'The future is now': What Lee brings to Twins

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The original plan was for Brooks Lee to provide a glimpse of what’s to come for the Twins organization after the 23-year-old was selected as Minnesota's representative in the 2024 All-Star Futures Game -- set for Saturday at Globe Life Field in Arlington as part of the events leading up to the Midsummer Classic.

Instead, he’ll be half a country away, manning the hot corner for the Twins in San Francisco -- because he no longer represents the future.

“The future is now. He’s here,” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey proclaimed following Lee’s promotion to the Majors on July 3.

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With Lee (Twins' No. 2 prospect, No. 13 overall), being the quickest Twins first-round Draft pick to reach the Majors since Matt Garza in 2006, the thing that comes up when talking about him is not only his beautifully simple swing that has already proved fruitful at the big league level, but also the baseball awareness and intelligence far beyond his years that, as people always say, comes with being a coach’s son.

But what exactly does that look like on the field? And does that feel different to the Twins?

“You see it in almost everything he does,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You see it in pregame stuff just as much as you do during the game. If I came up with a play where I was thinking about something like that, I’d be shorting the truth, which is that you think it often.”

Here’s an example of how that came up in a recent play that might otherwise have gone unnoticed -- as the little things often do.

For this, let’s go back to the 10th inning of Monday’s 8-6 series-opening win over the White Sox. With one out, Chicago center fielder Luis Robert Jr. hit a ground ball to the left side of the infield and was retired at first base by a half-step by shortstop Carlos Correa on a bang-bang, but otherwise uneventful-seeming play at first glance.

Look a little closer, though, and you’ll see Lee -- playing third base -- take a few steps toward fielding the ball (where he would have had momentum toward first base) but actually peel off, do a 180, and start moving in the other direction. What gives?

“I was just thinking that I need to get back to third in case [Correa] wants to throw to me,” Lee said. “Because [the automatic runner at second is] a good runner, too. So just in case. He has a play, basically, on every play.”

Lee primarily played shortstop in the Minor Leagues (1,347 innings over 157 games, compared to 85 innings over 10 games at third), but he recognized this in a split second: Robert is a fast runner, so Correa might not have a play at first base. Lee would be the only option to cover third base in case Andrew Benintendi, the runner at second, took off.

All that made it natural -- and instinctive -- for Lee to stop in his tracks, wheel, and follow the advice he has given to the third baseman playing next to him whenever he has started at shortstop.

“Those are things that are very hard for a staff member or instructor to teach,” Baldelli said. “Those are things that are instinctual for guys. Some guys will, of course, learn -- learn through failure and from watching -- but he just has it already. He’s aware of everything. He’s got that.”

Baldelli also pointed to on a highlight-reel play in Sunday's game vs. the Astros, when Lee charged a bunt, fielded it barehanded and threw an off-balance laser to first to nab Mauricio Dubón, Lee exercised a level of control and restraint uncommon in most third basemen -- let alone one of his age -- combining that physical instinct with his natural intellect.

And that’s the sort of thing that excites Baldelli and the other baseball lifers in the Twins' clubhouse when they see Lee and Correa -- and their baseball brains -- partnered on the left side of Minnesota's infield.

“A guy who’s been in the league for a week, and a guy that’s been a star for a long time … they both have excellent field awareness,” Baldelli said. “They know what other people are doing on the field. They know everything that’s going on around them, and they can make judgments very quickly.”