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Young Minnesota Twins Star Down on His Luck and Confidence
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- Young Minnesota Twins Star Down on His Luck and Confidence
Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images
The 30-25 Minnesota Twins have lost four of their last five games, following a recent 13-game winning streak . Oh, the ebbs and flows of an MLB season. For the past handful of games they have been without Byron Buxton .
Before that, they missed Carlos Correa . Both were injured in the same collision . Before those injuries, Matt Wallner hit the shelf. But even prior to all of those middle of the lineup bats ran into the injury monster, it was Royce Lewis who strained his hamstring running down the first baseline during Spring Training.
Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images
Thankfully, the Minnesota Twins continue to get healthier. Correa has been back for about a week, Buxton is expected back on Friday, in Seattle , and Matt Wallner is mashing baseballs down on the farm while he waits for his reactivation to the 26-man roster.
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Royce Lewis struggling to hit for Minnesota Twins
Royce Lewis, who the Twins crowned as their third baseman early this spring, has been back for 19 games now. While his defense has certainly improved since the last time we saw him in 2024, his offense has yet to make its 2025 debut. Entering Friday, Lewis has a .415 OPS, slashing .138/.200/.215 with 1 HR, 3 RBI, 5 BB and 10 SO.
Royce Lewis said Abner Uribe 's sinker was the best pitch he's seen this season. "That was crazy." pic.twitter.com/t9oMVE1qWR
— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr) May 18, 2025
No doubt, hitting has been a challenge for Lewis, since returning to the middle of the Minnesota Twins lineup. He revealed to reporters on Wednesday that he's now in his head a bit, tinkering daily in and out of tweaks he's been working on with his swing mechanics… which is not showing positively.
Not only do his numbers and nightly tweaks give away Lewis' current lack of confidence… but so did the quotes he gave Aaron Gleeman (The Athletic) the other night, where he openly admitted that he is feeling hopeless at the plate. That even when he hits the ball hard, it is going to find a glove.
"I'm at a point where the hope is gone. I just do my job as best as I can. If I keep hitting the ball hard, they say it's going to find a hole, but I haven't seen it yet."
"Feels like a Wiffle ball game right now truly, because you know how the Wiffle ball stays up? That's what my ball feels like. I'm hitting it. It feels good and it's just staying up a little bit. Hopefully, I can produce for the team soon."
The first 70 games of Royce Lewis' Minnesota Twins career culminated in a .307/.364/.549 slash line with 17 home runs. It was around that point when the young star began feeling himself a little bit, telling reporters "I don't do that slump thing, that's not a real thing for me. I understand that that's a thing and baseball is going to go in a slump or whatever, but for me I don't have that mindset. Each day is a new day."
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Then, Royce Lewis went on to slump hard down the stretch last season, and in part due to his latest stint on the injured list, he has yet to pull out of it. Mentally, he sounds like a shell of the confident kid who "didn't do that slump thing" this time last year.
Royce wasn't indicating, at the time, that the game can't humble him, or that he is above having a slump. More so, he was referring to his mindset, and how baseball is a marathon, not a sprint. Either way, his quotes from back then are a far cry from the hopelessness he is portraying now.
Lewis sounds defeated
Lewis' comments come with something of a defeated tone. The results aren't exactly heartwarming either. His 25.5% hard-hit rate is a career-low. His 32.7% pull rate is a career-low. Although his averaged exit velocity (89.9 mph) is up from 2024 (87.1 mph) his max exit-velocity has dropped from 111.6 mph to 109.5 mph.
royce lewis is now 0-for-20 in his last 21 plate appearances
looks like he's trying to change things up with an upright open stance https://t.co/edcjstks4G pic.twitter.com/MggeGh5Fxh— parker hageman (@HagemanParker) May 28, 2025
Lewis has been solid at third base this season, and his defensive improvements are worth noting . That's part of what makes his complete cliff dive at the plate so frustrating. The Minnesota Twins could have the most complete version of Royce Lewis yet, if his bat was anywhere near where we are used to seeing it.
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Related: Royce Lewis is Back and Better Than Ever… on Defense
Royce Lewis at 25 years old is a different baseball player than Lewis was at 23. Once a speedster who ran a 28.4 ft/sec sprint speed (78th percentile), his capabilities on the basepaths have fallen off even faster than what we have seen at the plate. Lewis' current 25.3 ft/sec now ranks in the 11th percentile.
