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 in need of leaving the yard however nonetheless ok 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 aside from a glove.”

Lewis, who turns 26 on Thursday, has change into all too acquainted with such grueling stretches. That is his third time because the begin of final September that he’s endured a hitless streak of at the least 22 at-bats, although not like the primary two, he was at the least hitting the ball fairly onerous throughout this one:

Such are the most recent twists and turns within the transient 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 may’ve hoped he would, contemplating his standing as the primary choose within the 2017 newbie draft. Regardless of dropping 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 listing with a left hamstring pressure, although he returned to hit 4 house runs in six playoff video games.

It’s been gut-wrenching at instances to observe 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 making an attempt 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 unhealthy one:

Admittedly, August 31 is an arbitrary endpoint for these splits, albeit a traditional one. Lewis started the month with a scorching four-game stretch that included his remaining house 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 putting out almost half the time and making a number of unhealthy 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 one in every of a number of components 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 commenced 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 along with his double off Ferguson.

By means of 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 at the least managed a 65 wRC+ because the Twins picked him up, plus two from the Rockies. Lewis hasn’t dug himself almost as large a gap as a few of these hitters; what within the title of Ewing Kauffman is happening with Massey? Notably absent from the listing is Joc Pederson, who endured an 0-for-41 stretch this yr however is now as much as a relatively strong 52 wRC+.

Recently, 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, ok 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 some extent the place the hope is gone. I simply do my job as greatest as I can. If I hold hitting the ball onerous, they are saying it’s going to discover a gap, however I haven’t seen it but… Looks 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 seems 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 hunch factor.” Since then, Twins followers have been protecting 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 making an attempt to say mentally was I don’t go into, ‘I’m 0-for-20 no matter,’” Lewis mentioned. “I’m going into in the present day pondering, ‘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 making an attempt to say. So I’ll say it: I hunch. Lots of people hunch. Everybody slumps. Hopefully, I play lengthy sufficient I hunch 100 extra instances. That’s my aim. 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 onerous currently. 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 charge on the 50 BBE mark; hard-hit stabilizes on the 80 BBE mark, so he’s in need of that, however his charge is consistent with his all-too-brief historical past:

Two issues stand out. First, Lewis is nicely in need of his anticipated stats, 96 factors beneath his xwOBA and 171 factors beneath his xSLG. That could possibly be a sample-size difficulty, 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 nicely 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 ordinary and pulling the ball a lot much less usually (27.4%, 19.2 factors beneath final yr). His pulled air charge 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, one in every of which produced his solely house 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 necessary a part of his hitterly weight loss program.

As for why, it’s not as if Lewis is making significantly unhealthy swing choices. His 27.1% chase charge and 47.4% swing charge 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 excellent at figuring out and swinging at pitches with which he might do actual injury. His 8.4% swinging strike charge and 15.9% strikeout charge are each profession lows (excluding his 12-game cup of espresso in 2022).

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

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

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

— parker hageman (@HagemanParker) Could 28, 2025

In keeping 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 developed 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 greatest 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 onerous. His 73.4-mph common bat velocity and 34.7% quick swing charge are per final yr, and each his 31.4% squared-up charge and 14.9% blast charge are nicely forward of these marks.

“If something, proper now I’m over-swinging,” Lewis mentioned on Monday. “I’m swinging means too onerous after which it seems like your head begins bouncing up and down and also you begin lacking pitches you usually wish to hit. I’m making an attempt to sluggish it down a bit 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, however it does seem like there’s been some unhealthy luck concerned currently:

These upper-third pitches are largely fastballs. Pitchers have left Lewis treasured few hanging breaking balls or elevated changeups; he’s confronted simply 5 non-fastballs within the higher third this yr, solely one in every 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 a protracted methods off.