A song by musician and baseball writer Davy Andrews poses a question for the 2024 Major League Baseball season. The song is titled “Edouard Julien, Are You Gonna Rule Again?”

If spring training was any indication, the answer will be yes.

In 14 Grapefruit League games, the second baseman has a .313 batting average, .436 on-base average and .531 slugging percentage. He has eight runs, one double, two home runs, six RBIs, one stolen base and six walks.

Andrews based “Edouard Julien, Are You Gonna Rule Again” on the Wckr Spgt song “Francis Mitterrand” after Julien’s first MLB season with the Minnesota Twins.

Julien joined Minnesota’s system as an 18th-round draft choice from Auburn in 2019. He had broken Frank Thomas’ school record for RBI by a freshman with 69 in 2018.

Julien batted .263 with a .381 on-base average and .459 slugging percentage for the Twins in 2023, when he hit 16 home runs and walked 64 times in 408 plate appearances. He also homered in the American League Division Series against the Houston Astros.

Julien finished seventh in the voting for the American League Rookie of the Year Award.

The left-handed hitter was mainly a platoon player in 2023, when he hit .274 with 16 home runs in 360 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers and .196 with no home runs in 48 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers.

Julien said his offseason work emphasized improving his performance against left-handed hurlers.

“For sure this offseason I worked a lot on being able to hit lefties,” Julien said. “That was the main focus for me, so I did a lot of it. Lefty angles, I faced a lot of lefty BP throwers. I was just trying to expose myself to that angle.

“But in general, I don’t think I’m going to change my approach. I don’t think I’m going to change the way I approach the pitchers.”

As a rookie, Julien started 66 games at second base, 25 at designated hitter and two at first base. While he made only two errors at second base, Julien’s range at the position left something to be desired.

“I don’t want to be an average player,” Julien said. “I want to be the best at my position, and I’ve put in so much work and taken so much pride in it that it’s been my main focus every day. The goal is to win a Gold Glove and take small steps toward that every day.”

Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said Julien’s work had been evident during spring training.

“He was not originally an exceptional second baseman,” Baldelli said. “But he’s worked himself into being a guy that can play Major League second base, and that’s taken a lot of work on his end. And he continues to put in that work to this day. …

“Eddy’s done a really tremendous job of establishing himself at the Major League level. He did it very quickly, and he did it in all the right ways.”

The Twins open the 2024 season against the Kansas City Royals at 3:10 p.m. CDT Thursday at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.

Minnesota won the American League Central in 2023 with an 87-75 record. The Twins swept the Toronto Blue Jays in a best-of-three wild-card series before falling to the Astros in four games in a best-of-five divisional series.

“I think we showed to ourselves that we were able to win in the playoffs and we were able to compete with all the best teams in the league,” Julien said. “We have a similar group of guys that are coming back and the key players are all coming back, so that’s going to be fun to see. …

“I think that’s the main goal: Just to go out there, work hard, compete, and good things are going to happen because we have so many good players that there’s no reason why we wouldn’t be able to win.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.