapids, where he hit .289/.395/.454, with four doubles and four home runs across 25 contests. Wichita was headed to the Texas League playoffs, so Lee advanced to Double-A for the stretch run. He helped Wichita qualify for the Championship Series, before losing to the Frisco RoughRiders. It was a memorable professional debut that established Lee as one of the game’s best prospects.

Entering the 2023 season, Lee was a consensus top-50 prospect according to the three national top-100 lists. Minnesota sent him back to Double-A, where he had ended the 2022 campaign. In 87 games, he hit .292/.365/.476, with 31 doubles and 11 home runs. In early August, the Twins promoted Lee to Triple-A, where he was over four years younger than the average age of the competition in the International League. There, Lee struggled for the first time in his professional career, as he hit .237/.304/.428 with 16 extra-base hits in 38 games. He knew something needed to change entering the 2024 season, and used the offseason to fix his flaws.

As a switch hitter, Lee’s left-handed swing has always been his better side. During the 2023 season, he posted an .806 OPS as a lefty and a .603 OPS as a righty. He spent the offseason refining his right-handed swing to make it more closely match his left-handed swing. In spring training, Lee started to show off his improved mechanics, but a herniated disc in his back put him on the IL to begin the year. Back injuries can be tricky and have long-term impacts, but the Twins decided on a course of action that didn’t include surgery. Lee worked through his rehab and made his first appearance with the Saints at the beginning of June.

Lee quickly made it difficult for the Twins to leave him in the minors. In 20 games with the Saints, he hit .329/.394/.635, with five doubles and seven home runs. His right-handed swing entirely changed, as he went 13-for-38 (.342) against lefties with eight extra-base hits. For some perspective, he had seven extra-base hits in 109 plate appearances against southpaws last season. If healthy, Lee would have likely been called up earlier in the season, but his performance shows that he was knocking down the door to the big leagues.

Defensively, Lee has continued to play shortstop regularly, but will get limited reps at that position in the majors. Royce Lewis’s injury means that Lee will regularly play third base, a position he has only started ten times as a professional. The Twins have also given him a lot of pre-game reps at second base, which might be his long-term position.