Dennis Lee-Imagn Photos
Royce Lewis virtually had one other grand slam. With the bases loaded within the prime of the seventh inning in Sacramento on Tuesday night time, 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 heart 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 wanting leaving the yard however nonetheless ok to provide a two-run double that expanded the Minnesota result in 8-3 and at last 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 apart from a glove.”
Lewis, who turns 26 on Thursday, has change into all too accustomed to such grueling stretches. That is his third time for the reason that begin of final September that he’s endured a hitless streak of at the very least 22 at-bats, although not like the primary two, he was at the very least hitting the ball fairly laborious throughout this one:
Royce Lewis’ 0-Fers, 2024–25
Begin
Finish
PA
AB
Okay
EV*
Brl%*
HH%*
xBA*
xwOBA*
9/4/24 (2nd)
9/11/24 (2nd)
23
22
11
85.5
0.0%
22.2%
.118
.163
9/24/24 (third)
5/10/25 (third)
39
36
6
82.9
3.1%
34.8%
.193
.248
5/19/25 (4th)
6/3/25 (4th)
35
32
6
91.8
10.0%
37.5%
.190
.280
SOURCE: Baseball Savant
* = Statcast metrics just for full hitless video games throughout streak. Numbers in parentheses seek advice from depend of hitless plate appearances in book-end video games; i.e., Lewis went hitless from last two PA on 9/4/2024 by means of first two PA on 9/11/2024.
Such are the most recent twists and turns within the transient profession of Lewis, whose litany of accidents — principally leg accidents — has restricted him to 174 video games throughout components of 4 main league seasons. At instances, he’s seemed each bit nearly as good as you may’ve hoped he would, contemplating his standing as the primary decide within the 2017 beginner 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 sequence, the franchise’s first postseason sequence victory in 21 years. That stellar efficiency was restricted by his lacking a month and a half as a consequence of an indirect pressure and ending the common season on the injured record 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 dangerous one:
Royce Lewis 2024 Statistics
Span
PA
HR
BB%
Okay%
AVG
OBP
SLG
wRC+
EV
Brl%
HH%
By July 2
99
10
9.1%
18.2%
.292
.354
.685
186
88.1
15.3%
43.1%
July 26–August 31
124
5
8.9%
27.4%
.229
.290
.431
98
87.3
12.7%
39.2%
After August 31
102
1
7.8%
21.6%
.181
.245
.255
44
85.7
5.6%
30.6%
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 last 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 dangerous 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 right down to .233/.295/.452 (108 wRC+) in 82 video games and 325 plate appearances. That skid was simply one in all a number of elements 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 may snap it, he left a March 16 Grapefruit League sport with one other left hamstring pressure and commenced this season on the IL. He lastly debuted on Might 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 Might 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 Might 19, he started a drought that prolonged two weeks earlier than lastly ending along with his double off Ferguson.
By 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:
Lowest wRC+ in 2025
Minimal 80 plate appearances.
Woof, that’s 5 gamers from the AL Central together with Bride, who has at the very least managed a 65 wRC+ for the reason that Twins picked him up, plus two from the Rockies. Lewis hasn’t dug himself almost as massive a gap as a few of these hitters; what within the identify of Ewing Kauffman is occurring with Massey? Notably absent from the record is Pederson sportwho endured an 0-for-41 stretch this 12 months however is now as much as a relatively strong 52 wRC+.
Currently, Lewis’ struggles have price him enjoying 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 sport, 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 maintain hitting the ball laborious, they are saying it’s going to discover a gap, however I haven’t seen it but… Looks like a Wiffle ball sport proper now, actually, as a result of you know the way 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 sport, the red-hot Lewis infamously mentioned, “I don’t do this stoop factor.” Since then, Twins followers have been preserving 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 as we speak 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 stoop. Lots of people stoop. Everybody slumps. Hopefully, I play lengthy sufficient I stoop 100 extra instances. That’s my purpose. 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 laborious recently. 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 wanting that, however his charge is in step with his all-too-brief historical past:
Royce Lewis Statcast Profile
Season
BBE
EV
LA
Brl%
HH%
AVG
xBA
SLG
xSLG
wOBA
xwOBA
2023
162
90.2
16.2
11.7%
41.4%
.309
.262
.548
.478
.393
.348
2024
223
87.1
16.8
11.2%
37.7%
.233
.243
.452
.431
.317
.318
2025
62
90.6
17.2
11.3%
41.9%
.133
.215
.213
.384
.196
.292
Two issues stand out. First, Lewis is nicely wanting his anticipated stats, 96 factors under his xwOBA and 171 factors under his xSLG. That might be a sample-size problem, as his shortfalls are bigger than these of the unluckiest qualifiers in xwOBA (Andrew Vaughn88 factors brief in 193 PA) and xSLG (Salvador Perez153 factors brief in 173 BBE). Second, even these anticipated numbers are nicely under these of 2023 and ’24, regardless of his strong exit velocity.
A lot of that comes right down to Lewis’ batted ball distribution. He’s hitting barely extra grounders than standard and pulling the ball a lot much less typically (27.4%, 19.2 factors under final 12 months). His pulled air charge of 11.3% is lower than half what it was final 12 months (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 all which produced his solely house run, a solo shot off Freddy Peralta on Might 18, and the opposite of which produced Tuesday’s double. By comparability, he had 12 homers on 31 pulled flies final 12 months and 7 homers on 14 pulled flies in 2023. He’s lacking a necessary a part of his hitterly weight loss plan.
As for why, it’s not as if Lewis is making significantly dangerous swing choices. His 27.1% chase charge and 47.4% swing charge are each a pair factors under his profession norms. He’s within the seventy fifth percentile in keeping with Robert Orr’s SEAGER metricdown from 87th percentile final 12 months however nonetheless an indicator that he’s been excellent at figuring out and swinging at pitches with which he may 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
appears to be like 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) Might 28, 2025
In response to 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 Might, to 14 levels in June, the final of which is my greatest guesstimate for that prime clip from Might 28. He’s moved his ft farther aside, growing from a mean of 28.7 inches final 12 months to 32.4 in Might and now 34.3 in June — and he’s swinging laborious. His 73.4-mph common bat velocity and 34.7% quick swing charge are per final 12 months, 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 laborious 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 route towards the pull facet from 3 levels to 9 levels. That’s noteworthy in that he had extra success final June and July, when his route ranged from 7–9 levels, than he did in August and September of 2024 and Might of this 12 months, 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 dangerous luck concerned recently:
Royce Lewis vs. Pitches in Higher Third of Strike Zone
Season
PA
H
HR
EV
Brl%
HH%
Whiff
AVG
xBA
SLG
xSLG
wOBA
xwOBA
2023
31
12
3
92.1
17.4%
43.5%
30.8%
.387
.346
.677
.643
.450
.417
2024
48
8
4
89.7
15.2%
48.5%
33.1%
.170
.178
.447
.406
.252
.247
2025
11
2
0
93.0
9.1%
45.5%
32.0%
.182
.262
.182
.422
.162
.289
SOURCE: Baseball Savant
Consists of solely pitches in Gameday zones 1, 2, and three.
These upper-third pitches are principally fastballs. Pitchers have left Lewis valuable few hanging breaking balls or elevated changeups; he’s confronted simply 5 non-fastballs within the higher third this 12 months, solely one in all which was put into play, a routine fly ball to the Brewers’ Jackson Chourio on Might 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 an extended methods off.
