NYCTK

It was fewer than 400 Plate Appearances including his playoffs. It just seems like a long stretch because he wasn't ever healthy and it was stretched over 3 years. That is fewer than Julien had in 2023 alone. There's as much reason to believe Julien will bounce back as there is with Royce.

Often referred to as being a "team player". Following two teams, I can readily compare them and see stark differences. Fun little tidbit, Royce was ranked 62nd in the 2022 Fangraphs Prospect rankings, right ahead of the Mets 3B prospects Brett Baty and Mark Vientos. Those two players have also come across some difficult times. And Brett Baty, a half year his junior, was ALSO asked to move over to 2B occasionally. And Baty did so without complaining to the media. He's not used a lot there, but funny enough does when the Mets primary 2B, veteran and former batting champion Jeff McNeil, is asked to play LF or even CF, again having never complained to the much more tenacious NYC media. Are Brett Baty and Jeff McNeil "utility" players? I guess you can make that argument. But they're also both helping their team more than Royce is. And no one thinks lesser of them because they happen to play out of position a day or two each week. Actually, McNeil was always thought of as a bit of a clubhouse cancer but his willingness to play out of position has won him a lot of good will. If you're not one of the 3 best players on your team, you should always happily play another position. And Rafael Devers found out that even team stars should be willing to put themselves into positions of discomfort for the betterment of the team, from time to time. If Royce doesn't want to be a "utility" player, maybe he'd be better off retiring and starting a small business or something. Something without utility is useless after all.

No.

(just to be clear, this was tongue-in-cheek)

Yet again, I'm put in a weird position of defending the Twins organization against completely unfair attacks. What do you even mean by this? Are you under the impression he had multiple season ending injuries because he's like Tinkerbell and the Twins organization just didn't believe hard enough? He was in the major leagues, seemingly for good, at the age of 22. I don't know what more faith the Twins can show than that. As for his ability to play SS, he can barely play a competent 3B so why are we lamenting the fact that he's no longer at SS? Should the Twins have traded away Carlos Correa in 2022 because a prospect was called up (and immediately injured)?

Yeah, the Twins shouldn't be overly concerned about stealing playing time from the other 2023 Seattle Mariner 1B or Armando Alvarez.

I blame Rocco for this attitude.

This is where statcast expected stats comes in handy. He IS hitting the ball better than his results. But his xwOBA is still only 0.303 and his xBA is 0.231. It's not like Juan Soto who is slumping hard but still has a xwOBA of 0.420.

No it didn't. They won 2 of 3 from the Red Sox before he got activated from rehab. And had gone 5-1 in their home stand before that road trip. Which coincides more so with the activation of Brock Stewart. Or Kody Clemens. Maybe Brock or Kody is this mystical, irreplaceable clubhouse buoy that you're trying to make Royce out to be. And even if your timeline were accurate, we can just as easily theorize it's Willi Castro who was activated the same day, or maybe the departure of Julien. He's .211 / .275 / .397 the last calendar year. He's expended all his good will and this idea that he'll eventually figure it out cannot be backed up by anything other than hope. IF he's going to figure it out, he stands a much better chance of doing so back in AAA.

It'd have to be Walker Jenkins and Pablo Lopez to start the conversation.

The tale of Jarren Duran reminds me that these are kids, and we have to be respectful of them even when they're playing like complete dogshit and driving us up a wall. But, yeah, he's not special. He WAS a first round draft pick, and he DID have some early success, but right now he has not earned a place on a major league roster. He has earned himself a trip back to AAA and the failure of the Twins to send him down is just hurting him at this point. He shouldn't have been called back up to the majors in the first place. He clearly wasn't right when he was playing in AAA on rehab. He's not yet 26, and there's this plenty of time for him to right his ship. But he is not a major league caliber player right now, much less a starter.

Well, thankfully for the Twins it only gets cooler after Memorial Day...

Funderburk gets a bit too much hate. He's not good, but the Twins aren't treating him like he is. He's an optionable arm bouncing up and down before he's inevitably DFAd. Every bullpen needs people like him.

Well, you can argue Larnach was responsible for 4 of the 5.

This was his atonement. He's now paid his price and can become a decent player again.

Royce Lewis had 337 PAs before making his infamous slump comments to the media. He's now had exactly 337 PAs since making those comments. Before: .319 / .377 / .606 After: .190 / .252 / .330 The baseball gods do not **** around.

Posts here like "Royce Lewis Isn’t Going 100 Percent, and That’s a Good Thing" don't help either.

People want to see the guy with an OPS of 0.584 since he proclaimed he doesn't do the whole slump thing. And who can blame them? His facepaint is 🔥

Lol, I wouldn't go THAT far, but yeah, he needs a reality check back in AAA. I agree with his facepaint. It sure looks cute, but unless you're performing you're just drawing attention to yourself.

Made more baffling by the fact they called up Lewis after only a week of rehab despite not showing anything. What exactly are they looking for?

They are leading the AL in FIP and therefore fWAR, but they're 4th in xFIP, 5th in WPA, T-2nd in ERA, T-4th in WHIP. I think you can make the argument they're the best, but it's a bit foolish to call them far-and-away the best.

In a season that has, knock on wood, been pretty healthy thus far. I think the concerns about the roster are completely valid. But the praise of the pitching is warranted and does not seem like a fluke at all.

Outside of the fact that we all want to see him do well, Royce really turned himself into one of the jokers of the league in the most comical fashion. He experienced a lot of early success and his comments to media were dripping in hubris. And he has been a downright terrible player since. Pre "I don't do slumps": 337 PAs - .319/.377/.606 Post "I don't do slumps" 334 PAs - .191/.254/.333

There's a real chance Royce has been exposed at the major league level and the Twins have to treat that like it's a real possibility and treat him as if he's any other struggling prospect, much like Austin Marin or Miranda. He was a great player for half a season but there's an argument that Jonah has been the better player for the last calendar year. Royce has a wOBA of 0.292 the last twelve months. Bride 0.321 in comparable number of plate appearances.

Lewis has a .292 wOBA in the last calendar year. Compare that to Jonah Bride with a .321 wOBA in that same time frame. Wowsers.