Lastly, a Hit for Royce Lewis

Royce Lewis nearly had one other grand slam. With the bases loaded within the high of the seventh inning in Sacramento on Tuesday evening, A’s righty Tyler Ferguson left a sweeper on the skin fringe of the strike zone, and the Twins third baseman — who two years in the past hit 4 grand slams in an 18-day span — didn’t miss it. A’s middle fielder Denzel Clarke couldn’t attain the 100-mph, 392-foot drive into the left-center hole in time. As a substitute, each Clarke and the ball caromed off the wall in fast succession, the sphere a pair ft wanting leaving the yard however nonetheless adequate to supply a two-run double that expanded the Minnesota result in 8-3 and eventually broke Lewis’ newest string of futility after 32 at-bats.

“It was good to see the ball hit the grass or the grime [or] the wall,” Lewis mentioned. “Simply something apart from a glove.”

Lewis, who turns 26 on Thursday, has grow to be all too acquainted with such grueling stretches. That is his third time for the reason that begin of final September that he’s endured a hitless streak of not less than 22 at-bats, although in contrast to the primary two, he was not less than hitting the ball fairly exhausting throughout this one:

Such are the most recent twists and turns within the temporary profession of Lewis, whose litany of accidents — largely leg accidents — has restricted him to 174 video games throughout components of 4 main league seasons. At instances, he’s seemed each bit pretty much as good as you would possibly’ve hoped he would, contemplating his standing as the primary decide within the 2017 beginner draft. Regardless of shedding all of 2021 and most of ’22 to tears of his anterior cruciate ligament in his proper knee, he starred for the Twins when he returned to motion in ’23. That season, he hit a tantalizing .309/.372/.548 (154 wRC+) with 15 homers (together with the 4 slams) in 58 video games, serving to Minnesota win the AL Central and the Wild Card collection, the franchise’s first postseason collection victory in 21 years. That stellar efficiency was restricted by his lacking a month and a half resulting from an indirect pressure and ending the common season on the injured record with a left hamstring pressure, although he returned to hit 4 dwelling runs in six playoff video games.

It’s been gut-wrenching at instances to look at such tribulations. Lewis homered in his first plate look on Opening Day 2024, then after hitting a single his second time up, he strained his proper quad whereas attempting to attain on a Carlos Correa double and didn’t return to the lineup till June 5. As soon as he did, he completely raked for 4 weeks, however an adductor pressure interrupted that run, and after lacking over three weeks, he endured one mediocre stretch after which one very dangerous one:

Admittedly, August 31 is an arbitrary endpoint for these splits, albeit a standard one. Lewis started the month with a sizzling four-game stretch that included his closing dwelling run of the season on September 1; then from his second plate look of September 4 by means of his second on September 11, he went 0-for-22 whereas placing out almost half the time and making quite a lot of dangerous contact even when he linked. After a slight rebound, he closed the season on an 0-for-21 slide (with two walks) from September 24 onward, dragging his season line all the way down to .233/.295/.452 (108 wRC+) in 82 video games and 325 plate appearances. That skid was simply considered one of a number of elements within the Twins’ collapse, which price them a Wild Card berth.

Sadly that 0-fer didn’t finish with the season, however earlier than he might snap it, he left a March 16 Grapefruit League recreation with one other left hamstring pressure and started this season on the IL. He lastly debuted on Could 5 and went 0-for-15 with a stroll — extending his hitless streak to 36 at-bats and 39 plate appearances — earlier than stroking a single off the Giants’ Erik Miller on Could 11. He singled once more in his subsequent plate look, went hitless in his subsequent two video games, after which added seven extra hits in a five-game span. However after doubling off the Guardians’ Jakob Junis in his third plate look on Could 19, he started a drought that prolonged two weeks earlier than lastly ending together with his double off Ferguson.

By 82 plate appearances, Lewis is hitting .133/.207/.213 for a 19 wRC+. That’s nonetheless a small pattern, and it’s not even the majors’ worst utilizing an 80-PA cutoff:

Woof, that’s 5 gamers from the AL Central together with Bride, who has not less than managed a 65 wRC+ for the reason that Twins picked him up, plus two from the Rockies. Lewis hasn’t dug himself almost as huge a gap as a few of these hitters; what within the identify of Ewing Kauffman is occurring with Massey? Notably absent from the record is Joc Pederson, who endured an 0-for-41 stretch this yr however is now as much as a relatively sturdy 52 wRC+.

These days, Lewis’ struggles have price him taking part in time. Previous to Tuesday, he had began simply three video games out of the earlier six, with Bride and Brooks Lee beginning the opposite three for the Twins, who’ve overcome a sluggish begin and simply snuck into second within the AL Central at 33-27, adequate for a Wild Card place. At instances, the third baseman has sounded despondent. Right here’s what he mentioned after final Wednesday’s recreation, when he went 0-for-4 with a 106.3-mph lineout, a 103.4-mph double play grounder, and fly outs of 97.2 mph and 99.7 mph:

“I’m at a degree the place the hope is gone. I simply do my job as finest as I can. If I hold hitting the ball exhausting, they are saying it’s going to discover a gap, however I haven’t seen it but… Seems like a Wiffle ball recreation proper now, really, as a result of you understand how the Wiffle ball stays up? That’s what my ball appears like.”

Final June 20, when he bounced again from a uncommon 0-for-5 with a three-hit recreation, the red-hot Lewis infamously mentioned, “I don’t try this stoop factor.” Since then, Twins followers have been maintaining tabs to the purpose that Lewis was compelled to make clear that assertion on Monday, after he sat out a 10-4 win over the A’s:

“What I used to be attempting to say mentally was I don’t go into, ‘I’m 0-for-20 no matter,’” Lewis mentioned. “I’m going into at the moment considering, ‘It’s Luis Severino. I’ve confronted him up to now. I really feel good. I do know his sinker and his four-seam.’ And that’s my mindset. That’s what I used to be attempting to say. So I’ll say it: I stoop. Lots of people stoop. Everybody slumps. Hopefully, I play lengthy sufficient I stoop 100 extra instances. That’s my purpose. I’m very excited to maintain pushing by means of and have one other alternative.”

Because the desk of Lewis’ hitless streaks illustrates, he’s been hitting the ball fairly exhausting recently. He has simply 62 batted ball occasions this season, so we’re again in small-sample territory, however exit velocity stabilizes on the 40 BBE mark and barrel fee on the 50 BBE mark; hard-hit stabilizes on the 80 BBE mark, so he’s wanting that, however his fee is consistent with his all-too-brief historical past:

Two issues stand out. First, Lewis is properly wanting his anticipated stats, 96 factors beneath his xwOBA and 171 factors beneath his xSLG. That might be a sample-size concern, as his shortfalls are bigger than these of the unluckiest qualifiers in xwOBA (Andrew Vaughn, 88 factors quick in 193 PA) and xSLG (Salvador Perez, 153 factors quick in 173 BBE). Second, even these anticipated numbers are properly beneath these of 2023 and ’24, regardless of his stable exit velocity.

A lot of that comes all the way down to Lewis’ batted ball distribution. He’s hitting barely extra grounders than regular and pulling the ball a lot much less typically (27.4%, 19.2 factors beneath final yr). His pulled air fee of 11.3% is lower than half what it was final yr (29.1%) and simply over half of what it was in 2023 (21%). Drilling down into Baseball Savant, Lewis has pulled simply three fly balls in 2025, considered one of which produced his solely dwelling run, a solo shot off Freddy Peralta on Could 18, and the opposite of which produced Tuesday’s double. By comparability, he had 12 homers on 31 pulled flies final yr and 7 homers on 14 pulled flies in 2023. He’s lacking a vital a part of his hitterly weight-reduction plan.

As for why, it’s not as if Lewis is making significantly dangerous swing choices. His 27.1% chase fee and 47.4% swing fee are each a pair factors beneath his profession norms. He’s within the seventy fifth percentile in response to Robert Orr’s SEAGER metric, down from 87th percentile final yr however nonetheless an indicator that he’s been superb at figuring out and swinging at pitches with which he might do actual injury. His 8.4% swinging strike fee and 15.9% strikeout fee are each profession lows (excluding his 12-game cup of espresso in 2022).

Understandably, Lewis has been tinkering together with his batting stance:

royce lewis is now 0-for-20 in his final 21 plate appearances

appears to be like like he’s attempting to vary issues up with an upright open stance https://t.co/edcjstks4G pic.twitter.com/MggeGh5Fxh

— parker hageman (@HagemanParker) Could 28, 2025

In accordance with the Statcast knowledge — which aren’t granular sufficient for me to match up particular person dates and don’t embrace spring coaching metrics — Lewis has advanced from a stance that was open by 3 levels final September, to six levels in Could, to 14 levels in June, the final of which is my finest guesstimate for that high clip from Could 28. He’s moved his ft farther aside, rising from a median of 28.7 inches final yr to 32.4 in Could and now 34.3 in June — and he’s swinging exhausting. His 73.4-mph common bat velocity and 34.7% quick swing fee are in step with final yr, and each his 31.4% squared-up fee and 14.9% blast fee are properly forward of these marks.

“If something, proper now I’m over-swinging,” Lewis mentioned on Monday. “I’m swinging means too exhausting after which it appears like your head begins bouncing up and down and also you begin lacking pitches you usually wish to hit. I’m attempting to sluggish it down slightly bit.”

Lewis’ extra open stance has elevated the angle of his assault path towards the pull aspect from 3 levels to 9 levels. That’s noteworthy in that he had extra success final June and July, when his path ranged from 7–9 levels, than he did in August and September of 2024 and Could of this yr, when it ranged from 2–6 levels.

Pitch-wise, Lewis has more and more struggled with choices within the higher third of the strike zone, but it surely does appear to be there’s been some dangerous luck concerned recently:

These upper-third pitches are largely fastballs. Pitchers have left Lewis valuable few hanging breaking balls or elevated changeups; he’s confronted simply 5 non-fastballs within the higher third this yr, solely considered one of which was put into play, a routine fly ball to the Brewers’ Jackson Chourio on Could 16. Two days later, in his second plate look after homering off Peralta, Chourio robbed Lewis of a possible game-tying, eighth-inning homer.

When it doesn’t go your means, it doesn’t go your means. Hopefully, the tide has turned for Lewis, who’s far too proficient to be hanging out on the backside of the wRC+ leaderboard. Right here’s hoping his subsequent 0-fer is an extended methods off.