Lewis may be the case of the organization panicking and rushing him back too soon. When Lewis was activated off the IL (May 6th), the Twins were 15-20 and the season on the brink after the Cleveland series although some optimism was blossoming taking 2 of 3 from the Red Sox as the start of the thirteen-game winning streak. The excitement that Lewis was coming back even was the focus as a ticket-selling advertisement. Lewis's line while on rehab was: 23AB, 4H, 3R, 1 RBI, .174/.167/.384. His play in St. Paul while on rehab was clearly not ready for recall as we are seeing with a much more patient approach with Wallner with a similar hamstring strain as Lewis.
As for Lewis not running 100%, how many years have we heard this conversation about Buxton about playing with reckless abandonment and eventually getting injured. Ultimately, the best ability on the field is availability. If Lewis cruises into second instead of stretching out for 3rd, that's fine. We have seen it with many players including Buxton and Correa do the same thing as the expectation is they can score from second on a sharp single. Earlier in the season we were praising Buxton for his resurgence as this was the first offseason that he had where he was not recovering or rehabbing from an injury. We haven't seen this from Lewis yet as it seems like he has always been recovering from an injury of some sort.
Now that the Twins have turned their season around (for now of course), my hope for Lewis is that:
1) he can either figure it out on the Twins roster with possible extra days off since the roster has healed up to the point where he is not needed in the lineup every day just to make out a roster. Definitely moving farther down in the lineup (6-9) until he finds his stroke again,
2) he is placed back on the IL if there is something still lingering with him that he cannot gear up to 100%,
3) or, he is optioned back to St. Paul to work on his swing and timing similar to what we have seen with Larnach and Wallner with the expectation that he will be recalled when ready. Many of the best players in the game had to get sent back down at some point in their careers so hopefully Lewis would take this as a way to fix things out of the limelight.