At the start of the year, we could expect to see Édouard Julien play matches in major baseball with the Twins.
But he was not guaranteed to spend the majority of the year there, even pushing the club to review its plans with Jorge Polanco in the process.
That said, thanks to his excellent batting, it happened.
After the World Classic, he went to start the season in AAA, but injuries forced the Twins to call him up.
He finally finished the season in town after his third recall.
And MLB recognized that. The man with a batting eye worthy of MLB's best has been named to MLB Network's 2023 All-Rookie Team.
As we can see, one player per position has been named. He finds himself with Gunnar Henderson, Corbin Carroll, James Outman, Kodai Senga, Yeinner Cano and company.
It's not nothing.
Obviously, the challenges will be significant in 2024. The first will be being able to hit adequately against lefties.
As we can see, against lefties, he didn't even hit for .200 in his rookie season.
The other challenge will be to improve defensively. Sometimes, at the end of the match, his manager would remove him from the match when there was a lead to preserve.
Julien wants to play the full matches for the future, which requires defensive progress when we trust him at second base. He doesn't want to be a DH every day, after all.
But otherwise, he's established himself as a top-of-the-lineup hitter for a playoff club, which is absolutely remarkable.
In 2024, it will have to continue its momentum.
