Minneapolis – For the past couple of weeks, Royce Lewis has been pondering whether he has been playing in some of his final games in a Minnesota Twins uniform.
There are numerous unknowns for the Twins heading into this offseason. If the fire sale from the trade deadline is any indicator, they could move almost anyone on the 40-man roster this offseason, including Lewis.
“I mean, [being traded] has, but we don’t know what direction,” Lewis said on where Minnesota’s off-season is heading. “I can’t control anything. I’m just here and enjoying my time with my teammates and the guys here. Because I grew up playing with all these guys, so it would be a weird situation.”
The Twins finished this year with a 70-92 record, going from a team that was just two games below .500 at the break to a 23-42 record afterward. While they experienced many lows this year, Lewis’s second half was positive.
In 64 games, Lewis had a .253/.289/.446 slash line this year, with 11 home runs, 38 RBI, 12 doubles. He finished with a 23.2% strikeout rate, 4.9% walk rate, and, most surprisingly of all, stole 12 bases. Lewis must improve his strikeout and walk ratios, but all his other numbers at the plate indicate he was healthy and getting back to his 2023 form.
He also hit his sixth grand slam of his career on Friday, Aug. 22, against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Stadium, his first since 2023.
“The way he’s moving is good,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “The way he physically looks at the plate, I think he’s whistling the bat pretty good. I think the bat is getting through the zone the right way, and the swing is connected. Which is what we’re looking for.”
“I think it’s easy for me,” Lewis said on the difference between the first and second half. “I came back way too early, trying to make a push with the guys we had because we knew what the fortune was if we kept losing. Then ultimately we ended up trading away 11 guys, so once that happened at the deadline, I was really bummed that I kind of – I just came back a little too soon.”
Rushing himself back on a rehab assignment in which he was recovering from a pulled hamstring wasn’t the reason he went back on the IL once he returned May 6. However, he missed most of spring training and had a brief rehab assignment, which hindered his ability to build up his timing at the plate, resulting in poor results in May and June.
“My body wasn’t necessarily fully trusting; my mind, my body were off,” said Lewis. “So it sets you back, and then you have 75 at-bats where it’s kind of building up spring training timing again. It’s just hard to manage, man. It’s extremely hard. So I feel for everyone who goes through that, and that’s what I’m happy about too. I was healthy.”
Lewis had 12 steals in 14 attempts this year. His aggressiveness on the basepaths is an excellent indicator that he’s in good health. It’s uncommon to see a player who’s undergone two ACL surgeries steal as often as Lewis has over the last two months. However, it shows there’s still a spark left in the speed he had before the tears and potential for a 20/20 season if Lewis can put everything together.
“He’s moving really well on the bases,” Baldelli said. “[Lewis] accelerating well. He’s shown some real good instinct and inclination for getting a good jump, for reading a situation, and for going hard. Not just accelerating hard, but going hard into second base.”
“I mean, and my body feels great,” said Lewis. “I feel really good, and I’m looking forward to carrying that into next year. That stamina, that excitement, and then go out there and start off fresh and not have any bumps in the road.”
The Twins will meet with the media in the next day or two to reveal their offseason plans. They won’t move everyone. Still, Cory Provus speculated that Minnesota could trade Byron Buxton or Pablo López on Fargo’s InForum last Friday. It seems even a cornerstone of Minnesota’s future, such as Lewis, could be entertained in a trade if the Twins get the right price in return.
It would be bad timing, trading the player who catapulted the Twins into the playoff victory column for the first time in 19 years away just two years later. Lewis has experienced his ups and downs in terms of performance and injury since then. Still, given where he ended the 2025 season, it may be best to keep him around as a new wave of prospects provides the same hope for the future of the Twins that Lewis once did.
“You never know if it’s going to be your last at-bat here or what,” he said. “You never know.”
