Brooks Lee smokes double off Atlanta ace Spencer Strider
Brooks Lee, one of the top prospects in the big leagues, displayed his bat-to-ball skills against one of the best pitchers in the majors on Thursday.
The 23-year-old, who swings a left-handed bat, took a high fastball from right-hander Spencer Strider and smoked it to the wall in left-center field for a double during a spring training game between the Twins and Braves.
Lee has four weeks to make his case to start the season on the big-league roster. It might not happen right away, but it certainly seems likely that he'll be playing for the Twins at some point in 2024.
Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic pontificated in his latest article that the Twins' infield this summer could feature Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa on the left side of the diamond, with Lee at second base and Eddy Julien sliding over to first base on the right side.
In that scenario, the Twins would have significant options at second base, first base and designated hitter. Julien and Lee could play second while first base and DH could be a platoon featuring Julien, Carlos Santana and Alex Kirilloff.
Lee is the No. 18 prospect at MLB Pipeline, 35th at Baseball America, 42nd by FanGraphs and The Athletic ranks him No. 31 overall. He's the No. 2 prospect in the Twins' organization, trailing only outfielder Walker Jenkins.
Strider, by the way, won 20 games last season and led the majors with 281 strikeouts. Other than giving up the double to Lee he was pretty much dominant as he allowed just one other hit and struck out five in three innings.