What's Behind Twins Slugger Royce Lewis's Struggles at the Plate?

[Kevin Sheehan]

My perception is that the FO wants Royce at Target Field. The 10 game road trip, (11 days total) would've been the perfect time to get him coached up in St Paul. If he makes progress then bring him back starting with the home series against the Jays. Lewis and Keirsey Jr in the same lineup means 2 almost guaranteed outs 3 times per game. Keirsey is positionally more flexible. Baseball is a game of failure and a game of adjustments. Royce has mastered the former. It is a disservice to him and the fans to put him in this position at this level until he learns how to adjust. We all know the definition of "stupidity". 

[tony&rodney]

2 hours ago, NYCTK said:

This is a fascinating time to be looking at his career because we are about at the point where he's had exactly half of his career as a great hitter and an equally long span where he's been a replacement level player. And it is poetic that this inflection happened around the time of his infamous "slumps" comment.

Before:

.319 / .377 / .606

After:

.190 / .252 / .330

So, he went from a hitter comparable to Yordan Alvarez, to someone that looks like Christian Vazquez in the batters box. Same player, two careers. A flip of the switch. 

Your points about Before and After are fine, but Lewis really has only played one year of baseball games at the MLB level. Too soon to tell what he was, is, or will be. Putting a crown on a young player is pretty tough. We can hope that Royce can find a process/swing and approach that works against pitchers who have a good book on him. The Twins need to have a plan of some sort pretty soon because just anointing him as the answer hasn't worked out so far.

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

Well, if the coaches identified his stance issue, and communicated that to him, why would he still be using the incorrect stance and see no improvement?

Because he's human? It's hard? 

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

BTW perhaps the writer of the article should be the hitting coach of the Twins.  He certainly seems to have all the answers.  Or at least he thinks he does.

I guess I disagree with your assessment. I read the article and felt that author worked hard on obtaining information and graphics (which often I do not understand) and laid out his case. He evaluated that info and took a stance. Good for him. I did not read it as he thought he knew better than anyone else.  To suggest so seems to imply that this was a click bait article. Sometimes it seems that can be the case here on Twins Daily, but I did not think so in this instance.

[Guest]

From my perspective this article further argues that Lewis needs to work on his hitting away from the big league club, just like Sano, Wallner, Miranda, and Julien to work on hitting. Hope it happens. Glad to see it helped Wallner last year and am anxiously awaiting his return. Hope it helps Miranda and Julien this year, and Lewis if the Twins will send him down.

[Patzky]

10 hours ago, PatG said:

Nice analysis...but analysis is after the fact.

Royce came back from recent injury to just "not hit"....after bout a month, he started stroking singles to right field.  Wa La.....put him batting 3rd, immediately!....WHY??

I think they (Rocco) should keep Royce hitting in the 7th, 8th or 9th position till he starts stroking doubles off the right field fence, then re-evaluate (do analysis).

Correa did this right field deal to get himself back on track.

Also, tell Royce to get comfortable in the batters' box, all this fidgeting is not helping....perhaps lose 5 lbs (sauna??)

Royce is lower in the order.

[darin617]

Royce fell in love with the long ball and that's all he's trying for now with no real results. Just try to get a few hits to build up the confidence that's gone.

[Twodogs]

On 5/30/2025 at 8:30 AM, David Maro said:

The worst thing that could happen to a young player happen to him. He had a run of grand slam homeruns. Now everyone including him think he is a power hitter. He needs to go to St Paul to work on his approach at the plate. Hitting a homerun is not a every at bat approach. Even the booth talks homerun when Lewis steps into the box every at bat. I do remember a couple of weeks ago he had a great at bat when he hit a line drive up the middle with bases loaded. This is the kind of thing that can help turn things around for him.

He sure seems to need to work on some stuff? A lot of talk about being unlucky, sounds like Max Kepler.   Maybe the