After overcoming back injury, Brooks Lee ready for potential major league call-up

There was a good chance Brooks Lee would have made his major league debut, and perhaps still be playing in the Twins infield now, if it weren’t for an ill-timed back injury during spring training.

All he did was squat in the on-deck circle before an at-bat in a spring training game, the simplest of moves. Except his back “gave out,” and it didn’t improve after he stood at shortstop for a half-inning. The highly rated Twins prospect was sidelined for the next two months with a herniated disk in his back.

After finally returning to the field, returning to the Class AAA Saints after finishing in St. Paul last year, there is no sense of bitterness about a potential lost opportunity when the Twins had some infield injuries in April. He’s just happy he is healthy.

“It was the worst I’ve ever had it,” Lee said. “Your body, it’s crazy, when things are wrong, it wants to protect [itself], especially when it’s structural. I knew something was wrong. Sure enough, it was bad.”

Lee, 23, has dealt with a back issue since he was in high school, one of the few concerns teams had about him when he was eligible for the amateur draft.

The herniated disk, he says, has forced him to compensate with less pregame work. He’s taking fewer swings. He’s taking fewer ground balls. It’s a tough thing for the son of a college baseball coach, but he’s focused on quality over quantity.

“It’s miserable because I love doing it, but it is what it is,” said Lee, a member of the American League team for the MLB Futures Game in Arlington, Texas, on July 13. “If I want to stay on the field, that’s what I have to do. The same thing in the offseason. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough because I was trying to stop doing so much because I’m so used to it. It takes time. I’m still working on it. None of us will ever have it figured out, but hopefully, I get close.”

Lee will always have to manage his back with extra exercises, but the switch-hitting shortstop doesn’t look like a guy who missed time. After returning to the Saints at the beginning of June, he has recorded a hit in 15 of his first 17 games, with eight multihit performances. He entered Friday batting .361 with a .432 on-base percentage. He has never considered himself much of a power hitter, but he had five home runs in his previous eight games.

The best part for Lee is how well he’s hitting against lefthanded pitchers. His righthanded swing always lagged his production as a lefty, so that was his top focus in the offseason with his dad, Larry, who coached him in college at Cal Poly. They studied video of his swing together. They hit in the batting cages and on the field.

“In my eyes, hitting is the hardest thing to do in sports, and I think switch hitting is twice as hard,” Lee said. “It’s different and there are only a few guys that are really good at it. I’m hoping to be one of those guys. It’s going to take a lot of reps on the mental side and the physical side.”

Lee constantly chats with his dad over the phone during the season. When Larry visited Brooks in St. Paul last week, Brooks hit three doubles in one game as a righthanded hitter, then homered twice from the right side the next day for his first-ever multihomer game.

“I’m spoiled and blessed, and I know I am,” said Lee, smiling. “I’m forever in debt for what he’s done for me. He’s trained my mind to be a certain way and wired it. And I obviously have to give credit to myself too for putting up with it.”

Lee is the youngest player on the Saints roster, but he has a good sense for how he wants to play.

“The thing for me, I always say it, I want to hit for average,” he said. “It’s important for me to just get base hits. If it goes over the fence, great. But I wouldn’t say that is the biggest strength of my game.”

A major back injury is behind Lee. The timing of a potential call-up, if he keeps hitting, will take care of itself.