Twins remain optimistic about red-hot Royce Lewis, who’s homered 7 times since demotion (original) (raw)

MINNEAPOLIS — They love what Royce Lewis is showing them; the Minnesota Twins simply want to see more.

Two weeks after he looked lost enough at the plate to merit a demotion to Triple-A St. Paul, Lewis is doing everything the Twins could wish for. The hope was that by moving to the low-pressure environment of Triple A, Lewis would forget about his dismal start to the season and begin implementing swing changes without worrying about results.

Not only is Lewis making more contact at Triple A, but he easily looks more comfortable at the plate and is smacking the ball all over the ballpark. While the Twins were knocking off the Chicago White Sox 6-4 across town at Target Field on Tuesday night, Lewis went deep twice more in St. Paul, his sixth and seventh homers in 10 games with the Saints.

Including Tuesday’s numbers, Lewis is batting .341/.388/.927 with three doubles and 14 RBIs in 46 plate appearances since being sent down. Now that he’s performing, the Twins want to see him continue to prove he’s ready to return to the majors.

“He’s gone down there, he’s worked, and he’s had good at-bats,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “A lot of times, the initial perception is when you send someone down like you’re down on them. … The best version of us is with Royce Lewis in our lineup. I’m pleased with what he’s doing. He needs to continue to build off it.”

When the Twins decided to send him to St. Paul, Lewis looked nothing like his peak self. Less than three years ago, Lewis starred when healthy during the 2023 season, including an amazing postseason showing.

Though he’d struggled over the past two seasons, nothing was on this level.

Before his April injury list stint, Lewis owned a healthy career 21.4 percent strikeout rate. After he returned, Lewis struck out 25 times in 74 trips to the plate (33.7 percent).

Lewis looked particularly lost in his final game May 17, offering at 14 of the 15 pitches he saw, including two fouled-off bunt attempts. He struck out three times in three trips before the Twins pinch hit for him.

Overall, Lewis is batting .163/.261/.279 with three homers in 31 big-league games this season.

Though the reason for their struggles was different, Lewis’ poor play was reminiscent of a 2018 slump that resulted in a Miguel Sanó demotion to Single-A Fort Myers. After breaking his leg late in the 2017 season, Sanó required surgery and was physically incapable. He was sent to Fort Myers essentially to take part in a physical overhaul and to rediscover his swing.

Whereas Sanó’s struggles were physical, Lewis’ seemed more of the mental variety.

But given how much both played in the big leagues before an in-season demotion, The Athletic contacted Sanó’s manager, Paul Molitor, last month for his take. Back in 2018, Molitor said demoting Sanó was one of the most difficult decisions of his career.

“You’re trying to think about your team and what’s best and fair to the other players in terms of putting your best look out there to try to win,” Molitor said. “And you’re also mindful of the player, especially when they’re talented and they’re good people. … You don’t get much better than Royce Lewis as far as the attitude, the energy he can bring. But you could feel that this was starting to get to that point where something had to be done. You couldn’t keep going one way or the other.”

Molitor’s bench coach at the time, Shelton remembers the gravity of the moment in June 2018. One of the faces of the franchise, Sanó finished third in Rookie of the Year voting in 2015 and was an All-Star in 2017.

Though he struggled the remainder of the 2018 season, Sanó blasted 34 homers and finished the season with a .923 OPS for the 2019 squad, Shelton pointed out.

“It was a big moment, but I think if you go back and look at 2019, at that point, it was the best thing for Miguel Sanó,” Shelton said. “Obviously, that’s why we made that decision.”

Having seen Lewis struggle, Molitor wasn’t surprised by the timing of the Twins’ decision. Lewis’ bunting twice for a single May 17 stood out.

“Not that it was a horrible play, but it’s just not something you would see him do when he was in the right frame of mind,” Molitor said. “When you know what your numbers are, that people are talking, you force things. You don’t let the game come to you. … It’s kind of a crossroads for Royce as it was for Miguel.”

Same as the Twins’ current brain trust, Molitor expressed faith Lewis can recover.

“I’m not going to go into any prediction or guarantees or what his career path is going to look like,” Molitor said. “But I would be willing to wager that it’s going to work out for him eventually. I’d be on the side of the optimism.”

After his demotion, Lewis took two days off before reporting to St. Paul on May 21. In that window, Lewis identified areas of his swing he wanted to get back to and emphasized it to the Twins.

On the first pitch of his assignment, Lewis ripped a 91 mph cutter from Omaha’s Mitch Spence for a home run. He hasn’t slowed down, ripping laser after laser across the minor leagues.

On Tuesday, Lewis ripped a 95 mph fastball for a solo homer in his second at-bat, a 114.1 mph laser off the bat. He flied out to the fence in center in his third at-bat (103.4 mph exit velocity) before later homering again.

On Thursday, Lewis homered and doubled, the latter coming off his bat at 115.7 mph, the fastest exit velo of his career.

As the social media clips have begun to compile, Twins teammates can’t help but notice Lewis’ success. They see Lewis hitting some of the same pitches he missed a few weeks ago. Yes, there’s a big gap between Triple-A pitching and the big leagues. Still, it’s not hard to see that Lewis seems freer and easier and capable of getting into his swing. Through 46 plate appearances, Lewis has struck out only 10 times, good for 21.7 percent.

The Twins love what they’re seeing. They just want to see it continue.

“It’s been really encouraging to see him go down and get a reset,” general manager Jeremy Zoll said. “I do think it was good for him to take a couple of days for a breather. He had some really productive conversations in a host of different directions internally and externally. He came in ready to go. If you look at the quality of swings and some of the swings he’s put on the ball on homers and other damage he’s doing, I think there are some really positive strides and improvement there.”