When the Minnesota Twins entered the 2022 draft, Brooks Lee was at the top of their draft board. A standout at Cal Poly University, the Twins saw Lee as a player who could rocket through the minor leagues and instantly take a spot on the major league roster. However, they didn’t think he would be available when he was on the clock with the eighth overall pick.
Like many drafts, the board didn’t fall as expected. Kumar Rocker and Cade Horton were surprise picks ahead of the Twins. When Lee was still available, the Twins turned in their card and immediately started celebrating.
“We were surprised,” Twins scouting director Sean Johnson said on draft night. “Now there’s a player who was maybe supposed to go [up higher] who is getting pushed closer to us. If Kumar pushed Brooks Lee to us, great. …We’re ecstatic.”
Fast forward to the 2026 season, and Lee has created reason to question that belief. Kaelen Culpepper is ascending through the minor leagues, and Lee’s defense has indicated he may not stay at shortstop. While he’s taken a roster spot, he doesn’t feel like a major leaguer. But for all the questions about his development, Brian Dozier established a path for him to succeed.
One of the few bright spots for the franchise during the 2010s, Dozier slugged 167 homers in 955 games in a Twins uniform and earned an All-Star appearance in 2015. If you talk to most Twins fans, the mention of Dozier brings a smile to their face.
But while Dozier is a cult hero in Twins history, his success didn’t happen overnight.
Minnesota’s eighth-round pick out of Southern Mississippi began his professional career at shortstop. His bat was fine, hitting .298/.370/.409 in 365 minor league games. However, his defense and lack of power were long-term question marks after he made his major league debut in 2012.
With Jorge Polanco also coming through the organization, Dozier needed to find a role in a hurry. His rookie season didn’t look great. He hit .234/.271/.332 with six homers, 33 RBI, and nine stolen bases in 84 games. The Twins moved him to second base the following year and got off to a slow start in 2013, hitting .214/.259/.299 with two home runs, 13 RBI, and six stolen bases over the first two months. But then the power showed up.
After June 1, Dozier hit .255/.331/.458 with 16 homers and 53 RBI in 106 games. His bat provided most of his value, logging 2.4 wins above replacement for the season, and he began to settle in. The 2014 season provided more modest numbers, hitting .242/.345/.416 with 23 homers, 71 RBI, and 21 stolen bases. The following year, Dozier had a successful All-Star campaign as an injury replacement, hitting .236/.307/.444 with 28 home runs, 77 RBI, and 12 stolen bases.
The Twins were a last-place team in 2016, but Dozier kept hitting homers. His 42 bombs in 2016 set a franchise record for second basemen and helped him finish 13th in MVP voting despite Minnesota finishing with a 59-103 record.
Dozier won a Gold Glove in 2017. However, the Twins traded him a year later, midway through the 2018 season. But his Twins career was a tale in which the bat changed everything, something Lee can follow.
Lee’s traditional stats (.232/.279/.357, 19 HR, 91 RBI in 189 games) indicate he’s had trouble adapting to major league pitching. But it’s only part of the story. Lee has also struggled defensively at shortstop, logging a minus-8 in defensive runs saved in 595 innings last season, according to FanGraphs. Most of that damage came late in the season as Lee got more experience at short, but Lee also noted that he felt more comfortable there than anywhere else on the diamond.
“I’ve been playing as good of shortstop as I ever have,” Brooks Lee told MLB.com’s Matthew Leach last August. “Just continue to do that. I think I’m a good shortstop, so no reason not to. … [It’s] just working at it every single day, making sure my body is in the right spot when I go out to play. Just playing hard all nine innings and making sure I have the same amount of focus as I do from pitch one to pitch 100.”
While shortstop is his natural position, he’s fared better at second base with a minus-1 in defensive runs saved over 319 major league innings. The Twins took Culpepper in the first round of the 2024 draft. His rise may also necessitate a move that could put less strain on Lee’s lateral movement, which has created an overall minus-4 in Statcast’s outs above average.
Luke Keaschall has also struggled at second base defensively, which could force a future in the outfield. That would open second base for Lee, but that doesn’t matter if he doesn’t start to hit.
Baseball Savant notes that Lee’s biggest problem is his tendency to chase. His 31.8% chase rate was in the 25th percentile of major league hitters, while his 24.0% whiff rate was in the 52nd percentile. While Lee does a good job at limiting strikeouts with a 17.5% punchout rate, he’s not making hard contact, with an average exit velocity of 88.6 mph and a hard-hit rate of 38.5%.
Those numbers mean Lee’s biggest problem is pitch selection. However, that wasn’t an issue in the minors, where he hit .289/.360/.476 across 195 games. He hit .267/.331/.492 with 13 homers and 48 RBI in 66 games with Triple-A St. Paul. Despite Lee’s struggles in the majors, he has still hit 16 homers in 659 career at-bats.
It’s exciting to think about what Lee can do if he turns it around. Turning 25 earlier this month, Lee still has time to figure it out, but it has to happen this season. If he turns in another .600 OPS, the Twins could be re-thinking their infield strategy and perhaps turning to Culpepper by the end of the year.
But if Brooks Lee hits, everything changes. It could lead him down a similar path to the one Dozier followed over a decade ago.
