The Minnesota Twins have suffered their share of injuries this season. Nonetheless, the Twins are a confident team. That confidence has been boosted by the return of hot-hitting third baseman Royce Lewis. The multifaceted third-year player has left a mark on and off the field season.
During a postgame interview on Friday, Lewis arrived late and apologized to the assembled reporters for his delay, which he said was due to the MLB continually drug testing him. Lewis then added the excellent line, “All they’re going to find in these veins is ice cream, bro,” per MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park on X.
The Twins’ first-overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft has been excellent when healthy enough to play. Lewis has a career slash line of .301/.362/.588 with a .950 OPS. Unfortunately a string of injuries has limited the talented infielder to just 101 games over his first three years in the majors.
This season, he missed a long stretch after landing on the injured list in late March with a strained quadriceps. After returning, Lewis hit the 10-day injured list on July 3 with a right adductor strain, which cost him nearly a month of action.
The Twins’ Royce Lewis produces offensive production and jokes
In his stead the Twins called up fellow first-round draft pick Brooks Lee who went eighth-overall in the 2022 draft. While Lee found some early success he has struggled of late, slumping to a .621 OPS in 23 games this season.
For his part, Lewis has announced a plan to deal with his troubling injury history with the hope of staying on the field. The Twins certainly hope he can remain healthy. This season, the 25-year-old has 12 home runs, 25 RBI, a 1.036 OPS, an OPS+ of 182 and 1.5 WAR in just 31 games.
When healthy, the Twins boast one of the best offensive infields in baseball. Lewis, Jose Miranda and Carlos Correa can all hit. The trouble has been keeping them all healthy. Lewis and Miranda recently returned from IL stints and the Twins are still without their star shortstop Correa who’s on the 10-day injured list.
So far this season, 38-year-old veteran first baseman Carlos Santana is actually second on the Twins in games played with 101. He’s behind only utility man Willi Castro who’s logged 107 games for Minnesota in 2024.
The Twins are going to need to return to full power and be able to rely on Lewis down the stretch as the team is in the thick of a playoff race. Minnesota is 6.5 games behind the first-place Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central and they currently hold a two-game lead over the Boston Red Sox for the third American League Wild Card berth.
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