It’s unfortunate but fitting that Royce Lewis’ grand slam in the Minnesota Twins’ 9-7 win over the Chicago White Sox on Friday created controversy.
Lewis’ 386-foot blast out of Chicago’s gusty bandbox was reminiscent of the former first overall pick’s immediate impact in 2023. His first-ever home run was a grand slam in 2022. However, he tore his ACL again 12 games into his first season, halting his OPS at a tantalizing .867.
Still, Lewis proved himself to be resilient. In 2023, he returned to play 58 games and hit .309/.372/.548. He hit four grand slams, shattering franchise records along the way. Lewis helped Minnesota win a postseason series for the first time since 2004 by hitting four home runs in six games.
Lewis’ four-bagger on the South Side was his first grand slam since September 15, 2023. He broke the Twins franchise record by hitting four grand slams in a season on that day. There’s no shame in not hitting a grand slam last year. However, the bigger concern is what happened to the team and its players since they swept the Toronto Blue Jays that October.
You know the story by now. The Twins announce that they’re slashing payroll after their playoff success. Lewis injures his quad during the season opener in Kansas City, and it immediately becomes clear that 2024 will be more like 2022 due to the payroll cuts.
Depth was the difference between the 2022 team that collapsed and the 2023 version that won in the playoffs. The Twins collapse again. They run it back this year, only to fall apart before the deadline and trade away nearly 40% of the roster. Jhoan Duran, Carlos Correa, Louis Varland, and much of the 2023 core is gone.
“I feel like I’m kind of on an island and trying to figure it out on my own,” said Lewis, whose OPS has dropped from .921 in 2023 to .665 this season. “I haven’t felt comfortable all year. I wish I did. If I did, I think my numbers would be totally different. I’m just looking for comfort in the box.”
Many of the players who remain are once-promising prospects who haven’t played like franchise cornerstones. Lewis, Matt Wallner, and Edouard Julien formed a historic rookie class in 2023.
However, Wallner’s OPS dropped from .877 in 2023 and .894 last year to .822 this season. Julien had a .839 OPS in 2023, but he has a .574 OPS this season and has spent most of the year in the minors. Similarly, Brooks Lee has a .651 career OPS. José Miranda reached base safely in 12 consecutive at-bats last year, but had a .417 OPS in the majors this year and has a .568 OPS in St. Paul.
“It’s like, you’ve already succeeded at a pretty high level, right?” said Baldelli, acknowledging that young players may be reluctant to change their swing after having prior success.
“So, when you show up here, and you’re being asked to remake yourself or rework some things, redefine the type of player that you are, the more enthusiastic you are about making those adjustments, the faster you make those adjustments.”
The problem for the Twins is that many of their top prospects have had major-league success and are reluctant to change their swing. Lee may be the outlier in the group, but Minnesota selected him as one of the most polished hitters in his draft class. The rest of them have been productive in the majors as recently as last season, let alone two years ago.
None more so than Lewis.
“It’s also hard to make a full in-season adjustment because you can try that, and those 30 games or at-bats of trial go toward your stats,” Lewis said in comments heard around Twins Territory. “Do you really want to sacrifice that? And if it doesn’t work, then you go back to what you were doing before. It’s always hard. I know (Michael) Harris (II) just did a significant change. Being under contract probably helps because he knows what he’s making that year and the year after.
“For someone like me, I’m fighting (to take) care of myself and my family. I don’t want to put any of those stats in jeopardy. I’m trying to do what’s best as fast as possible. But feeling like I’ve been on an island, it’s kind of tough.”
People criticized Lewis for his comments, given that he appears to be prioritizing statistics and money over team success. However, sellers at the deadline tend to become every man for themselves situations, because management is dismantling the core. They could trade any player without a no-trade clause at any time.
The Twins aren’t going anywhere this season and may be in for a long rebuild. Their fire sale is nearly unprecedented. So is slashing payroll for a team coming off its first playoff victory in two decades.
Ultimately, we never got to see Falvey’s vision for the roster because he was building it on a larger budget.
It’s easy to conclude that the old core wasn’t going anywhere, given that the Twins weren’t a great regular-season team in 2023. Still, the series victory over Toronto was supposed to be the start of something, not the end. It feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy to cut payroll and then fire management. Their lack of success is primarily connected to working on a tighter budget.
Furthermore, Falvey previously worked for the parsimonious Cleveland Guardians, and Baldelli spent most of his playing and coaching career with the Tampa Bay Rays. They’ve worked in places that have won with a low payroll, and the Twins are becoming more like Cleveland and Tampa after the fire sale.
The Twins nearly moved Joe Ryan at the deadline, and they will probably trade Ryan and López to cut costs next year. That means young pitchers like Zebby Matthews, David Festa, and Simeon Woods Richardson must hold down crucial rotation roles. If they aren’t able to, and the young hitters don’t get going, ownership may move on from Falvey and Baldelli.
It’s a prison of their own creation. The Pohlad family has decided to retain the team after putting it up for sale. They cut payroll after playoff success two years ago, and it has left the roster in a state of arrested development. Whether Lewis hits another grand slam in a Twins uniform is anyone’s guess. Imagine saying that two years ago.
