Royce Lewis Got to Levitating

[Parker Hageman]

To obliterate an obdurate futility state, sometimes you have to elevate and celebrate. The Twins' top celebrity brought the levity by leveraging some vicious rotation in the exercise of his frustration. 

Image courtesy of © Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports

When you think about it, Royce Lewis's 2023 season is pretty crazy.

After spending months on the mend from a second ACL surgery, in his first game back with the Twins in Houston, he shot a screamer into the right-field corner for a home run. He would hit 14 more over the subsequent 237 plate appearances in that regular season. He then added another homer in his first-ever postseason at-bat. In his second postseason at-bat, he did it again. He would tack on two more to his postseason résumé before the Twins were through. 

We shouldn't be surprised by any of this. After all, the man started his professional career with a no-doubter in the backfields of Florida in his first-ever paid at bat. 

ICYMI: @Twins No. 1 overall pick Royce Lewis homered in his first pro at-bat

STORY: https://t.co/Csb2RNHTec pic.twitter.com/DrnxTR6Cls

— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) June 27, 2017

Lewis's hit tool was always a strength. But this season, we may have seen it go from hitterish to full-out lethal. Consider this: If the season lasted from only August 15 to its usual conclusion, Royce Lewis's .607 slugging average would have been the 16th-highest in baseball, better than Shohei Ohtani's .603.

Ohtani, the owner of a new MVP trophy to polish, will soon receive a contract equivalent to a small island nation's GDP this offseason. (Seriously, the GDP of São Tomé and Príncipe, an island nation off the western coast of central Africa, was $526.7 million in the most recent report That’s your over/under.) Conversely, Lewis will clear around $770,000 in 2024 and live in a state with a brand-new flag. While the two players aren’t similar (yet) in terms of their off-field clout, they were highly similar in the power department for a glorious month-and-a-half. 

We can create just about any narrative, when we carve out small sample sizes. The takeaway is that after Lewis returned from his oblique injury, he was a monster, and more than small-sample-size flukiness may be involved.

When Lewis was sidelined with an oblique injury, he worked his way back with the Saints. One might expect a player recovering from that type of injury to be protective, opting not to apply as much torque or withhold force to avoid aggravating the area. Rotation—the primary action of a swing—can easily make such injuries worse. If Lewis was trying to take it easy, though, no one could tell.

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[tarheeltwinsfan]

Fascinating article. Thanks Parker.

[Dave Borton]

Excellent writing with data sets to back it up.

[rv78]

This is the guy you build a team around. .300 hitters with the potential power of 40-50 HR's a year don't come around very often. Thank goodness that both of Correa's and Buxtons contracts come off the books the year he becomes a Free Agent. 2029. Their going to need that money to keep him.

[tony&rodney]

Twins fans waited a few years for Lewis to arrive. The two ACL setbacks and growing pains in the minor leagues created fairly low expectations for what Lewis could accomplish in 2023. Then Lewis blew through and left a fan base energized by his personality and home runs. Folks have elevated Royce Lewis to a status that often follows a #1-1 MLB draft choice and he is now seen as the star of the team by many. We have now arrived at the point where Lewis needs to perform to expectations.

 

[strumdatjag]

1 hour ago, rv78 said:

This is the guy you build a team around. .300 hitters with the potential power of 40-50 HR's a year don't come around very often. Thank goodness that both of Correa's and Buxtons contracts come off the books the year he becomes a Free Agent. 2029. Their going to need that money to keep him.

The Twins should try to extend Royce long before that contract is about to expire.  

[Muppet]

No more rhyming now, I mean it. 

But we must always remember to hold our breath when looking at our rookie phenoms lest they come down with Matt Nokes' syndrome. This will be the year to tell. If he, and the others, stay hot and/or improve. 2024 will be a good year, regardless of who the new hot pitcher will be. 

 

[rv78]

1 hour ago, strumdatjag said:

The Twins should try to extend Royce long before that contract is about to expire.  

I agree. But having $50M come off the books in 2029 to help finance that extension will matter when and if they get that done.

[Dave Borton]

2 hours ago, rv78 said:

I agree. But having $50M come off the books in 2029 to help finance that extension will matter when and if they get that done.

Clubs are building accelerated contracts to coincide with other contracts coming off. As an example, you could build a contract extension for Lewis which starts at $2MM/yr, goes to $4MM next year, $8MM 3rd yr, etc., with any accelerator you need to get to total contract amount needed based to reach the mutual amount.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

3 hours ago, Muppet said:

No more rhyming now, I mean it. 

But we must always remember to hold our breath when looking at our rookie phenoms lest they come down with Matt Nokes' syndrome. This will be the year to tell. If he, and the others, stay hot and/or improve. 2024 will be a good year, regardless of who the new hot pitcher will be. 

 

Anybody want a peanut?

[Fatbat]

12 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Twins fans waited a few years for Lewis to arrive. 

[Fatbat]

^ffs…..Kirby P. would be proud of Royce. 

[tony&rodney]

23 minutes ago, Fatbat said:

^ffs…..Kirby P. would be proud of Royce. 

???

[miracleb]

15 hours ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Anybody want a peanut?

Are you serious...do you mean it?