After a Brutal Start to 2026, Royce Lewis Suddenly Can't Stop Hitting

[Sam Caulder]

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

For the past several seasons, Royce Lewis has been one of the most frustrating players in all of baseball. And unfortunately, there are multiple reasons why. Since 2021, Lewis has been plagued by lower-body injuries, including multiple ACL tears that have cost him significant chunks of development time. Every time it seems like he's gaining momentum, another setback happens. While the flashes of superstar potential have always been there, the consistency hasn't been.

When a player misses that much time during crucial developmental years, it's hard not to wonder what could have been. Those injuries haven't just kept Lewis off the field. They've also made it difficult for him to establish rhythm, make adjustments, and build on previous success. As a result, his performance at the major-league level has been a roller coaster.

That frustration reached a new level during the first two months of the 2026 season. Through May 17, Lewis was hitting just .163 with a .261 on-base percentage and a 53 wRC+. He wasn't just struggling; he was producing runs roughly half as well as an average major-league hitter. Eventually, the Twins decided something needed to change. Lewis was optioned to Triple-A, in hopes that he could reset both mechanically and mentally. While some viewed the move as a concerning development for a former No. 1 overall pick, it may end up being one of the most important decisions the organization has made all season.

Once Lewis arrived in Triple-A, he immediately caught fire. Over a 13-game stretch, he hit .340 and launched eight home runs, reminding everyone exactly what he’s capable of. That hot streak earned him a quick return to the major leagues. And since being recalled on June 6, Lewis has looked like a completely different hitter. In a small sample of 33 plate appearances, he's hitting .379 with a .424 on-base percentage, five extra-base hits, and a stolen base. More importantly, the quality of his at-bats has looked dramatically different.

The biggest difference? He's making contact. Before his demotion, He was striking out 31% of the time. Since returning, that number has plummeted to 13%. That's an enormous shift for any hitter, especially one who looked completely lost just a few weeks ago.

So what's changed? For starters, it appears Lewis made a notable mechanical adjustment to his swing. While he's always had a small leg kick when he plants his front leg, that leg kick is now much larger.

Leg kicks are a funny thing in baseball. Some hitters will have one, but abandon it to simplify their mechanics. Some hitters add one to help with timing and explosion. If the early results are any indication, that extra leg kick is working for Lewis. He's been a much more powerful hitter while remaining on time, and the swing data backs it up.

Before being sent down, Lewis was averaging 73.8 mph of bat speed. That's not necessarily a bad number, but since being recalled, it's gotten even faster. Lewis is now averaging 76 mph of bat speed, a mark that's among the best of all major-league hitters. A bigger leg kick means more sheer force transferred into his front side, without necessarily losing control of his stroke.

Not only is he swinging the bat faster, but the improved bat speed is translating into better results across the board. He's hitting the ball harder, he's making significantly more contact (which is likely a result of just trusting his swing more), and he looks much more like the version of Royce Lewis that Twins fans fell in love with a few years ago.

But the changes don't stop there. In addition to swinging a faster bat, there appears to be a clear shift in what Lewis is trying to accomplish at the plate. One of the most telling indicators is his pulled fly-ball rate. Before his demotion, just 19.1% of the balls he put in play were in the air to his pull side. That's not a terrible number by any means, but pulled fly balls are one of the easiest ways for hitters to generate extra-base power. For a player with Lewis's strength and bat speed, you'd like to see that number a little higher.

Since returning to the majors, that number has jumped. Over the past week and a half, his pulled fly-ball rate is up to 27%, which currently is in the 97th percentile of all major-league hitters. That may not sound like a huge gap on the surface, but it's a substantial adjustment in approach. It’s allowing his raw power to play up in games. As a result, his barrel rate has surged as well, and the overall quality of contact has taken a significant step forward. It genuinely feels like Lewis's swing has leveled up since returning from Triple-A.

Now, it's important to remember that we're still talking about a very small sample size. Pitchers will make adjustments, and Lewis will inevitably cool off at some point. That's just how baseball works. The higher leg kick has helped him catch the ball with his barrel more often when he's been on time; here's the timing distributions for him by month for swings on which he's on time. Since his recall, he lines up the ball better on those swings, which is why we're seeing that pulled fly-ball contact.

What this doesn't show you, though, is that Lewis is still early very often—in fact, a hair more so than before he went down. He's on time for the fastball, but still early on other stuff. Pitchers will start forcing him to sit back a bit more again, and he'll have to adapt.

But even if the production regresses, the underlying changes are encouraging. The bat speed is up, the contact rate is up, and the quality of contact is up. But perhaps most importantly, his confidence appears to be back. Lewis looks like a different player right now, and when he's in a groove, he legitimately looks like one of the best hitters in the league. We've seen flashes of that before, where he looks capable of carrying an offense all by himself.

The challenge has always been finding a way to sustain it. For now, though, Twins fans should enjoy what they're watching. Because this version of Royce Lewis is the player everyone has been waiting for. Let's hope he's here to stay, because my gosh, is this fun to watch.

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[Possumlad]

Great article! Here's hoping Royce sticks w/ the current mechanics. That leg kick's come & gone quite a few times during his tenure... it's working, stick with it! 

[Blyleven2011]

It's amazing the few games in AAA and to see such a change in MLB baseball , I for one thought the demotion should of been longer and it was to early to bring him back , but I guess he got the message really fast  ...

His patience is better , selection on pitches , besides the front leg kick helping I also heard something about that rear leg shuffling backwards for timing purposes  ...

It's great to see him producing and helping the team ...