Twins Send Former First Overall Pick Down to Minor Leagues.

What a massive turnaround it has been for the former first overall pick, Royce Lewis. Lewis, who was drafted in 2017 by the Minnesota Twins, has had quite the roller coaster of a career playing in the MLB. After missing the entire 2021 minor league season and almost all of the 2022 MLB season due to ACL tears, it looked like Royce was gonna finally take that next step for the Twins in 2023. He started exceptionally hot to start the MLB season, getting not only Twins fans but baseball fans extremely invested. However the roller coaster took a surprising launch backwards as he was right back on the injured list for the third time in the last three years. Thankfully he had not re-injured his right ACL, like the past two seasons, but he did strain his Oblique, which led him to missing around 40 games. He returned from this in mid September, but almost immediately, Royce was back on the IL. This came at an awful time for the Minnesota Twins, as they were mostly likely going to win their division and get to host the first playoff series in a matter of weeks. Lewis shockingly was able to return for that series in which he homered in multiple games, not only giving the Twins their first playoff win in years, but their first playoff series win since 2002.  Vibes were high. Royce was hot. The Twins were moving on. Unfortunately, the Twins fell to the Astros in the ALDS that year, but the encouraging thing, despite getting eliminated, was that Royce Lewis looked like he was finally getting ready to become the Twins superstar they had drafted him to become back in 2017.  But that was not true.  Royce would get injured yet again on Opening Day 2024, leading him to miss at least two months to start the year. After coming back from that Quad injury, he would play for around two weeks before getting re-injured, and therefore missing more time. The Twins would miss the playoffs and Royce Lewis was becoming the latest example of Minnesota sports luck. Fast forward to this year (2026), Royce never really got off to a great start. He was striking out at an alarming rate, not performing in clutch moments, and his defense was noticeably declining ever so slightly.  This performance, mixed with his health, led to the Twins decision to send him down to AAA, to hopefully take a full reset and to get back on track to being the Royce Lewis we all want to see.

Obviously everyone wants Lewis to succeed, however the questions are raising as I write this right now, has Royce Lewis played his last game for the Minnesota Twins?

 Personally I do believe they will give him another chance here in Minnesota, however come trade deadline time, the possibility of a Lewis trade definitely seems possible, given these recent events.

 Hopefully he and Matt Wallner, who also got sent down earlier this month, will be back up to the big leagues before we know it, but as for now all one can say is good luck Royce Lewis, I hope we see you soon.