Would the Twins Be Better Off Trading Royce Lewis?

[Otaknam]

On 7/24/2026 at 12:35 PM, Colbeh said:

I'll always stand by Royce - I hope he continues to get better and proves everyone wrong.

Non biased answer though is No. He's going to bring back nothing of value right now. Maybe a team sees the high risk high reward in him and flips a true lottery ticket player for him. No thanks we got enough. If you want to free up spots for players who can help over the next few years (Royce can be that) then trade Larnach, Bell, and Jeffers. 

Seems like everyone wants Kody Clemens to take over when in the off season they wanted him gone or as the very bottom of the roster player. Shoot even a couple months ago people were quitting on him.

He's 27 and has missed the majority of his ML career due to injury. Lets see what he has over the next 2 months while hes healthy and actually contributing. 

I don’t share your belief that Lewis is continuing to get better. He’s batting near the Mendoza line at .210 with 10 homers and not much clutch hitting. He’s not an automatic out but isn’t much better.

[Otaknam]

On 7/24/2026 at 5:07 PM, Greglw3 said:

Definitely never as bad as move as trading Rod Carew for nothing of lasting value or trading Johann Santana for virtually nothing or literally getting nothing for a clearly talented slugger who only slumped to 20 HR because of a knee issue. Carew was the dumbest, then Ortiz, then Santana. Would Lewis ever be in that conversation? Who knows? For sure never with the Carew giveaway. Doubtful with the Ortiz giveaway. Maybe with the Santana disaster.

The Ortiz comparison doesn’t work IMO. Ortiz’ power potential was neutered by the Tom Kelly approach that emphasized contact over power, which is the opposite of what teams preach now. Once Ortiz got to Boston they let him be who he is and the rest is HOF history, possibly the biggest mistake the Twins and Kelly ever made. 

[jkcarew]

No point in selling low. If someone comes along who is ready and better…fine. He’s even got enough defensive flexibility to be a utility guy in that scenario.

Return isn’t going to go down much at all in the next couple of years. And could go up materially.

If he’s unhappy or wants to be traded, that’s different…to a point. 

[Seth Stohs]

No chance. No way I'd trade him... First, he's got like two more years of arbitration. Let them run out. Frankly, I'd lock him up long term to a Buxton-like deal this offseason. maybe with a $10 million base rather than $15 million. 

[Mike Sixel]

38 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

No chance. No way I'd trade him... First, he's got like two more years of arbitration. Let them run out. Frankly, I'd lock him up long term to a Buxton-like deal this offseason. maybe with a $10 million base rather than $15 million. 

You'd lock up a guy who isn't hitting all that well who plays first base? No thanks. 

[Greglw3]

On 7/25/2026 at 5:50 PM, Otaknam said:

The Ortiz comparison doesn’t work IMO. Ortiz’ power potential was neutered by the Tom Kelly approach that emphasized contact over power, which is the opposite of what teams preach now. Once Ortiz got to Boston they let him be who he is and the rest is HOF history, possibly the biggest mistake the Twins and Kelly ever made. 

Ortiz was neutered by a knee injury that limited him to left field hitting and "only" 20 home runs. Before that, Ivividly remember him hitting for average and power to the point that I planned to take him #1 in my Strat-O-Matic league draft.

So, because of those vivid memories, I don’t think Tom Kelly had anything to do with it.

I will agree that it was a colossally dumb move for Terry Ryan to release him.

The biggest mistake ever made was trading a 7 time batting champion who won his batting titles by an average of 30 points (Honus Wagner averaged a 15 point batting title win). Who would trade a guy that just hit .350, .359, .364 and .388 in a 5 year period? And got back nothing of any lasting value at all. Brutal.