Edouard Julien called a major league hitter by Rocco Baldelli

Edouard Julien had just doubled in a run in the top of the third inning on Tuesday when Class AAA St. Paul manager Toby Gardenhire called the team together for a huddle in the dugout.

"And he asked me to explain to my teammates what I saw on the pitcher because I hit a double my at-bat before," Julien said. "He was asking what I saw on the pitcher. I told the team what I saw and he told me I was missing something. I said I didn't know what I was missing and he said 'You're going to the big leagues.' Everybody started screaming and throwing water. It was a great moment."

Julien, 23, started at second base on Wednesday as the Twins faced the White Sox in the final game of a three-game series. He went 0-for-2 with a walk.

Julien was batting .290 for St. Paul at the time of the callup. Julien hit .300 last season with 17 home runs and 67 RBI at Class AA Wichita. Then he was named breakout player of the year at the Arizona Fall League after batting .400 in 21 games with five homers and 17 RBI. After that, he played for Canada in the World Baseball Classic.

All of this positioned himself at 97th on Baseball America's Top 100 prospects list. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli knew Julien was a major league hitter when he saw him during spring training.

"His bat might have been ready for the majors a little while ago," Baldelli said. "It very well could have been. For other reasons, you're not going to sometimes go to a guy if he has other things that he has to spend time on and work on. But for a young player, for a minor league player that doesn't have experience here, he's probably got about as good of a bat as you're going to see.

"There's not too many minor league hitters that have done what he's been able to do."

It's unclear how long Julien will be with the Twins, especially as some injured players get healthy. It's a lot to ask of a prospect, but the Twins feel Julien is ready to hit in the majors.

"The plan is to get him in the lineup, and get him out there and get him going," Baldelli said. "He's a really good hitter and he's a guy that I think can have an effect here, even though he's a young guy."

Julien took a 6:55 a.m. flight out of Indianapolis to the Twin Cities. His parents, sister and two of his high school coaches were in town for his debut.

Twins outfielder Joey Gallo, who was placed on the injured list Wednesday because of a right intercostal strain, is joining Saints during their road series in Indianapolis.

"It's not like it's hurting and they're going to put me on the DL; they need a spot, quite frankly," said Gallo, batting .278 with three homers seven RBI. and "also just to get some live ABs and some game time before I get put back into big league games."

Gallo said he initially felt discomfort during the series in Miami and tried to play through it. But it got to the point where it was affecting his swing. The decision was made then to rest him for a few games to see if that would work. When it didn't, it was time for a trip to the IL.

The move was made retroactive to April 8, meaning Gallo could be activated in time for the Twins' series in Boston next week.

"Well, he's feeling good. He's not 100 percent," Baldelli said. "We're dealing with a muscle injury. I don't know if that's considered core or back, but there are certain injuries that you can probably just push through and still deal with a little bit of soreness when you come back and kind of ramp up and be better and 100 percent in a week or so and play through it. But this isn't one of those."

Sonny Gray began the day by throwing up. There's a bug that has been moving through the Twins clubhouse and, Baldelli said, Gray was among the ones affected by it the most.

Gray managed five scoreless innings on 78 pitches before leaving the game. He lowered his ERA to 0.53.

Bailey Ober pitched six shutout innings as the St. Paul Saints beat host Indianapolis 5-1.

Ober gave up only two hits and struck out six. He retired the first 10 batters he faced.

Andrew Bechtold and Andrew Stevenson each hit two-run homers for the Saints in the fourth and seventh innings, respectively.