Twins' rookie trio of Royce Lewis, Matt Wallner and Edouard Julien impress with key contributions

When Carlos Correa thought about the dynamic inside the Twins clubhouse, and the contributions of rookie position players Royce Lewis, Matt Wallner and Edouard Julien, it reminded him of his first seasons with the Astros.

Correa debuted at 20 years old and turned into the everyday shortstop for the Astros. Alex Bregman gave a jolt to the lineup from his first stint in the big leagues. Lance McCullers broke into the majors at 21 and became a key part of the Houston rotation.

"You have me, Bregman, McCullers and all those guys coming in and just shaping the team and the holes that they had. I see that here with Julien, Wallner, Royce," Correa said. "It's just players that are going to be stars in this game for a long time and they're stepping up their rookie year."

One reason why the Twins offense has taken a leap forward since the All-Star break is the impact of their rookies. Lewis missed three months because of injuries. Wallner had an extended wait at Class AAA. Julien didn't become a lineup regular until June. Now they are all contributing.

It's one thing to make an early impression. The league learns about a player and exploits weaknesses. Where the Twins' rookie trio has excelled is they all continued to improve.

"Every young guy is different than my era when I came up," said Donovan Solano, who debuted with the Marlins in 2012. "You see young guys hitting 450-foot homers. In my era, you don't see something like that. It's almost the same way you see pitchers throw 95-plus normally. You see it all around baseball. I think that's how those guys train before coming here, before they are drafted. They take advantage of technology to get better."

Lewis, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft, is a natural athlete and has a knack for making mid-swing adjustments. He looks at replays and realizes he takes a higher leg kick on certain pitches and sometimes he alters his batting stance.

Lewis has a .305 batting average through 52 career games. This is the same guy who missed two seasons because of knee injuries and he barely spent any time in the upper minor leagues.

"Honestly, every single day, every year, I feel like I always grow and get better with reps," the 24-year-old Lewis said. "I missed out on a ton of reps via injury and not playing a ton other than just high school."

Wallner, the Forest Lake native, reached the major leagues with a scouting report of big power and a big outfield arm.

He's capable of making throws above 100 miles per hour from the outfield, but the Twins wanted him to work on releasing the ball quicker. Every split-second is an advantage when it comes to throwing out runners.

"The next throw was immediately faster," manager Rocco Baldelli marveled. "I've seen guys that take that suggestion and they play for 10 more years, and they've never sped it up."

"He looks like a new guy from when we first saw him," Baldelli said. "He makes great mental adjustments."

Julien won't be a standout defender, but he has improved throughout the season as a second baseman. From the minor leagues, he had a reputation that he will put in the work to shore up weaknesses. Offensively, he has turned himself into a quality leadoff hitter and improved his on-base percentage in the second half of the season despite playing through nagging hamstring pain.