Imagining the Twins’ future with Brooks Lee and a healthy Royce Lewis

It seemed almost unusually cruel at the beginning of this Twins season when Royce Lewis pulled up with a serious quad injury after just two at bats in Game 1 of 162, while at the same time infield prospect-in-waiting Brooks Lee was dealing with a back injury that would keep him out of action until late May.

The silver lining, one supposes, is that it paved the way for Jose Miranda’s second chance.

With Lewis going down a week ago with a new adductor ailment and Lee proving himself quite nicely at Class AAA St. Paul, the Twins turned to their 2022 first-round pick for a call-up. The understudy is a quick learner as a replicator of Lewis’ impact. With 11 hits in his first six games (second-most behind Kirby Puckett in franchise history) and eight runs batted in (most in franchise history in that debuting span), Lee and the rest of the Twins are significantly lessening the blow of the latest Lewis setback.

But as I talked about on Tuesday’s Daily Delivery podcast, the short-term isn’t even the best news. The Twins and their fans can now allow themselves to imagine a time when both Lee and Lewis are healthy and punishing opponents with their bats, baseball IQs and all-around games.

Neither of them figure to do it at their natural position — shortstop — for a long time. But that’s because the Twins have a veteran All-Star and resurgent talent already occupying that spot in Carlos Correa, which only adds to the good vibes about the future.

Oh and Miranda, who can play third or first base, is hitting .332. That would be good for second in the AL batting race if he wasn’t still a handful of plate appearances shy of qualifying. If Edouard Julien (seventh in the rookie of the year voting last year) can get himself sorted out in St. Paul after starting the year with a dreaded second-year slump, the Twins will have a surplus of infielders capable of terrorizing opposing pitchers for years to come.

Lee’s early arrival (small sample size aside) —at age 23 and just two years after being chosen with the No. 8 overall pick — feels like an embarrassment of riches. He absolutely looks the part, including a dramatic but calm go-ahead single in the 11th inning of Monday’s win over Chicago.

Almost all of his fielding work so far has come at third base, filling in for Lewis. When both are healthy, and assuming Lee continues to impress, you can easily imagine an infield of Lewis at third, Correa at short, Lee at second and Miranda at first.

Pencil that in through 2028, the last guaranteed year on Correa’s contract, and I think everyone associated with the Twins would be pretty happy.

Here are four more things to know today:

*You should definitely read this Randy Johnson story on Gophers running back Darius Taylor Jr.

*It takes a certain sense of one’s own self to talk about a nine-figure salary offer being a sign of disrespect.

*Also on Tuesday’s podcast, Chris Hine and I broke down an important summer for the back half of the Timberwolves roster.

*Star Tribune columnist Chip Scoggins is expected to join me on Wednesday’s podcast, and we certainly will be talking about the never-ending (and ceaselessly frustrating) Twins TV situation that Chip recently wrote about.