Fort Myers – Few players bring the same level of energy into the Minnesota Twins clubhouse every day as Royce Lewis does. A mini basketball hoop sits at his locker for him to practice his shots in his downtime if he’s not talking about baseball with his teammates.
He turns 27 in June, but still walks around the clubhouse pumping his teammates up as if every day is a high school playoff game. Everyone’s energy levels fade as they age, but it’s something Lewis wants to maximize every day in his career.
“We try to bring out the best in everybody and try to have a high energy for these guys because the older you get, the energy tends to get a bit lower,” said Lewis. “Just like your dog, man, when your dog is one or two years old, he’s a puppy that has high energy. Then all of a sudden, 10, 11,12, he’s starting to cool down a little bit, be more chill. So I’m trying to keep that high energy level up as high as I can for as long as I can.”
Expectations are high again for Lewis going into 2026. He played a career-high 102 games in 2025, but his first- and second-half performances were night and day. Lewis spent the first month of the season on the IL, recovering from a hamstring strain in spring training.
Lewis later said he rushed himself to get back in the lineup for the struggling Twins, and the results stuck with him throughout the offseason. He had .216/.281/.302 slash line, just two home runs, and 13 RBI over 42 games.
Then, when the Twins returned from the All-Star break, things began to click for Lewis. Still, he performed below his previous-season value. Lewis had a .249/.284/.439 slash line, 11 home runs, 39 RBI, and took off on the base paths, swiping 12 stolen bases in 14 attempts.
Despite the second-half improvements, Lewis knew he needed to improve his routine this offseason. So he hired a new personal hitting coach he worked out with in Houston, which gave him time to catch up with Carlos Correa and his family.
“That was awesome, man,” Lewis said. “He’s one of my best friends out here now, especially outside of baseball, so it was really special. I just love his family, his kids, so it was good quality time.”
Lewis’s time in Houston this off-season was a refresher to catch up with Correa and his family, and less so about working out together to prepare for next season. Lewis did all of his baseball work in Houston with Jeremy Isenhower, his new hitting instructor, who has also worked with Jorge Polanco.
Keeping the two separate helped him appreciate his friendship with Correa more and how meaningful it will be to have him as a lifelong friend once their time in the game is over.
“We love the game,” said Lewis, “but at the same time, we were also talking a lot about dinosaurs because Kenzo knows a lot about dinosaurs and Kylo loves Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Lewis is looking healthy for Opening Day, but injury concerns have always hovered over him, especially early in the season. He’s only played one game before May 1 in his MLB career, which was Opening Day 2024, when he only made it two at-bats into the game before exiting with a quad strain.
Baseball fans haven’t had a chance to see how Lewis can impact the Twins on the field in the first month of the season, and neither has Lewis. He already had a scare earlier in spring training, being scratched out of a starting lineup for tightness in his right side.
Fortunately, an MRI revealed the tightness to be nothing more than a small flare, and Lewis has remained on the field since. Since that flare-up has passed, the hard work has continued for Lewis each day in camp. He knows the expectations are high for him to be close, if not very similar to the hitter he was in 2023.
If he can return to that level of performance, then he may not only make the first All-Star game of his career, but also help Minnesota’s chances of contending in 2026.
“That’s what I’m doing,” said Lewis. “That’s exactly what I’m doing, just working. Working hard, and the work does not stop. I get home, and I’m ready to sleep. I can’t wait for the games because you work so hard for these games, these nine innings are so precious, and I can’t wait to get, five six at-bats with the boys here. It’s going to be so much fun.”
