Édouard Julien wasted no time in winning training camp for the Minnesota Twins. After hitting a hit in his first appearance in the Grapefruit League on Saturday, the Quebec City second baseman had a bang on Tuesday, hitting two homers in a 10-7 win over the Atlanta Braves.
After three games, the 23-year-old left-handed hitter is batting .429 (3 for 7) with two home runs and four RBIs. He has just made sure the Twins don’t forget him, even if he has to leave training camp next week to participate in the World Baseball Classic with the Canadian team.
Julien set the tone for the game by hitting his first home run as the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the first inning. He did it with one and no strike against right-hander Ian Anderson, a regular pitcher in the Braves rotation who is 22-13 in three seasons.
He did it again late in the third run with two runners on the trails. This time, it was a pitcher from the Braves branches who was on the mound, Kyle Wilcox.
“He was better than a good hitter. He has already made a name for himself, he must continue like this, but he is starting at a level perhaps higher than anyone, even the hopefuls, ”Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told the MLB site. com after Julien’s performance.
Édouard Julien spent the winter training at the Stade Canac dome. Last fall, the Twins put his name on the list of 40 players able to play in the Major Leagues this season.
His journey is impressive. He has a .283 cumulative offensive average in two full seasons in the Twins branches with 35 home runs and 139 RBIs. He also shows an uncommon eye at bat as he has walked 208 over the past two seasons.
After starting his career at A level, in 2021, he was promoted to AA for the 2022 season.
Over the past few months, his name has appeared on various lists of major league baseball’s top prospects. According to the major league website, he is the seventh-best prospect at second base and comes in at 15e rank of all Twins prospects, regardless of age. It is estimated that he could play in the majors already this season.
At the end of the week, he was the subject of a report on the Twins website, where the headline was “hello, meet the hope of the Twins Édouard Julien. “Hello was written in French and the continuation in English.
It spoke in particular of his French-speaking origins and the influence of Quebec and Canadian players who had reached the majors before him.
Did you know that you were nicknamed the “God of walks”? asked the journalist assigned to the coverage of the Twins for the site MLB.com.
“No, I hadn’t seen that, but I find it ‘cool’,” replied Julien, who knew how to find the balance between batting patience and a more aggressive approach on the first three pitches, as his coaches told him. recommended to him.
On Tuesday, he started successfully on the second pitch of each of his appearances.