Falvey, Levine and the Minnesota Twins front office: An interim grade
By Bill Felber
Farm system
Falvey and Levine have called on seven first-year players to greater or lesser extents this season. Two have worked their way into regular duty.
Second baseman Edouard Julien is covering for Jorge Polanco while the latter rests a hamstring. Julien is batting .265 in 34 games, good for a -0.1 WAA.
Third baseman Royce Lewis benefitted from the demotion of Jose Miranda to Triple-A. In his place, Lewis is hitting .333 in 23 games with a +0.5 WAA.
Only one Twins rookie has a higher WAA to date, that being outfielder Matt Wallner. Shuttling between Minneapolis and the St. Paul Triple-A team, Wallner has a .368 average in 25 at-bats, good for a +0.6 WAA that he’s likely to improve if he gets another chance.
With half a season remaining, this is shaping up as a productive rookie class by the standards of Falvey-Levine classes. Since Levine took over as general manager following the 2016 season, Twins rookie classes have averaged -2.4 WAA, so by comparison the cumulative +0.8 WAA thus far looks pretty decent.
Still it will be a historical precedent of Julien or any of the other 2023 rookies establishes himself as a star in the Twins’ firmament, or anybody else’s for that matter. To date, that distinction probably belongs to Mitch Garver or Ryan Jeffers, and that is written with the notation that Byron Buxton arrived under the team’s previous administration.