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Minnesota Twins Worried About Overwhelming Royce Lewis Again
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- Minnesota Twins Worried About Overwhelming Royce Lewis Again
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This weekend is the annual "Twinsfest" celebration at Target Field, which always signals the start of a new season . As we inch closer and closer to another Minnesota Twins spring training, news and rumors surrounding our favorite baseball team are becoming more and more frequent.
But, assuming our 'cash-strapped' Twins keep the core of last summer's band together (Correa, Buxton, P. Lopez), most spring training question marks over the next handful of weeks will surround key youngsters who Baldelli & Co. need to see blossom this season.
Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images
The most important young player within that group is probably Royce Lewis, who's looking to rebound after a very difficult end to 2024. How will the Minnesota Twins handle their young star, after he crumbled down the stretch both mentally and physically fall?
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Minnesota Twins worried about overwhelming Royce Lewis
According to what SKOR North's Declan "Dex" Goff — who's been working the Twins' home beat for a few years now — revealed on the Mackey & Judd show lat this week, Minnesota coaches and executives are being very careful not to "overwhelm"Royce Lewis again in 2025.
Per Dex, manager Rocco Baldelli and president Derek Falvey are focused on "empowering"the 25-year-old former No. 1 overall pick. The Twins insider repeats "overwhelm" and "empower" over and over again, likely meaning that Twins officials possibly Royce himself are in Declan's ear pushing those two words specifically.
Mackey: "For both Doogie and Dex here, on Royce Lewis. The vibes were weird in the second half of the season…He's this incredible talent who's dealt with injuries and some frustration. Now that he's had a few months in the offseason…where do we think we are with Royce Lewis [with] spring training coming up in a few weeks."
Dex : "I think they for sure want to empower him. It was a tumultuous end to the season. Royce was on the record of displeasures, whether it came to moving to 2B…I remember talking to him after the deadline [and] he wasn't too pleased either with the lack of acquisitions. It feels like the Twins, and I think this starts with Rocco…they want to empower Royce and they don't want to overwhelm Royce Lewis."
Trying to fix Royce Lewis should be a top priority for the Minnesota Twins this season. Last year served as a reality check for the young slugger who, at the begging of the year told reporters that he 'doesn't do the slump thing'. Then, he slumped for the entire second half of the 2024 season, finishing with a dissatisfying .233 BA and .295 OBP, in only 82 games played.
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Nobody needed the end of last season more than Lewis, who was even bickering with Carlos Correa through media last September. Given the report above, I expect we will see a much different Royce when the Minnesota Twins report for Spring Training.
Not so fast on Royce Lewis moving to 2nd base…
But that doesn't mean we will see him playing a different position. Royce Lewis is not the defender that Brooks Lee is and it could be argued Jose Miranda is better defensively too. That has led to chatter surrounding a possible move to 2nd base, which he did not want to do at the end of last season.
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While we will probably still see Lewis get innings at 2nd base, per Dex and local insider Darren Wolfson (KSTP) sounds like most of his time in the lineup will still be written in at 3rd base. Not because that's what is necessarily best for the team, but because the Minnesota Twins are worried that the stress of a position change could be too much for him to handle.
Dex : "This whole second base plan that they could mix him in, I actually feel it might be Royce Lewis as more of your opening day third baseman, and maybe he spells at second occasionally. But I think they want to make sure they're empowering him first, before worrying about anything else when it comes to moving him to a new position, [etc]…they really want to empower him so they don't overwhelm him and have a situation like last year happen again"
Wolfson : "I would agree. I was with Rocco for about an hour on Wednesday. We sat down on camera for a bit, for a TV piece that will air Sunday night here in the Twin Cities on Channel 5 (ABC-KSTP). He made it clear to me Royce is taking more reps at third base this winter, compared to second base. Yes, he is taking some second base reps, [and] yes he'll take some second base reps during spring training…but Rocco was very clear that he's getting more reps right now at third base."
The Twins front office is reportedly trying to make moves, even though they have no money to spend. As of now, there is no motivation to trade any of their best players, but they do continue to get calls on stars like Carlos Correa and Pablo Lopez. The expectation is that this is largely the Minnesota Twins team we'll enter April with.
Minnesota Twins relying on youngsters in 2025
In the starting rotation, that means a few of Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Simeon Woods-Richardson and David Festa take the next step in their MLB development. Young relievers like Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran need to once again prove themselves as locks at the back of any bullpen.
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Meanwhile, position players like Brooks Lee, Matt Wallner, Jose Miranda, Eddie Julien, Trevor Larnach and — probably most importantly — Royce Lewis need to show they can remain healthy and productive through most of a 162 game season.
Royce just wants to know what the plan is [for him on defense], right? When he was thrown into second base middle of the season, or end of the season — that game in Tampa. That came as a bit of a shock to Royce. Royce likes to prepare a ton so he will get second base reps in Fort Myers.
Royce Lewis, when he has been healthy, has never failed. He just hasn't, but he finally did. It was an emotional roller coaster for Royce, [who's had] many conversations with the team sports psychologist, right, like the mental side of the game really beat up Royce. So I think there's still some rehabbing that needs to take place with his mental makeup, just so he isn't quite the rollercoaster that he was last year.
Of course, the most likely outcome is somewhere in the middle. We see a chunk of these youngsters take that next step, while others trip. But for the 2025 Twins, they must see more of these 20-something talents take positive steps in their development, than not. Otherwise, it could be a very long summer at Target Field…
