Unproven MN Twins Star Wants New Deal?

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Royce Lewis, Minnesota Twins
Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Twins have been barreling down the rabbit hole of failure for a while now, which is exactly why team president Derek Falvey felt compelled to act as a seller at the trade deadline. Of course, with a gutted roster things haven’t gotten better.

Afterall, most of the players on the 26-man roster are heavily tied to the Twins’ unmet expectations this season. Guys the Twins came into the spring relying on, but who have largely failed to produce what was required, like Matt Wallner, Brooks Lee and Trevor Larnach.

Royce Lewis, Minnesota Twins
Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

But at the top of Minnesota’s list of underachievers is 26-year-old Royce Lewis, a former No. 1 overall draft pick who, not that long ago, took the league by storm when he first arrived on the scene.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t been that uber-confident blossoming superstar in over a year now, and it sounds like his frustration is starting to boil over.

Royce Lewis hurting present worrying about future for MN Twins

In 2025, Royce owns a disappointing .233/.293/.378 slash line. The whole of Lewis’ struggles are complicated, but in short, the ball simply isn’t travelling for him. And when he does get barrel, which has happened far too inconsistently, he seems to find leather far too often.

In some quotes posted at The Athletic, via beat writer Dan Hayes, Lewis sure sounds like he is blaming his struggles on the Minnesota Twins organization, and their unwillingness to sign Royce to a long-term contract extension.

“It’s also hard to make a full in-season adjustment because you can try that, and those 30 games or at-bats of trial go toward your stats. Do you really want to sacrifice that? And if it doesn’t work, then you go back to what you were doing before. It’s always hard. I know (Michael) Harris (II) just did a significant change.

Being under contract probably helps because he knows what he’s making that year and the year after. For someone like me, I’m fighting (to take) care of myself and my family. I don’t want to put any of those stats in jeopardy. I’m trying to do what’s best as fast as possible. But feeling like I’ve been on an island, it’s kind of tough.”

Royce Lewis – The Athletic

This season is the first in which Royce Lewis has made more than $1 million during his Major League career, thanks to his first year of arbitration, a status that came with a salary increase to $1.63 million.

Prior to this season, he made somewhere between $700K-$750K per season. In addition to his $6.725 million bonus as the 2017 No. 1 overall draft pick, Lewis has made over $10 million during his professional baseball career.

Is this a Royce Lewis problem or Minnesota Twins problem?

Important to remember in this conversation is that numbers dictate what a player makes during arbitration. Thus, it is somewhat understandable that Lewis would be concerned with his individual statistics, which are not good this season.

The one-time prolific power hitter has just seven home runs in 2025. His .671 OPS, 83 OPS+ are all career lows. The former top prospect out of JSerra Catholic High School in California owns a 0.6 fWAR that is largely propped up by his much-improved defense over at third base.

Looking at Royce’s baseball reference page is somewhat depressing. In his first 70 big league games, Lewis hit .307 with 17 HR, 11 doubles, 57 RBI and 41 runs scored. His OPS going into the 2024 season was .913, his OPS+ a whopping 148.

In the 155 games since, following a bevy of injuries that stunted his development, Lewis is hitting .233 with 23 homers, a .712 OPS and a 96 OPS+. Look, I understand what Lewis was trying to get at, when speaking with reporters. But once again, his quotes come off as lacking self-awareness.

At the end of the day, this is a team sport. His unwillingness to sacrifice what he believes will be short-term production, in exchange for what could help fix him more permanently in the future, is not a good look.

“I feel like I’m kind of on an island and trying to figure it out on my own. I haven’t felt comfortable all year. I wish I did. If I did, I think my numbers would be totally different. I’m just looking for comfort in the box. I don’t feel like I was going good at all this year. It’s a lot easier when things are going well. You know, there’s ups and downs. When things are not going your way and you hit one good and that doesn’t go your way, it’s frustrating.”

Royce Lewis – The Athletic

Related: MN Twins Set to Debut New Pitching Acquisitions

If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Lewis has seemingly been getting unlucky. He has just a .255 BABIP (batting average on balls in play). His expected metrics are all better than the actual results as well (xBA .263, xSLG .431, xwOBA .326).

The inputs remain solid as well. The average exit velocity is in line with career norms, and his 42.5% hard-hit rate is a career-best. Also notable is that his strikeout-rate is down to a near-career best 16.1%.

It’s understandable that Lewis may want a level of future certainty, but it doesn’t really make sense for him to be seeking an extension right now. Given how he has played, any long-term contract that bought out his arbitration would be worth a small fraction of his value when playing well.

Lewis is under team control through 2028. If he rebounds and plays well going forward, a $100 million-plus contract could be a reality. Why would he want to sacrifice that opportunity for short term security? Has he ever seen the Chicago Bulls documentary and how that worked out for Scottie Pippen? Because it didn’t go well.

Waking up Royce Lewis needs to be a Twins focus

Beyond just reining Lewis back in to focus on the present, the Minnesota Twins have to right what has been a sinking ship. Of course his grand slam against the Chicago White Sox on Friday night is a good start. They have to get buy in from the player though, and then let hitting coach Matt Borgschulte get to work.

“The biggest thing, I think, for every hitter, whether it’s worrying about arbitration or free agency or whatever the case is for the future, is getting the focus to be on doing what you can do today to set yourself up for success and staying within this day. We’ll just focus on the moment, focus on preparation, make sure you’re doing everything in the weight room, in the cage, in your prep to give yourself the best opportunity for success.”

Matt Borgschulte – The Athletic

The groundwork is there for a player that knows he has something to work on. He has a committed coach trying to get the most out of him as well. The tweaks are something he should probably lean into given the results are where they are. It seems like that may finally be coming to a head.

For a guy who experienced as much early success as Royce Lewis did prior to 2024, a lack of confidence wasn’t on very many BINGO cards, until recently. What we have found out over the past two seasons is that Lewis is a human being just like the rest of us.

Related: Report: Twins Players Growing Frustrated with Organization

The more that this Minnesota Twins organization can prop up the talented youngster, the greater chance we have of his big league story having a happy ending. The direction of the franchise isn’t something that has been clear of late, but Lewis can work to cement himself as a key cog during the final month of the season.

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