The Minnesota Twins’ week has been oddly bittersweet. It was virtually confirmed late on Sunday night that Royce Lewis would be making his victorious comeback to the starting lineup, and Tuesday’s announcement rung true in almost every aspect.

The revelation that Lewis would eventually return came with a catch: Edouard Julien would be moved to Triple-A St. Paul to free up roster space. Lewis reached base three times, including on a solo home run, but Minnesota lost 5-1 in his first game back, which added even more conflicting feelings to the week.

Even while it made some sense after taking a step back, Julien losing his roster spot came as a bit of a surprise.

Although he wasn’t having the finest season by any means, he wasn’t the worst hitter in the clubhouse and his defense was improving. Nevertheless, he was the least effective of the young Twins players currently on the field, so a trip to St. Paul could be beneficial for him.

All season long, Julien has had difficulty maintaining consistency. While he has had moments, he also leads the league in hits and non-swinging strikeouts.182 during his last seven days on the club, and he finished the last 16 games at 5-for-38.

None of that, in Rocco Baldelli’s words, made the choice to demote him any simpler.

Rocco Baldelli acknowledges that the Twins’ choice to demote Edouard Julien wasn’t an easy one.

Baldelli discussed the choice to send Julien down to Triple-A before to Lewis’s reintroduction on Tuesday. Though he made sure to emphasize that nothing about the choice was taken lightly, he did allude to certain positive aspects of the scenario that others had brought up.

Baldelli remarked, “[The decision was] hard because there was actual conversation to be had, but it also ended up becoming evident that that was the appropriate one for this time, out of all the possible decisions that you can make.”

Sending Julien down has an upside that goes beyond what it might do for him in the long haul this season: it shows how good the Twins’ young core is right now. Trevor Larnach and Jose Miranda had appeared to be played out of significant positions, but they have rediscovered a groove that has made them indispensable members of the team.

The most impressive performance came from Miranda, who virtually erased the bad performance from the previous season and brought back the magic he had in 2022. Miranda is slashing.280/.311/.469 and has already doubled his home run total from a year ago after hitting.211/.263/.303 with a.566 OPS.

After Matt Wallner ousted him from a position during the previous season, Larnach took over and has flourished. With an OPS of.870, he is hitting.270 so far this season and, depending on the situation, can play both DH and outfield platoon.

Even while Alex Kirilloff isn’t performing as well as Miranda and Larnach are, he has made tremendous progress from his injury-plagued and inconsistent play in the previous season. All of this is to imply that Julien’s demotion has less to do with his own shortcomings than it does with the fact that everyone else in his bracket is performing significantly better.

Without a doubt, Julien will be able to rekindle his attacking magic in St. Paul, which will only serve to highlight the strength of Minnesota’s young movement.