The Unending Struggles of Royce Lewis Are Tough to Decipher

Drafted #1-1, there is no question that the flurry of home runs and bubbly personality made Lewis a total darling to Twins fans. Baseball can be cruel and he can  almost, not quite, be compared to his fellow rising stars of 2023 teammate - Edouard Julien. 

Lewis looks like his stability is compromised: at the plate, running, and in the field. If an athlete doesn't have full cooperation of their legs, performance is going to be difficult. It seems like Royce has been trying to compensate for a lack of stability from his lower half which brought him a host of new challenges. Sure hope he can get well. I don't have an answer except that i think he needs to be 100% healthy to rebuild his baseball skills. I wish him luck.

I think a nice stay in saint paul for awhile would be best for him just get his mind right 

IMO, it's not so confusing. He went through 2 ACL rehabs & returned almost 100% & late in '23, he showed what he's capable of. As to be expected, he has had problems with soft tissue injuries early in '24 & '25. Overcoming them in '24, he ran out of gas due to being on the IL & little time to be conditioned. '25 he was rushed back & was reinjured, then rushed back w/o time to really get ramped up sufficiently.  Eventually, he'll hit on all cylinders & be a dynamo & then my concern is him running out of gas.

Everybody was very negative on Buxton, But I believe he'd be a big impact on this team. This surgery he had last year solved his knee problem & he's been great. I have more confidence in Lewis's comeback & impact on the team.

Personally, I think we shut him down from the MLB and let him play in AAA for the year. Let him perform somewhere there isn't as much pressure. 

I'm starting to believe that the front office is to blame for everything. Something about their development coaches are starting to show that our players are not being properly trained for the Majors. They're getting left behind compared to other organizations. I mean clearly our drafts have not been great seeing as a plethora of our former first rounders are struggling or we've traded then away and they haven't really done much either. 

This front office hasn't made many good decisions in the past to help our future. We gave up a lot of big league ready players for Mahle and Jorge Lopez. Now those players are having decent seasons. As an organization we're struggling to put out a quality squad. I don't know what we can do other than get an owner who is going to completely overhaul the front office and start fire selling all non essential players (players without no trade clauses)

It was wrong to rush Lewis back to MLB after his last injury. He should have stayed in St.Paul and hit his way back. He needs to get his confidence back and/or prove he’s not injured. If he’s injured then put him on the IL. This is a case of Falvey and Baldelli being desperate to get to the playoffs and save their tails, that the well being of the player is sacrificed as well as the long term success of the organization. I fear they’ll do the same thing with Keaschall. He should be DH’ing in St.Paul for the rest of the season, getting much needed AAA AB’s. Wallner is another guy that should be at AAA until he proves to the organization and himself that he can consistently hit. 
Their argument is that this is how they stay competitive by working guys into the lineup from the MiLB system, As has been pointed out, that isn’t working, which points to a flawed player development system. When everything is analytics, good old baseball skills seem to be ignored. Now they’re paying the price.

Even after his bat comes around, which I am really pulling for, I wonder what his highest and best use is in the field. I remember being excited after he was drafted thinking he might be a MLB shortstop. That was quickly revealed to not be the case, and the Twins were messing around with him in different spots, including CF. He didn’t appear to have instincts for that, and he’s lumbered his way to 3rd. I understand and am saddened by the fact that his once upper echelon athleticism has diminished due to injuries. At this point, I think with a lot of work he *might* be an average fielding 3B, but honestly is he best pictured as our future first baseman? Assume he can train up for that? 

2 hours ago, ashbury said:

I'm nowhere near qualified to coach a hitter, which makes me unqualified to judge those who do.  Still, I have this nagging worry, or maybe a working hypothesis, that our batters are being taught techniques that work right up through AAA but break down when facing good solid MLB pitching. 

"Wait for your pitch" would be one example I can think of, simple though it may be.  If you face a typical AAA hurler, eventually he'll make a mistake pitch, and you should pounce on it.  At single-A, mistakes come your way all the time.  At AAA, maybe one in five pitches are mistakes?  So you'll get your chances to do damage over the course of the game.  What if the pitcher makes NO mistakes while it's your turn at bat?  Some pitchers in the majors are capable of that for lengthy stretches when they are going well  A couple of tempting pitches in the dirt that you can choose to lay off of, but three similar looking pitches that catch a corner or edge of the strike zone and you just look at them waiting for something better?  What's your Plan B in that case?  Do you have what it takes to punch the pitcher's best pitch the opposite way for a single?  (And maybe persuade him eventually to stop feeding you that, giving you more opportunities for the pitches you do like?)

Or do you just stick with Plan A, game after game after game?

I don't know how to state it any better than that, but that would be the gist of it.  And again, I know actual coaching is way more layered and nuanced than that.  It's just a starting point for conversation.

Those are the things I'd be looking at from the FO perspective.  Given that it's system-wide, and they have made multiple changes in batting coaches at the major-league level, I'm concerned that this FO doesn't have the perspective to find the problem.  They do hire people from outside, but there is a bias if they are looking for people who are attuned to the present system.  Do they hire complete outsiders on a consulting basis, for instance?

I cometely agree with you. But even a HS coach can tell when MLB mechanics are wonky. The eye test rarely lies. The MLB is all driven by analytics and launch angle. And the players buy into it. They don't change things when it comes to 2 strike counts. They don't have the old saying of: Your first swing is your damage swing. Every swing they have is they're "damage" swing because single and double hitters don't get payed like HR hitters do. But trying to hit HRs late in the game when down by 3 and nobody on is not helping your team. You need baserunners to win. 

I miss seeing the days of hitters hitting .300+ and 25+ HRs. I get it might have been steroid era, but if hitters were using it, I'm sure pitchers were doing the same. It's ridiculous that an average hitter hits .243 with 25+ HRs. 

It seems to me that Lewis slump started when he changed his swing after he pulled an oblique or groin muscle.  He dropped his leg kick and with his previous swing he could really put a charge into the ball.  The swing he's now using has no sting.  Balls that would go over the wall before now are just lazy fly balls or pop-ups. 

I think Doc Bauer makes a great point about his base.  It’s hard to be an effective hitter or player in general if you are unsure of your ability to perform due to lingering injury issues.  He may never make it all the way back, but I sure hope he does.  I’m hoping for a Paul Molitor type of career.  I think Byron Buxton is a great comp.  Although Buxton still has his tremendous speed.  I would NOT give up on Lewis and hope an off season plan gets him on the right track.  

It almost looks like he forgot how to hit.  Did he do any off-season baseball activities?  Where is the plate discipline, let alone power???!!!

On 7/19/2025 at 1:17 PM, mikelink45 said:

It is sad to see him struggle like this and it has taken away the hope he gave us when he first became a Twin, but if we put this in another context, what is happening with the Twins coaches?  We have almost a coach for each player, yet Correa is struggling and causing us to wonder what his final years on the contract will be.  We have Wallner who looked so good he was going to lead off and now we question our judgment.  Larnach has stagnated, Lee does not look like the wonderkid we anticipated.  Vasquez has spiraled down to the bottom of the barrel, Articles question France's value and Clemens is streaky and offers promise without follow through.  

What is the reason this lineup has fallen so far below expectations?  Without Buxton, Castro and Bader all preseason expectations have been shattered. 

This is what I have been wondering as well. It seems like every batter or prospect we have falls way below expectations. There has to be something to it as far as coaching goes because well established players come here and fall apart. Top prospects completely collapse or have just totally embarrassing parts of their career either with production or injuries.