Minnesota Twins Activate Royce Lewis in Flurry of Roster Moves

The Minnesota Twins 2025 regular season pendulum continues to swing back and forth. Since stumbling out of the Opening Day gates with a 4-11 record, the Twins have gone 11-9 and enter Monday’s day off still treading water at 15-20.

After losing four-straight, including three of four in Cleveland, the MN Twins open a new series on Tuesday evening against the Baltimore Orioles, after taking two of three in Fenway over the Boston Red Sox this weekend. Over the past three weeks the Twins have been riding a rollercoaster of winning and losing stretches.

• 4/13-4/16: WON 3-of-4 (Tigers, Mets)
• 4/18-4/20: LOST 3-Straight (Braves)
• 4/22-4/28: WON 6-of-7 (White Sox, Angels, Guardians)
• 4/29-5/2: LOST 4-Straight (Guardians, Red Sox)
• 5/3-5/4: WON 2-Straight (Red Sox)

To this point, the Twins’ have kept their season afloat without 2017 No. 1 overall draft pick Royce Lewis, a key piece to their lineup puzzle both now and in the future. But that will not be the case, going forward.

Minnesota Twins activate Royce Lewis, Willi Castro

On Monday, Minnesota’s lineup got a whole lot better when both Lewis and 2024 All-Star utility man, Willi Castro were officially activated off the injured list. In corresponding roster moves, the Twins optioned infielders Edouard Julien and Mickey Gasper to Triple A.

We have made the following roster moves: pic.twitter.com/NoHdfJ3yYu

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 5, 2025

Royce Lewis, who turns 26 years old in June, will step into the batter’s box on Tuesday at Target Field with all sorts of questions. Beyond his chronic inability to stay healthy early in his career, Lewis fell off a productivity cliff during the second half of 2024, finishing with a disappointing .233 batting average and 74/28 K/BB ratio.

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Yet, even at his worst, Royce Lewis put up a respectable .747 OPS and 106 OPS+ last year. In an injury riddled first three seasons of his MLB career, Royce Lewis has hit .268 with an impressive .825 OPS and 126 OPS+. Optioning Julien means Brooks Lee and Willi Castro will split time at second base.

Castro will also spell Lewis plenty at third base. Prior to his injury, Willi Castro was struggling at the plate, hitting just .227 with a .655 OPS and 84 OPS+. In 2024, the 28-year-old Puerto Rican made the AL All-Star Game as a Utility Fielder, a new position added to the roster last year.

Castro, Lewis replace Mickey Gasper and Eddie Julien

With two-plus seasons as a member of the Minnesota Twins, Castro holds a .249 batting average, .725 OPS and 101 OPS+. He’s a swiss army knife who can play anywhere on the field, outside of catcher. Unfortunately, he isn’t a plus-fielder at any position, something that bares its ugly head every once in a while.

But no matter, because the Twins want and need fielders with position flexibility. And when it comes to utility players in the MLB, they don’t get much better than Willi Castro. Without a doubt, he’ll fill the role better than Mickey Gasper, who batted .176 with a .488 OPS in 34 at bats for the Twins, in Castro’s absence.

Mickey Gasper finally got his first big league hit and his family got to see it!pic.twitter.com/0pjbt3WTKF

— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) March 29, 2025

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Eddie Julien heads back down to St. Paul after riding the MLB struggle bus yet again. We all knew the 26-year-old second baseman would bring down the defense, but he was supposed to bring a bat on offense that made you forget about all that. Instead, we’ve wanted to forget he ever got called up in the first place.

In 91 at bats in 2025, Eddie Julien is batting below the Mendoza Line, at .198, with a .607 OPS and 71 OPS+ (-0.4 WAR). If the Canadian kid can’t figure things out soon, he will be out of opportunities with the Minnesota Twins.