Brooks Lee sports a .266 batting average in 48 games with the Double-A Wichita Wind Surge this year. He has hit 18 doubles and four home runs with 20 RBIs.
Mustangs in the Pros: Lee Producing 'Modest' Stats, Woo in Debut
While it seems Brooks Lee's bat has come back down to earth in his first full professional season, he's still showing some of the defining characteristics that made him a top draft prospect last year.
After tearing up just about every league he's played in since high school, Lee has produced more modest numbers in his first full season with Double-A Wichita. He enters Wednesday's game against San Antonio batting .266 with a .768 OPS and 22 extra-base hits, including four homers.
But his ability to put the bat on the ball and limit strikeouts has endured. So far this season, Lee has a 17.1 percent whiff rate and is one of only 84 Minor Leaguers with a strikeout rate that low and a walk rate of at least 10 percent.
"He's a creative, skilled, instinctual player," Twins scouting director Sean Johnson told MLB.com after last year's Draft. "He comes from a really strong baseball family. They're similar in that nature, that they just have really good instincts, elite baseball IQ, great feel for the game. Really great feel to hit in the batter's box."
Lee was a potential first-round talent in 2019 coming out of San Luis Obispo High School. But most scouts knew he was locked into his college commitment to Cal Poly, where his father, Larry, was the baseball coach. In fact, Brooks Lee's grandfather, Tom, also coached baseball, basketball, boxing and football at Cal Poly and is in the school's Athletics Hall of Fame.
"[Playing for my dad was] the best decision I ever made in my life," Lee told MLB Network before the Draft last year. "It was a big decision and I've never looked back. I enjoyed every single moment, even when I got yelled at by him on the field – constantly."
The 5-foot-11, 205-pound switch hitter got an early jump on his college career playing with Corvallis in the West Coast League, a collegiate summer circuit, in 2019 before enrolling at Cal Poly and was fortunate to get some games in before a tumultuous freshman year.
During a preseason game that fall, Lee suffered a lateral collateral ligament tear in his knee and a hamstring tear while running out a ground ball. Although there were questions about whether he'd be able to play again, Lee had surgery and recovered in time for the season, which was then cut short due to the pandemic.
Lee made up for the lost time by playing with the Willmar Stingers in the Northwoods League that summer. He opened his season there with a 19-game hitting streak and finished with a .345 average and .866 OPS.
His Northwoods League performance showed he was able to put the injuries behind him, but his first full season at Cal Poly in 2021 removed all doubt. Lee was a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist after batting .342/.384/.626 in 55 games. He also set the school's single-season doubles record with 27.
After a season that seemed to be his breakout, Lee was even better with wood bats against stiff competition that summer with Yarmouth-Dennis in the Cape Cod League. In 21 games, Lee hit .405, becoming the first player in 19 years to hit better than .400 in the prestigious collegiate summer league. He even started to show some power, leaving the yard six times and collecting four doubles.
MLB Pipeline's No. 23 overall prospect played in fewer games than most in the Cape Cod League as he took off midseason to play with USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team. Lee competed in some intrasquad games and played a series against the 2021 U.S. Olympic Team in Cary, North Carolina.
Lee entered the 2022 season as one of the higher-ranking draft prospects in the country and did nothing to dissuade scouts of this notion during his final college season. He finished with a .357 average and 1.125 OPS and won the Brooks Wallace Award, given to the nation's top college shortstop. He collected 25 doubles, 15 homers and 55 RBIs and drew 46 walks while striking out only 28 times.
The Twins were surprised to nab Lee with the No. 8 overall pick.
"We were hoping to get a player who would make it to our pick who maybe we didn't think would absolutely get there," Johnson told MLB.com. "Brooks Lee fits that bill. Our room was thrilled when we were able to select him, that he made it down that far. You just didn't know how the board is going to fall."
Lee signed with the Twins later that month for a reported $5.68 million bonus, which was just above slot value. After four games in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League, he was promoted to High-A Cedar Rapids, where he finished the regular season with a .289 average and .849 OPS. Following the Midwest League playoffs, Lee was promoted to finish out Wichita's regular season and participate in the Texas League playoffs.
Although neither the Kernels nor Wind Surge won their league titles, Lee was brilliant in the postseason, particularly with Wichita, where he collected eight hits in 18 at-bats.
In his first big league camp this spring, Lee continued to make a noteworthy impression. Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said Lee had a "near-perfect camp" and "showed us everything that we would be hoping to see from him."
The Twins' signing of shortstop Carlos Correa in the offseason seemed to complicate Lee's future with the club. But even Correa was impressed by Lee's spring performance and told MLB.com that he wouldn't "be surprised if we see him up this year."
So far, it doesn't seem like that leap to Minnesota is imminent, but Lee's bat has already taken him very far in this game.
An update on other former Mustangs in the professional ranks:
• Bryan Woo's Major League debut with the Seattle Mariners last Saturday didn't go as planned, but he will get another chance Saturday night in Anaheim.
Recalled from Double-A Arkansas, Woo allowed six runs and seven hits in the first two innings of his Big League initiation against the Texas Rangers, who went on to win 16-6. The Mariners' No. 6-ranked prospect threw 47 pitches with 33 strikes at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
"It was a rough day all around, obviously," said Mariners skipper Scott Servais. "Bryan was making his first Major League start and they were super aggressive on him early. They are a very aggressive team on the fastball and they got on it early."
Though he surrendered three runs in the first inning, Woo also struck out the side and added another in the second, throwing several fastballs of at least 95 mph.
"I was definitely able to settle in a little bit," Woo said of his emotions following his first Major League strikeout. "My fastball was coming out pretty well today. I was, obviously, a little amped up. My energy was a little high, so I tried to control it the best I could and take it pitch by pitch. It definitely felt nice to get the first one, though."
When asked if he kept the ball as a souvenir, Woo mentioned his focus was on ending the inning, but he was optimistic that someone around the clubhouse had it.
"I'm not sure where the ball is, to be honest," Woo said with a smile. "Hopefully, we'll find it at some point."
Woo gave up three more runs in the second before he was lifted.
"When you can't establish the breaking ball early, it makes you pretty predictable. I just left too many pitches middle and I paid for it," Woo told The Athletic.
Despite the tough loss, Woo radiated when reflecting on his first big league action.
"My stuff was good today," Woo said. "I just made a couple of mistakes. … It's up from here, though. I got a lot of good feedback from the guys, so I'm just going to keep working."
• After two rehab assignments at Round Rock, allowing no runs or hits over 3 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts, Spencer Howard was activated by the Texas Rangers on Monday prior to the St. Louis series. Expected to be used as a reliever for now, Howard had been on the 60-day Injured List since April 12 with a lat injury.
Drew Thorpe pitches for Hudson Valley.
• Drew Thorpe allowed one hit -- a single leading off the second inning -- over eight shutout innings against Aberdeen last Sunday for his fourth win of the season. He struck out seven, improving to 4-1 on the year with a 3.31 ERA at Hi-A Hudson Valley. Named South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week last week, Thorpe is the first pitcher for Hudson Valley to pitch eight scoreless frames in 15 years and is one of only three pitchers in all of Minor League Baseball this season to throw 8.0 shutout innings in a start.
• Mark Mathias is with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the second time this season, called up last Friday. On Monday against Oakland, Mathias singled, walked twice, stole two bases and scored twice. He is hitting .267 in 18 games with the Pirates after compiling a .294 mark at Triple-A Indianapolis.
• Alex McKenna has lifted his average 45 points to .276 at Sugar Land, going 7-for-19 (.368) with two RBIs and a five-game hitting streak, snapping a 1-for-15 slump.
• Andrew Alvarez is 3-1 with a 3.29 ERA at Hi-A Wilmington after tossing four scoreless innings in relief for the victory June 1 against Asheville.
• Jason Franks has not allowed a run in his last five stints (6 1/3 innings) on the mound at Lo-A Augusta, lowering his ERA from 10.80 to 6.61.
• Nick Torres, who hit .382 in May for the Laguna Vaqueros in the Mexican League, is off to a .391 start in June, going 9-for-23 in five games with four straight two-hit games, a pair of home runs and six RBIs. Hitting .347 to date, Torres is 10th in the league in hits and home runs, 15th in RBIs and 19th in doubles.
Cal Poly has six players on 40-man Major League rosters -- Mitch Haniger (Giants), Mathias (Pirates), Howard (Rangers), Woo (Mariners), Justin Bruihl (Dodgers) and Erich Uelmen (Phillies), who has pitched one game in relief for Philadelphia this season and is back at Lehigh Valley on the seven-day Injured List.
Mustangs in Triple-A include Torres (Laguna), McKenna (Sugar Land), Uelmen (Lehigh Valley), Nick Meyer (Syracuse) and Taylor Dollard (Tacoma). Those in Double-A are Lee (Wichita) and Bradlee Beesley (Tennessee).
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• Bryan Woo's Major League debut with the Seattle Mariners last Saturday didn't go as planned, but he will get another chance Saturday night in Anaheim.
