The Minnesota Twins shocked many when they decided to demote Royce Lewis late Tuesday night. In his return to the St. Paul Saints, Lewis wasted no time showing he belongs in the majors, having a great night at the plate in an 11-2 loss to the Omaha Storm Chasers.
Lewis’ night began in the first inning, where he took the second pitch of the game into the bleachers to put St. Paul on the board. Lewis doubled down the rest of the night, collecting two more hits and a stolen base to put an exclamation mark on a 3-for-3 night at the dish.
This comes as no surprise to Twins fans after watching Lewis fill in for Carlos Correa while he recovered from a finger injury. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft impressed in Correa’s absence, hitting .308 with two home runs and five RBIs in 11 games with Minnesota.
That performance made many believe that Lewis could stick around, in a utility role at a minimum, but he was sent back to St. Paul after Tuesday’s loss to the Oakland Athletics.
The Twins may have had a point by keeping Lewis in Triple-A. The 22-year-old had not played a competitive game in two years coming into this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a torn ACL suffered prior to last season. In addition, he has played 296 of his 326 career games at shortstop.
Learning several positions on the fly while adjusting to major league pitching may have been too much for a rookie to handle. The problem is that Lewis may be too good for the minor leagues.
After Thursday’s performance, Lewis is hitting .333 with four homers, 12 RBIs and nine stolen bases in 25 games with the Saints. Even if he needed to learn a different position, his bat would be a better option over Jose Miranda, who has an .094 batting average in 53 at-bats, and Nick Gordon, who has a .587 OPS in 29 games with the Twins.
