Reusse: Despite injuries, Twins’ Lewis remains upbeat about future

Royce Lewis returned to the Twins on Tuesday after a six-week absence. He spent five weeks recovering from an oblique injury and then played four games on a rehab assignment in St. Paul with the Class AAA Saints.

Lewis was playing third base at Target Field and batting third in the Twins lineup. This was his 39th game in the major leagues, breaking a tie in games played with Hunter Greene.

They are linked by the 2017 MLB draft, when Lewis was the draft's first overall selection and went to the Twins and Greene headed to Cincinnati as the No. 2 pick.

What makes the similarity in big league games played interesting is that Lewis is a position player and Greene is a starting pitcher.

Lewis had been 18 only for a week when he was drafted immediately by the Twins on June 12, 2017. The expectation was Lewis would reach Class AAA in 2020 and start appearing at Target Field shortly after his 22nd birthday in the summer of 2021.

And then came the roadblocks:

The 2020 minor league season was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. On arrival in Fort Myers, Fla., for spring training in February 2021, he had soreness that turned out to be an ACL tear in his right knee. Surgery led to a second consecutive season of no games.

Lewis made it to the big leagues for 11 games in May 2022 when Carlos Correa was out of the lineup. He was optioned when Correa returned but impressed to the point he was brought back 12 days later — May 29 — to play center field.

His limited experience in center quickly revealed itself when he retreated toward the fence, mistimed a leap and awkwardly fell next to the wall. Torn ACL, another surgery.

This season, he was the Twins' primary third baseman from May 29 to July 1, then suffered the oblique injury.

And here he was Tuesday, now 24 and with only those 38 games on his big league résumé in Year 7 starting with the draft. That was a paltry total compared with other high draft choices out of high school in the Twins clubhouse.

Manager Rocco Baldelli was the No. 6 overall choice for Tampa Bay in 2000. He had 384 big league games after his seventh pro year, even while missing 2005 with a torn ACL.

Byron Buxton was the No. 2 overall choice by the Twins in 2012. He had 306 big league games after his seventh pro year. Correa was the No. 1 choice in that draft and had 471 games by Year 7.

Baldelli was short-circuited because of a foot injury and his career was over by 29. Buxton is more a quandary than an asset for the Twins at 29 because of injuries. Correa turns 29 in September and has remained an outstanding shortstop with underwhelming production.

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Clearly, Lewis is way behind schedule in big league duty for such a lofty draftee, but he does have time to close that gap if he can stay healthy and in the Twins lineup.

"Maybe the main obstacles ballplayers face are behind me now and I'll be able to play this game I love every day," Lewis said before Tuesday's game. "Ultimately, I look up and I'm a big league ballplayer. I don't take it for granted, and I won't."

Tuesday's opponent was the Tigers — way under .500 but pitching the Twins like a collection of Gerrit Coles in 2023. Starter Alex Faedo — nephew of Lenny Faedo, a Twins first-rounder as a shortstop in 1978 — held the Twins to one hit in five scoreless innings.

Detroit manager A.J. Hinch went to his bullpen. Immediately, the Twins kicked up a rally. Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler started the trouble, then Lewis came up with runners at first and third.

"Those moments always seem to find Royce, and it seems like he always comes through," said Bailey Ober, the Twins' starting pitcher.

Baldelli concurred. "Of course it was him being up in that spot. … He's always right in the middle."

Lewis battled Jose Cisnero and then dropped an RBI single into left. His clutch hit was followed minutes later by Matt Wallner's monstrous grand slam. Final: Twins 5, Tigers 3.

What about the "moment" when it arrived … expectedly?

"I gave myself a couple of pitches to try to go deep, especially on a guy that might be coming middle-in," Lewis said. "I didn't hit the barrel. Otherwise, Akil Baddoo would have caught it. Sometimes hitting it softer works."