Minnesota Twins Injury Bug Strikes Lineup

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Royce Lewis, Minnesota Twins
Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Twins have already been dealing with a bevy of injuries to their starting staff, some more devastating than others. Pablo Lopez got some good news from his Tommy John surgery, but he’ll still miss the remainder of the season.

Not long after, Joe Ryan escaped the same frustrating diagnosis after he was scratched “out of an abundance of caution” from his first spring start. Thankfully, his lower-back tightness proved to be nothing more than short-term inflammation. Unfortunately, the Twins’ injury bug appears to have moved to the batting lineup.

Royce Lewis scratched from MN Twins lineup

On his first at bat of Grapefruit League action, Royce Lewis launched his first home run of the exhibition season, quickly reminding the Twins of the high end talent their young third baseman still possesses, if he can just stay healthy.

Less than a week later, a bulked up Lewis became the second big-name Twin to be scratched from a lineup this February “out of an abundance of caution”. Royce’s ailment, according to Dan Hayes (The Athletic) is “tightness in on his right side.”

Lewis’ latest injury comes off a 2025 spring training in which Lewis suffered a significant hamstring strain that cost him the start of the season. He came back early, just to aggravated it later, which cost the 26-year-old multiple more months on the shelf.

Hayes describes Lewis’ tightness only as “right side”, which leads one to believe it’s his upper body, though it’s possible it could be lower-body too.

Last season Lewis played in a career-high 106 games, which isn’t something Royce Lewis goes around bragging about, especially being his career-worst .237/.283/.388 slash line.

Nonetheless, the Minnesota Twins were relying on young talents like Lewis taking the next step in their development this season. That can’t happen if those players aren’t on the field.

Contingency plans for Minnesota Twins

Lewis is the unquestioned starter at third base if he is healthy. There isn’t a great group of veteran options behind him either. Gio Urshela is in camp and started there for the Twins previously, but has fallen off significantly (78 OPS+) the past two seasons.

It’s possible that Ryan Kreidler or Tristan Gray could fill in, but neither of those options have much upside. If the Twins wanted to get really aggressive early in the season, they could call Kaelen Culpepper’s number.

The star prospect would take over at shortstop and push Brooks Lee to third. Lee is not likely to show well at shortstop, and Culpepper appears to be a fit there. He has yet to appear at Triple-A, but was close to a promotion last season (.289/.375/.469 in 113 A+/AA games) and has a chance to showcase his stuff in camp.

Ideally the Minnesota Twins aren’t forced into drastic decisions regarding Royce Lewis any time soon. The unfortunate reality is that he has struggled to provide consistencies to suggest otherwise.

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