Royce Lewis is Making History Almost Every Time He Swings the Bat

[Ted Schwerzler]

When the Minnesota Twins drafted Royce Lewis with the first overall pick in 2017, they hoped that exactly this scenario would play out. No, not the injuries and missed time, but the one where he feels like history in each game he plays.

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

When the Minnesota Twins drafted Royce Lewis with the first overall pick in 2017, they hoped that exactly this scenario would play out. No, not the injuries and missed time, but the one where he feels like history in each game he plays.

For the past couple of years, Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has not been able to pencil Royce Lewis’s name into his lineup on a daily basis. When he has been able to do so, though, the superstar third baseman has almost always made a sizable impact.

Despite a humble attitude of being happy just to be a big-leaguer, Lewis is so much more. He has battled adversity, and dealt with multiple starts and stops throughout his career. Recently, he went through a 4-for-23 rehab assignment with Triple-A St. Paul that had some questioning what he would bring back to the lineup.

The answer has been per-game production that would rank among the greatest to ever play the game.

Through 14 games this season, Lewis already has eight home runs. He slugged one in each half of a doubleheader against the Oakland Athletics on Father’s Day, and another Wednesday night. He owns an otherworldly 1.339 OPS. Accumulating 1.4 fWAR to this point, he’s been the Twins' fourth-most productive hitter, despite missing most of the season to date.

To bring some perspective to just how impressive this run is, extrapolating numbers to a 162 game pace is jaw-dropping:

• 16.2 fWAR
• 93 home runs
• 23 doubles
• 139 RBI

The pace at which Lewis is making solid contact is staggering. It’s obviously unsustainable, but that doesn’t meant the percentages aren’t incredibly appealing to look at:

• 42.1% of hits have left the yard
• 16% of at bats have been home runs
• 14.0% of plate appearances have resulted in round trippers

For a player who took hitting grand slams to a new level last season, and elevated even further during an exciting postseason run, Lewis opened the 2024 season with a blast and picked right up where he left off when returning from injury. His 18.6% barrel rate is a career-high and it’s being propped up by a career-best 46.5% hard hit rate. He’s chasing (just under 29%) and whiffing (25.5%) at a manageable rate. Essentially forcing pitchers to play into his hands, he’s punishing them every chance he gets. His strikeout-to-walk ratio looked a bit problematic early last season, but this year, he has avoided strikeouts while adding walks. Dialed-in doesn’t even begin to describe where the 25-year-old is at right now.

A season ago, the Twins got Lewis for just 58 games after a late start. He’s played basically the same number of games this year as he did in 2022, before suffering a freak ACL tear. The only thing that has ever been able to hold him back at the highest level is injury. If he stays on the field just a bit more often, he's going to become one of the most unconventional MVP candidates in recent memory.

For all the twists and turns Lewis has taken to get to this point, the fun he is having right now (and results he is producing) are certainly making it all worth it.

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[Karbo]

I will enjoy watching this incredible hot streak he's on. At some point he will cool off, but for now its great to watch!

[LambchoP]

Nice to have Lewis, Correa and Buxton in their primes. Now if we can get some quality pitching we'll have a good shot at the playoffs:)

[mikelink45]

Please stay healthy, this is a true superstar and one I hope to follow for years.

[RpR]

Can Lewis get enough at bats to get the batting title?

[mnfireman]

14 minutes ago, RpR said:

Can Lewis get enough at bats to get the batting title?

Probably not, he needs 445 PA over the 89 remaining games; 5 PA/game. And Rocco seems to think Royce needs every third or fourth game off...

[jmlease1]

18 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

Probably not, he needs 445 PA over the 89 remaining games; 5 PA/game. And Rocco seems to think Royce needs every third or fourth game off...

Considering his injury history, it's probably not a bad idea to give him a little rest here and there.

It's pretty incredible what he's done when he's been on the field. He's got the tools and the mindset for success and I love watching him play.

[Doctor Gast]

Many said "Oh, he'll regress, he can't maintain this production." Even if he regress a little, he'll still have pretty good numbers.

[cmoss84]

Has anyone ever led the league in HR while not having enough ABs to qualify for batting title?

[Peter]

Whenever he hit’s home runs twins must win every game!!!

[USAFChief]

Changing history?

Calm down, sport. Baseball wasn't invented last year.

[twinstalker]

You could probably skip the 23 doubles. :-)

[Linus]

I love Royce. I think he has a chance to be a legendary Twin. When it comes to comparing homers I want to stick up for my favorite Twin Harmon Killebrew. As a bonus baby he had to spend his first year in the big leagues. I doubt he had many at bats but whatever the number was they were as an 18 year old. 

[Chachi]

9 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Many said "Oh, he'll regress, he can't maintain this production." Even if he regress a little, he'll still have pretty good numbers.

On pace for 0 grand slams slams this year.  We will see if he can adjust.

[ashbury]

11 hours ago, cmoss84 said:

Has anyone ever led the league in HR while not having enough ABs to qualify for batting title?

I don't think so.  Strike seasons cross up some forms of search.  I thought maybe someone would have done it during the Dead Ball era but I didn't turn up such a season,  Finally, I thought Babe Ruth might be the one in 1918, which he was transitioning away from being a pitcher, but apparently he had enough PA to qualify that year (according to baseball-reference.com) when he led the league with only 11 in 382 PA.

I didn't look in the 19th Century.

[dxpavelka]

7 hours ago, Chachi said:

On pace for 0 grand slams slams this year.  We will see if he can adjust.

the thing about grand slams is that they are so dependent on three runners being on base.  Not our strong suit.

[Trov]

Royce is doing some crazy things.  If he can stay healthy he could take us very far for next several years.  However, he, similar to Buck, has shown a great ability to get hurt in many different ways.  Lets hope they were mostly flukes now and behind him.