Lewis to St. Paul?

Yes, I was just thinking this.  His ability to hit right away at the Major League level in the past (unlike Buxton who has always needed to get himself right in the batter's box after a lengthy injury) and this being his 4th season as a Major Leaguer, have led management to treat him like a veteran.  In truth, he has accumulated 682 plate appearances equal to about 1 full Major League season.  However, that has come in chunks of 6 to 58 games.  That's right - he has never played more than 2 months consecutively in the Majors.  He actually only has 62 games of Minor League play in the last 4 years as well.  Here's the summary:

2025: 21 games after 6 games at AAA

2024: 23 games then 3.5 weeks out then 58 games with 8 games at AAA

2023: 26 games then 1.5 months out then 32 games then 2 weeks out then 6 games in the playoffs with 14 games at AAA/AA

2022: 12 games after tearing it up for 34 games at AAA

The problem here is that he hadn't put in enough time for the scouting against him to be complete and for him to deal with a lack of success.  Starting in early August last year, he started his slump.  I think he really should have spent time in AAA after his rehab this time.  It's hurt the Major League club with his 0.392 OPS - a lot of these tight games mean one hit at the right time is the difference between a win and a loss and he has very few hits.  He needs the time to work with the coaches on addressing what other teams are doing with him now and get his confidence back up and do it without being a dead spot on the Major League lineup.