3 October 2023
The big question during Monday’s workout day at Target Field, at least among the fourth estate in the Twins’ clubhouse, was whether Royce Lewis would be available for the team’s first-round playoff series against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The rookie infielder is on the 15-day injured list with a strained left hamstring and hasn’t played in a game since he was pulled in the middle of an at-bat during a 7-0 victory at Cincinnati on Sept. 19.
Will he be in the lineup for Game 1 on Tuesday?
“I don’t want to push something and make it worse and also be out for the entire playoffs,” he said.
Prudent, to be sure, and entirely out of character. Lewis tends to approach injuries with optimism worthy of Candide, even in the face of knee surgeries that essentially robbed the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 amateur draft of two full seasons of professional baseball.
Is Lewis laying in the weeds, ready to pop into action on Tuesday afternoon?
This is an important question because the Twins are riding a major league-record, 18-game postseason losing streak. This is a team — nay, a franchise — desperate for playoff heroics, and Lewis has shown a knack for producing in big moments.
To wit: In 66 career major league games, he has hit five grand slams. He has hit all season, since being activated from the injured list on May 29. The Twins’ offense has been the third-best in baseball — behind Atlanta and Houston — since the all-star break, and Lewis has been in the center of it.
In 58 games this season, Lewis has 15 home runs and 52 RBIs. It’s almost difficult to imagine him without that fishing vest on.
“Every time he’s in the lineup,” veteran shortstop Carlos Correa said, “he’s a game-changer.”
On Monday, Lewis took batting practice and, after talking to reporters, joined the rest of his teammates in the outfield for a workout that was going to be his last test before the brass decided if he would play Tuesday, or even be on the playoff roster for this three-game Wild Card Series.
“Looks really good,” Correa said. “So, yeah, I’m very optimistic.”
Lewis seemed less sanguine about the hamstring.
“A little bit better each day, but it’s not, like, significant to where I got a big smile on my face,” he said, “like I know secretly I’m going to be locked in and balling out.”
Hamstrings are notoriously difficult to heal, sometimes taking up to six weeks, so, again, prudent. But usually when sidelined, for weeks or a day or two, Lewis is looking ahead.
Maybe it’s because it’s the playoffs. Mike Trout, the Angels’ prototype center fielder, has been to the postseason just once. Better to be cautious.
“I don’t take it for granted that we’re here,” Lewis said.
When it was mentioned to Lewis that he doesn’t have to run hard after hitting home runs, he smiled.
“That would be great,” he said. “I’ve thought of Kirk Gibson a few times.”
OK, now we’re getting somewhere. Sidelined by injuries to both of his legs during the 1988 World Series, Gibson pinch hit with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 1 against Oakland A’s closer Dennis Eckersley — and hit a two-run, walk-off home run.
It’s hard to read the tea leaves here. When asked about Lewis on Monday, manager Rocco Baldelli did everything but pantomime zipping his lips together. And Lewis was opaque, as well.
But the Twins aren’t in any shape to look ahead. They need a postseason win, and if they don’t necessarily need Lewis to get one, their odds improve dramatically with his bat in the lineup. The assumption is that if Lewis plays this week, it will be as the DH, and when this possibility was raised Monday, Lewis perked up,
“I would love to do anything at this point,” he said. “Just based on feel, I think DH would be great. That would be a big step.”
For player and team.
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