SEATTLE -- For most of this season, the Twins’ moves have indicated that they felt there was only room on the roster for one of their second basemen: veteran Jorge Polanco or rookie Edouard Julien -- but not both.
They’ll soon need to figure out what it will look like for them to go from “or” to “and.”
That’s because Julien has been the team’s best hitter while Polanco has twice been sidelined with a recurring hamstring strain, and the rookie’s second consecutive three-hit game helped carry the Twins to a 10-3 victory over the Mariners on Tuesday that also featured three-hit performances from Alex Kirilloff and Willi Castro.
Polanco is now on his way back from the injured list, with his rehab assignment underway at Triple-A St. Paul -- and Julien admitted that he has thought about that.
“It's tough to not think about it when the only reason -- not the only reason -- but the biggest reason why you're here is because the second baseman's hurt,” Julien said.
But the Twins’ underperforming offense is finally showing signs of more sustained life, with Tuesday’s victory marking the first time Minnesota has scored five or more runs in five consecutive games since late April. Kirilloff homered and fell a double shy of the cycle in a continuation of his power surge, and Carlos Correa and Kyle Farmer also went deep.
Julien has had plenty to do with the team’s success, heating up with a .500/.531/1.000 slash line in July, featuring five multihit games in his last six appearances. Thanks in part to that, the Twins are 53-for-180 (.294) as a team since the All-Star break.
Defensive fits be darned, the Twins can’t afford to send Julien back down, as they did the last two times Polanco returned from the IL. His 3-for-5 performance with two singles and a solo homer on Tuesday brought his season OPS to .928, by far the highest among Twins regulars.
If the season ended today, that would be the highest in club history by a rookie with at least 150 plate appearances -- passing Tony Oliva’s .916 mark from 1964. Julien has done that with an impressive ability to hit to all fields, with singles to left and center on Tuesday and a homer to right field, giving him an equal number of homers to the pull side (four) and to the opposite field (four) this season.
“[Julien has] been as good of a hitter as we have since he's been up,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You don't want to lose his bat, either. I don't know what we're going to do. But you need a lot of good players to reach your goals. We'll take them both, and we'll figure it out.”
What could that look like? It’s difficult because of Julien’s defensive limitations.
The Twins have been adamant all season about having Julien work exclusively at second base, where he’s been drilling hard but his defense has still been rough, worth minus-3 in Fielding Run Value -- third-worst on the team. He did play first, third and left field as a Minor Leaguer in 2021, but he has exclusively focused on second in the last two years.
Given how erratic his arm has been at second, it’s no guarantee that he could move to third, and first is occupied by the very productive Alex Kirilloff and Donovan Solano. Left field doesn’t make sense in that the Twins already have two too many left-handed corner outfielders, and Julien’s range would be a question there, too.
Designated hitter is the best fit, but with Byron Buxton still unable to play outfield, that spot is occupied as long as Buxton remains in the lineup.
Could Polanco move to third base, where the Twins haven’t had a consistent starter in the absence of the injured Royce Lewis? Polanco has played exactly nine games there as a big leaguer -- all the way back in 2016. Still, he did start at shortstop for five seasons, which may not leave third base out of the question.
Baldelli said the internal pondering has already begun, because they want to be ready at the end of Polanco’s rehab assignment -- but with each passing day, Julien’s bat continues to emphasize the need to find some fit, no matter how unorthodox.
“I know what's best for the team is probably to have Polanco and me in the same lineup,” Julien said. “That would probably be the best-case scenario. But it is what it is. I'm ready for any scenario.”