Return is Near for One Injured Twins Infielder; The Other… Not So Much

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Brooks Lee, Minnesota Twins
Credit: Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Twins currently own a 3-5 record through their first eight games of the 2025 MLB regular season. No doubt, part of the early season struggles can be attributed to an Opening Day roster that was far from 100%.

Randy Dobnak found his way onto the club in St. Louis, after Brock Stewart hit the injured list toward the end of Spring Training. Louie Varland landed in the Twins bullpen, after Michael Tonkin joined Stewart on the IL.

Then on the position player side of the roster, their two top young infielders, Brooks Lee (lumbar strain) and Royce Lewis (hamstring strain), were left down in Florida to continue recovering from their own Grapefruit League injuries.

Brooks Lee starting rehab assignment for Minnesota Twins

Both first round shortstops are expected back before the season changes to summer, but they are not on the same timeline. Brooks Lee is actually already back in action. He played his first rehab assignment game on Sunday with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. Lee finished 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts.

He went 0-for-3, but played all seven of his scheduled innings at shortstop, without any issues. Despite the results, that’s a very positive first step on his way back to the big leagues.

The Minnesota Twins wanted Lee to win the second base job this spring, but they were in no hurry to hand him the job, like they did Royce Lewis (more on him shortly). While Lee began last season on the injured list, too he made it clear early on that this injury was not the same level of severity as last year’s herniated disc.

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Lee, now 24 years old out of Cal-Poly, didn’t exactly light the world on fire during Spring Training, where he batted .238/.273/.381 with a pair of homers and an 8/2 K/BB. He hit .308/.368/.606 in 25 games with Triple-A St. Paul last season, which is much closer to the results Minnesota expects to get out of him.

Although Lee got off to a solid start to his big league career in Minnesota, he finished with just a .221/.265/.320 slash line in 50 MLB games, as a rookie. He struggled to catch up to fastballs for the first time in his career and really had to tweak his process this offseason.

Baldelli has no shortstop depth behind Carlos Correa. That’s not a great thing, being their $36 million superstar has missed significant time for two different bouts vs plantar fasciitis, over the last two seasons. Once Brooks Lee gets back to the MLB, he represents by far the Twins’ best option to give Correa breaks at SS throughout the season.

Twins will continue to wait on Royce Lewis

Unlike Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis’ injury is a longer-term situation. According to what Minnesota Twins president Derek Falvey told reporters late Sunday morning, the 2017 No. 1 overall pick is just three weeks into a 6-8 week recovery process, putting his potential return date out to the very end of April, more likely mid-to-late May.

Given the multitude injuries Royce Lewis has dealt with through the first 150 games of his career, the Minnesota Twins certainly aren’t going to rush him back. Lewis had a great spring as he batted .346/.469/.423 across 12 Grapefruit League games.

All of the momentum fell apart when he pulled up trying to beat out an infield single. Last season, after getting hurt on Opening Day and again later in the year, Lewis played in just 82 games for the Twins. That still represents his high-water mark in a big league season.

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After posting a .309/.372/.548 slash line in 58 games during 2023, Lewis cratered to a .233/.295/.452 line last year. His lack of performance aided the Twins collapse to end the season, and it brought questions about his position this offseason.

Baldelli has already stated that Lewis is his starter at the hot corner when healthy. The Twins are at their best when he is on the field and productive. It’s still a waiting game as his body recovers, but the hope would be that this is the only time the talented infielder misses the rest of the way.

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