Royce Lewis, Byron Buxton, and Baseball’s Bullying Ways

When Royce Lewis met with reporters over the weekend, following his second trip to the injured list this season, his frustration was impossible to miss. After re-injuring the same left hamstring that sidelined him for the first six weeks of the 2025 campaign, Lewis sounded emotional and exhausted. He voiced what many fans and teammates likely thought.

“I’m tired of being the one who’s being bullied and picked on by this game," Lewis said. "Whether it wants me to suffer on the offensive side or when I’m going hot, it just wants to kick me out with an injury. Seems like it’s picking on me at this moment, so I’m waiting for one of my friends to pick me up and stop this bully.”

It is rare for a player to be this open and vulnerable about the toll the game takes on both their mental and physical well-being. For Lewis, who has now been derailed just as he was swinging the hottest bat on the team, the frustration is understandable. In June, Lewis was hitting an incredible .367, after enduring a brutal slump in May while shaking off the rust from his previous hamstring injury. Just when the swing returned (and his confidence followed), baseball’s cruel side showed up once again.

A Frustrating, Familiar Pattern
Unfortunately, this is not the first time Lewis has lost a battle with baseball’s darker side. His entire professional career has been marked by breathtaking potential, interrupted by poorly timed injuries.

In 2021, Lewis tore his ACL just before reporting for spring training (it wasn't diagnosed until he got to camp, in fact), which resulted in him missing the entire minor-league season. This came after a 2020 campaign wiped away by the COVID-19 shutdown. After nearly two full years without competitive baseball, Lewis exploded back onto the scene in 2022 with the Twins, slashing .300/.317/.550 over 12 games and making a clear case for an everyday job.

However, just as excitement around him was building, another setback arrived. Lewis tore the same ACL again while making a catch in center field, ending his 2022 season and setting him back once more. When Lewis finally returned to the big leagues, he delivered a thrilling stretch of play that helped push the Twins toward the 2023 postseason. His grand slams, his energy, his poise, everything fans had dreamed of since Minnesota made him the first overall pick in 2017, came to life. Still, he was barely fending off the injury demons. He suffered an oblique strain that cost him most of July and the first half of August that year, and a hamstring strain in September that had him half-hobbled even during the playoffs. 

In 2024, it was a quad strain on Opening Day and an adductor strain suffered in early July. Then, he slumped badly (while ostensibly healthy) to finish the season, and came back this spring ready to avenge himself on the game—only to suffer that first hamstring strain less than two weeks before the season began, sidelining him for nearly two months.

Timing Couldn’t Be Worse
What makes this latest injury even more challenging to swallow is its timing. After returning from the IL in May, Lewis struggled through one of the roughest stretches of his young career, going 9-for-69 (.130 BA) and looking out of sync at the plate. But in June, everything clicked. He was hitting balls to all fields, driving key line drives, and lifting his OPS over 1.000. For the first time all season, Lewis looked like the middle-of-the-order threat the Twins needed.

Then came Friday night. While running out a could-be double to left field, Lewis felt the hamstring tighten again, the same one that robbed him of April and most of May. And what made this sting more was that he was actually holding back.

“I was trying to be a little bit smarter running the bases,” Lewis said. “These ground balls, 99 percent of the time you’re out, and if someone bobbles it, you’ve just got to run fast enough to be safe on those. So that’s what I’ve been doing."

That's well and good on the routine grounders, but Lewis smelled an infield hit on the ball that he got hurt on in March. He was accelerating to try to take an extra base on a slow-developing play when he hurt his quad last year. This time, he seemed to be trying to accelerate more smoothly, but it was still clear he was thinking about whether he could speed up enough to take second on a ball hit to the shallow left-field corner in Houston. Even while consciously protecting himself, the injury crept in anyway. That is the cruelest part.

The Long Memory of Fans
Unfortunately for Lewis, a segment of the Twins fan base will not forget these injuries, no matter how well he performs when healthy. This is the same shadow that has followed Byron Buxton for years. Even during stretches when Buxton has been one of the best players in baseball, some fans have dismissed his value due to the time he has missed due to injuries.

Lewis may already be heading down a similar path. For some, the perception of him being “injury-prone” will outweigh his production on the field. Even if he comes back later this season and rips off an MVP-level performance in August or September, there will still be those who see him as unreliable until he proves he can stay healthy for an entire season (or multiple seasons).

This is an unfair weight for a young player to carry, especially given how many of Lewis’s injuries have been freak occurrences rather than signs of chronic fragility. However, the modern baseball conversation, especially among certain parts of the fan base and media, can be harsh. Patience wears thin. Labels stick. And Lewis will have to battle not only his own body, but also that lingering doubt from the crowd.

Buxton’s story is a clear warning of how difficult this can be. Even after a Platinum Glove, an All-Star start, and highlight-reel plays for nearly a decade, there are still fans who write him off every time he hits the IL. Lewis is charismatic and talented, but unless his health finally improves, he could become the next target of this relentless skepticism.

What Comes Next
The Twins placed Lewis on the 10-day injured list, but no one following this team believes this will be a simple rest and return. Given his history and the recurrence of this injury, Minnesota will handle this situation as cautiously as possible. Another misstep could turn this into a long absence and potentially threaten the second half of the season.

For Lewis, the battle ahead is as much mental as physical. Few players in recent memory have had to restart their careers this many times before turning 27. ACL tears, oblique strains, and hamstrings, it is a brutal résumé of setbacks, always appearing just as things start to go right.

The Twins are aware of the vital role Lewis plays in their plans. When he is healthy, he changes the lineup, the clubhouse, and the team’s energy. He is a franchise cornerstone with a skill set few can match. But until the injuries stop, health remains the only thing missing from his superstar profile.

Minnesota’s best path forward is to think long-term. Even if the Twins stay close in the AL Central race, risking Lewis for short-term wins would be a mistake. His value comes (hopefully, eventually) from full, healthy seasons, not rushing back for early July games that might compromise his performance in August and September.

Beyond the numbers, Lewis’s comments reveal the human toll of all these injuries. His frustration extends beyond this past weekend. It is years of surgeries, rehabs, delayed dreams, and constant doubt packed into one exhausted quote.

Maybe the baseball gods are bullying Lewis right now. But his honesty, his joy for the game, and his fight are exactly why Twins fans remain firmly in his corner. They, like Lewis himself, are just waiting for the day when this game finally lets him run free.