St. Paul – In just a small sample size of four games since his demotion to Triple-A St. Paul, Royce Lewis has shown he has ample potential that he can reach.
He’s 6-for-16 in his first four games with the Saints this week, but four of those six hits have gone over the fence for home runs, including his latest in Sunday evening’s Saints versus Omaha Storm Chasers game in the bottom of the first, which left his bat at 109.5 MPH.
Royce Lewis was in a slump in his last 12 games before his demotion, hitting only .098/.174/.122, with three walks, three RBI, and 16 strikeouts across 46 plate appearances. He’s off to a good start in his reset, with four home runs in four games. Still, there’s plenty of work ahead for him.
“Sometimes, you go through stretches where you aren’t seeing the ball, or you are seeing the ball, and right now is just one of those times where I’ve been seeing it,” Lewis said after the Saints’ 7-6 loss to Omaha on Saturday night. “It’s been fun just to be back to truly play fun and free.”
“[He] had a couple good at-bats, he’s found the barrel a few times there, hit a few home runs,” said Saints manager Brian Dinkelman. “That’s the kind of player we’ve seen from him before in the past, and just trying to get the confidence back, have good at-bats, and it’s good to see that in the first couple of games.”
As Lewis shared on Thursday, confidence is something he finds himself resetting each day when he arrives at the ballpark and building it up in-game. The four home runs in the past four days have helped boost the floor of his confidence that may have been missing in the majors.
However, the four home runs in four games are not a guarantee Lewis will be back in the majors soon. Whenever the Twins have decided to send a position player down for a hard reset – whether it’s Matt Wallner in 2024 and this season, or Jose Miranda and Edouard Julien in 2025 – they are not quick to recall the player unless they’ve shown clear signs of fixing their offensive decline.
In 2024, it took Wallner 35 games before things clicked into place. From April 18 to May 28 that season, he hit .191/.283/.382 with six home runs, 22 RBI, and a 35.5% strikeout rate in those 35 games. After that, it took another 32 games, during which he hit .328/.407/.711 with 13 home runs, 31 RBI, and a 25.5% strikeout rate, before the Twins recalled him to the major-league lineup.
Lewis’s primary focus while he’s in Triple-A is fixing the setup of his swing. He says he’s already felt an improvement in the past four games with the Saints. Still, even he knows he’ll need more of a sample size to ensure it’s consistent and that he doesn’t fall back into the bad habits that sent him down in the first place.
“I’ve put myself in a much better position to make good contact consistently,” he said. “And now it’s just a matter of playing the game, like the approach, the cat and mouse, if I’m swinging at strikes, or if I’m sitting on off-speed, fastballs, or whatever is going on. Getting back to the true game of baseball, the game within the game, which makes it really fun, which is what I’m doing right now.”
To get Royce Lewis back to his full potential, which he showed in 2023, not all the focus will be on fixing his swing. He had flashes of bad defense, committing five errors in 270 innings at third. As much as Twins fans and Lewis himself are celebrating the success of four home runs in four games, there’s still plenty of work ahead.
Given the timeframe it took Wallner to return to the majors in 2024, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it takes until the All-Star break for Lewis and Wallner to return to the Twins lineup.
“We’re doing everything we can and working tirelessly to right the ship,” said Lewis. “Because obviously I take part, I have not succeeded, but now I finally found the answer as to why, thanks to my agency and his help. So I’m looking forward to pushing the needle and getting back up to the big leagues to do what I do.”
