What are the Twins going to do with Royce Lewis?
That question is making the rounds as the 3rd baseman has struggled mightily since the start of the season. And Lewis might be at a crossroads in a career that's been beset by injuries, prolonged slumps, with flashes of the talent that made him the Twins first overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft.
Now, six weeks into the 2026 season, with Lewis hitting a paltry .163 with just 17 hits and a whopping 37 strikeouts, a trip down to St. Paul and the minor leagues for a reset could be in his future.
“He’s grinding a little bit, maybe a bit of overswinging,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said to The Athletic. “There’s a situation where guys, they don’t have their A swing, and they try to overswing to do too much.”
Dan Hayes, who covers the Twins for The Athletic, told WCCO's Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar that a trip to St. Paul is definitely a possibility.
"I don't know if the Twins are there yet simply because I don't think they have enough options to do this," said Hayes. "A lot of their top prospects are hurt at AAA. And so, where they go to make a move is not cut and dried. Whereas with Wallner, they had Ryan Kreidler who was ready to go and he was gonna fit in the roster."
Lewis dealt with a left knee sprain and he has really been in a funk since returning from that injury. Shelton put Lewis on the bench for a few days, hoping to get him into a better place. But it might take more than that.
It's a similar situation to Matt Wallner, who the Twins sent back to St. Paul last Wednesday. Wallner went hitless in 14 straight at-bats, but more concerning were 11 of those ended in strikeouts.
Lewis, in Sunday's 5-4 win over the Brewers, struck out three times in three at-bats. He was removed late for a pinch-hitter. That's 10 strikeouts in his last 30 trips to the plate, and even in a new-look MLB game where strikeouts aren't as egregious a sin as they used to be, it's still way too many swings and misses.
"Royce Lewis certainly is struggling, and probably as much as I can recall him struggling, basically back to the end of the 2024 season," Hayes added. "I mean, yesterday he saw 15 pitches, he swung at 14 of them, or fouled off too with bunts. But, you know, he's just swinging from the heels right now, trying to do something, trying to do anything."
Lewis is working his tail off behind the scenes, according to Hayes who adds Lewis constantly in the batting cage and working to get out of his funk. It hasn't translated to the games at this point.
"It's not like Royce is just doing nothing," says Hayes. "But, the work right now is not translating, and Royce Lewis is striking out more than ever for his career. So, it is a tough run for him."
Recently, Lewis suggested to Hayes and The Athletic the team’s decision-makers are hoping he fails so they could write him off and demote him to the minor leagues or trade him, which is quite a statement about a team that has been patiently waiting for Lewis to return to the powerful hitter he showed in the 2023 season, and postseason. There, he hit 4 home runs and drove in 5 runs in 6 playoff games. Lewis hit a Minnesota Twins single-season record of four grand slams during the 2023 season. Notably, he became the first player in franchise history to hit grand slams in consecutive games (August 27 and August 28) and smashed three within an eight-day span.
He started 2024 off red-hot. And he cratered after the All-Star break, and has not regained the form that made him such a threat at the plate in '23.
He came into 2025 hoping to get back on track. He told WCCO's Jason DeRusha he was ready to put 2024 behind him, and felt motivated to have a big year.
"You understand what happened and how that felt, so it motivates you to do better and to work harder each and every day to not let that happen again," Lewis explained.
Then, a spring training hamstring injury began his 2025, and Lewis ended up playing 106 games, hitting a career-low .237 with only 12 home runs and a .671 OPS.
Still, there were small signs by the end of 2025 that things were trending back up for Lewis. Certainly, 2025 didn't end the way the Twins hoped during that spring training. A sell-off of the bullpen and most of their top, tradeable players, the firing of manager Rocco Baldelli, and very low expectations for a team just two years removed from winning a postseason series. Through it all, Lewis was hopeful and pointed to his growth mentally.
"It takes so much hard work behind the scenes and that's what we did this offseason, and even this year. I've grown a lot. I think this year was a big year for me, to develop as a player," Lewis said in September.
It hasn't come to fruition. Besides the strikeouts, the power has disappeared. Lewis hit two home runs in the season's opening series in Baltimore. Since then, he's hit one.
And now the problem might be translating to his play in the field. A routine double play ball was hit his way during Saturday's game against the Brewers. And Lewis just flat-out whiffed on it, allowing the Brewers to tie the game which they'd end up winning 2-1.
Royce Lewis is speedrunning a trip to Triple-A right now.
— Talkin' Twins (@TalkinTwins) May 17, 2026
Routine double-play ball to end the inning... completely misses it, allowing the Brewers to tie the game instead.
These are the kinds of mistakes that add up & get you sent down fast.#MNTwins | #ThisIsMyCrew | #MLB pic.twitter.com/sq43zEKUyW
Lewis has the look of a player lacking in confidence. Whether a trip to the minors can prop that back up remains to be seen. But it might be time for a change for the once-promising infielder.
"But it is definitely something that's kind of got to get fixed one way or the other, because Royce Lewis can be so good and it's clear right now that he's not at his best, and the strikeouts are piling up," Hayes adds.
There is certainly empathy for a player who has struggled so much with injuries. But if you look at a player like Byron Buxton who also struggled with injuries, he never lost confidence in his ability, and worked tirelessly to get back on the field and find success. Lewis seemingly hasn't been able to gain that confidence back since his 2023 coming out party.
But, whether it's mental, or physical, time could be running out.
"I don't know that physically, I'm not sure that he can be the same hitter he was three, four years ago before two knee surgeries, but I don't know who would be," Hayes explains. "He went into the offseason looking to change his swing and do some different things, especially in his setup. Right now, it's been a struggle constantly and it's definitely tough to see."
Lewis is like by his teammates, and by all reports a great person. And it's been clear the Twins organization has given Lewis ample time to figure it out, and Shelton has been clear he supports Lewis.
But at some point, the Twins have to get production out of their lineup and build towards the future. And time might be marching on for Lewis.
