FORT MYERS, FlA. >> For three days this past December, Edouard Julien played tour guide, showing new hitting coach Matt Borgschulte around his hometown of Qúebec City.

They walked around and saw some of the city’s highlights. Julien took him to a nice restaurant downtown, where they had French onion soup, braised beef and cheeks.

“I made him try a lot of things,” Julien said. “And he got a poutine.”

When they weren’t enjoying some down time together, they were working. After a breakout rookie season, Julien was unable to replicate his success in his sophomore campaign. His offseason was focused on fixing his swing in an attempt to get back to where he was.

“At the end of the year last year, I think my swing was a little messed up,” he said, noting that he is now more square as opposed to last year. “I wasn’t able to adjust to certain pitches and I wasn’t able to hit stuff early, in front, and that’s what I worked on (for) the most part, just to be more through the zone and longer through the zone.”

Julien began the year as the Twins’ starting second baseman but a couple months into the season found himself back in Triple-A, trying to figure things out. He bounced back and forth between the majors and minors, finishing the season hitting .199 with a .616 OPS and eight home runs in 94 major league games played.

His 74 OPS+ (100 is league average) was far off the impressive 130 that he put up a season earlier. As a rookie, Julien hit .263 with a .381 on-base percentage. He hit 16 home runs in 109 games, scored 60 runs and finished seventh in Rookie of the Year voting.

After that year, the lefty, who slashed .274/.401/.497 against righties (360 plate appearances) and just .196/.226/.217 (48 PAs) against lefties, said he worked on hitting southpaws better.

He accomplished what he was trying to, he said, but it was a net negative for him — he believes he was much worse against righties because of it and he hardly ever faced lefties anyways.

“I was really focused on getting better against lefties but obviously here, lefties don’t get a chance to face lefties, so I kind of messed my swing up,” he said. “I was more rotated just to be able to face lefties. … It wasn’t a good combo. This year I just focused on the righty angle, righty curveball, righty sliders, so I feel good and I’m sure it’s going to help me against lefties, too.”

Julien wound up striking out 102 times in just 301 plate appearances (33.8 percent). Many of them wound up being looking (47), where he was tied for 16th in the league, despite playing in less than 100 major league games.

That, he said, wasn’t about his mindset, but rather that he was “so stuck” on his backside that he couldn’t react.

“I think the main focus for him is just kind of freeing himself up, relaxing a little bit in terms of getting some space with his hands away from his body and kind of relaxing his shoulders, just letting his body work a little bit so he can be more adjustable to offspeed pitches whenever they come but still have the ability to get to fastballs,” Borgschulte said.

While he feels good about the changes he’s made, Julien still knows he’s going to have to earn his spot on the team. And that’s something he’s embracing after coming to camp last year essentially guaranteed a spot on the team.

“You kind of get back into trying to prove everybody wrong,” he said. “You try to prove that you’re the player that you are, right? That you have your chance, that you have your space here and your spot here. And that’s what I’m going to be playing like, like a chip on my shoulder, like I’ve always been, instead of just being comfortable. Now, more aggressive and I want to stay here.”