St. Paul – Edouard Julien had one of the longest months of his life last month. The Minnesota Twins sent him back down to Triple-A St. Paul on May 5, when Royce Lewis and Willi Castro came off the injured list. He had been hitting .198/.288/.319 with two home runs and eight RBI in 104 plate appearances.
Julien didn’t fare much better at the plate over his first month back in Triple-A. He only had one home run, six RBI across 106 plate appearances, and a .224/.396/.289 slash line. He was still drawing plenty of walks (21), but wasn’t hitting for contact or power.
As the calendar flipped to June, things improved substantially for Julien at the plate. He’s produced a .278/.435/.519 slash line, three home runs, and nine RBI, including back-to-back home runs in his last two games at CHS Field this week. Julien’s improvement didn’t come from finding something new in his swing and approach at the plate. Instead, it came from simplifying everything he had already been doing.
“I really don’t try to think at all about that stuff, I try to go one day at a time,” said Julien. “I’m feeling awfully good at the plate, I feel good with my mentality, and I feel good with how I’m approaching pitchers.”
The simplification didn’t start for Juilen at the plate. Instead, it started on the field with his defense. Julien’s defensive game has arguably been the best it’s ever been for him, and getting better on one side of the ball has complemented the other.
“I feel good. I think it’s been…the best side of the ball for me,” he said. “I’ve been better defensively than at the plate. I’ve been making good plays [and been consistent. I’ve been more locked in during the game, so I feel good defensively.”
On Wednesday night, Julien and catcher Diego Cartaya demonstrated great defensive improvements that they have been working on.
In the top of the sixth with runners on the corners, the Mud Hens’ third baseman Jace Jung and center fielder Akil Baddo attempted a double steal of second base and home. Cartaya threw the ball to Julien at second to try to tag out Baddo, who was heading to second.
However, Baddo is the faster runner and got there ahead of the play. So Julien threw a perfect strike back into Cartaya’s glove to prevent Jung from scoring the go-ahead run for the Mud Hens and keep the game tied 3-3.
“That situation, I knew the runner was going to be aggressive,” Julien said, reflecting on the play. “It’s a pretty good runner out there at third, and my thought was with Akil being fast, I was just trying to see where the runner at third was going to go, and when I saw him take off, I just went, and got the ball, and threw it home,”
Julien’s coaches have noticed the work he’s put in on and off the field to become a better version of himself.
“He’s doing great,” said Saints manager Toby Gardenhire. “Eddie has been working really hard. First of all, he’s in the cages all the time, he’s going through swing stuff with the coaches, and he’s very open to everything that we’re doing, and he’s working hard at it, and the defense has been awesome too.”
The more plate appearances Julien has, like the ones he had to open the series against the Mud Hens, the faster he’ll find himself back up to Minnesota’s active roster. Still, he’s not fixating too much on how quickly he wants to be back in the big leagues. Instead, he’s keeping it all simple by taking things one at-bat at a time to maintain his rebuilt confidence.
“I just feel like I’m more confident, I’m seeing the ball better, and I have a better approach,” he said. “I’m not thinking about a bunch of different stuff at the plate. I just go out there and trust my move, trust my swing, everything’s going to work.”
“Eddie’s going in the right direction, which is good,” said Gardenhire. “Hopefully, we can get him back up there and crack a bunch of balls like he did a couple of years ago.”
