Twins option Miranda to Triple-A for 'a good resetting'

MINNEAPOLIS -- When Jose Miranda needed a jolt last season, he looked like a different player after the Twins sent him down to the Minors and brought him back up -- though that trip to St. Paul barely lasted 24 hours. This time, he figures to be down in Triple-A for a longer stint -- but it’s even more important that he finds his best form.

Miranda had been given every opportunity to succeed early this season, when he assumed the everyday job at third base and took the most plate appearances on the roster. He just hasn’t looked like the onetime top prospect the Twins hoped would emerge as a franchise cornerstone this season -- and on Wednesday, he was optioned down to make room for Kyle Farmer on the 26-man roster.

Farmer and Willi Castro will split time at third base while Miranda finds his approach at the plate and at the hot corner across the river.

“Certainly not the easiest of decisions, but Jose, right now, I think, is in a place where he could use a good resetting, both offensively and defensively, to find the best version of himself,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We’ve seen this guy really good before. We know what he’s capable of. He’s got a history of performance. He just hasn’t found that yet.”

Once ranked as high as the No. 3 prospect in the organization, Miranda had 15 homers and 25 doubles with a .751 OPS last season, when he carried the lineup for large swaths of the summer as a rookie following a highly productive two years in the high Minors. But this season, Miranda hit .220/.275/.318 (a .593 OPS) while playing 35 of the Twins’ 36 games to start the campaign.

Miranda’s launch angle is down and his ground ball rate is up, preventing him from doing serious damage to pitches -- and as he expanded the zone due to his struggles, his superior contact ability led to much weaker balls in play on many of those bad pitches.

That’s why Baldelli says that the swing decisions -- whether or not to offer at a pitch -- is going to be an important focus for Miranda, in locking in a more definite mindset and approach when he’s going to the plate.

“I think some of the anxieties of playing every day in the big leagues, and not playing the way you want, they can be hard,” Baldelli said. “And they can definitely affect guys, whether they realize it or not. Just the ability to go out there and actually work on some things, and spend some time improving himself and not having to worry about performing every day, I think, will help.”

Though Miranda was primarily a third baseman in the Minors and he worked hard to slim down and add lateral agility during the offseason to help his defensive range, he ranked 255th of 259 qualified defenders in the Majors with his minus-5 Outs Above Average, per Statcast, with his arm strength ranking in the 16th percentile.

Baldelli said Miranda’s primary focus will remain at third base, but he’ll also play some first and take at-bats at designated hitter while in St. Paul.

“It’s not an offensive thing and it’s not a defensive thing,” Baldelli said. “It’s just an overall good time for him to go and make this move, and I think the adjustment-making, it’s right in front of him. He just has to go do it.”

Making things more difficult for Miranda is that he might not have such a clear-cut spot in which to return to the Majors, whenever he’s ready for that.

Royce Lewis is slated to begin a rehab assignment on Thursday, focusing at both shortstop and third base -- and shortstop is occupied in the Majors by Carlos Correa. Brooks Lee, the club’s No. 1 prospect, is crushing the ball at Double-A, and though he’s currently a shortstop, it appears that he could be a third baseman in the long term. And at first base, the Twins hope that Alex Kirilloff could be the long-term answer.

Miranda can’t worry about any of that now -- he just needs to get himself right again.

“What I told him is to use it as fuel, not as poison,” Correa said. “Use it as motivation that makes you want to be better. And then when you come up here, you're never going to get sent back down. So use that as motivation.”