Twins’ Royce Lewis appears ready for the next step to stardom

Royce Lewis never felt more nervous on a baseball field. He could feel his heart beating as he listened to the excitement from the Target Field crowd in his first playoff game.

When he walked to the plate in the bottom of the first inning, he paused to step out of the batter’s box and look around. Joe Mauer had sent him a text message, reminding Lewis to take it all in, and the 24-year-old rookie wanted to savor it. Months later, he vividly remembers thinking how excited and proud everyone looked as he received an ovation.

Six pitches later, Lewis met the moment. He crushed a two-run homer to left field.

“Honestly, it makes me smile, and I get jitters with anticipation and excitement for this year coming up just remembering how much fun I had with the guys last year,” Lewis said Friday. “Being able to do it for a full year this year is what I’m most looking forward to.”

Lewis cemented his status as a fan favorite with his postseason heroics. He homered again in his second at-bat to help the Twins end pro sports’ longest playoff losing streak, becoming just the third player in major league history to begin his postseason career with back-to-back homers.

He made clutch hits a part of his DNA. After recovering from a torn knee ligament, he homered in his first game of the season and had a tying single in the ninth inning. He hit a franchise-record five grand slams. Injuries limited him to 58 games, but no American League player had a higher on-base percentage plus slugging percentage with runners in scoring position.

As much as everyone marveled at his knack for delivering in the game’s biggest moments, especially for a guy coming off multiple knee surgeries and limited playing time, his teammates were impressed he had the ability to slow everything down before his first playoff at-bat.

“Give us a full season of Royce, and everyone is going to be pleased,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said.

• • •

During Thursday night’s annual Diamond Awards, which raises money for neurological disease research at the University of Minnesota, Lewis and his fiancée, Samantha Hobart, were moved by a speech from Dr. Jerrold Vitek, the head of the neurology department.

Vitek detailed his joy from alleviating symptoms for patients with Parkinson’s disease — his version of a home run, he said — and how he has worked with his childhood friend Larry Schneiderman, who has Parkinson’s.

Lewis and Hobart walked to the stage with an idea. The event was concluding a live auction, which featured experiences at restaurants and other events. Lewis offered one more experience: lunch with him, tickets to a game and batting practice passes. It turned into a $10,000 donation, the largest of the night.

“I was like, that’s just a lunch,” Lewis said. “I was also looking at it from a viewpoint, if I was a kid and someone said, ‘Hey, Torii Hunter or Matt Kemp or Carlos Correa or Derek Jeter is going to offer a free lunch, and you can ask as many questions as you want, learn about what their lifestyle is like, and maybe BP, a game and a signed bat or jersey,’ I would offer at the time whatever money I had, which was a little piggy bank with probably $25. But I would love that.”

Lewis, the No. 1 pick in the 2017 major league draft, grew up a big fan of Jeter in Southern California. He wanted to play shortstop like him, and he is drawn to athletes who make an impact off the field.

“What I appreciate from fans, and just other teammates and players in general, has been how they talk about me as a person,” Lewis said. “I think that means the most to me and my family. I look forward to just continuing to be the same person and having a lot of fun playing the game that I love. We’ll see what comes out of that.”

• • •

Before Lewis homered twice in his first postseason game, he was greeted in the weight room by Twins strength coach Aaron Rhodes, who remarked, “There he is.”

Another strength coach, Chuck Bradway, said the same thing when he saw Lewis for the first time in the morning.

“Super random,” Lewis said. “No one told these people what to say.”

After a lifting session, Lewis ate lunch with Nick Gordon. The chef casually approached Lewis and said, “There he is. How are you doing?”

Gordon, who was in the weight room with Lewis, told his teammate, “I’m telling you, man, they know. Everyone knows who it is. It’s you. You’re him.”

Several hours later, after Lewis watched his first postseason home run sail over the left field fence, Lewis looked at Gordon, who was sitting on the dugout railing, and shouted, “I’m him!” as he ran up the first base line.

“He was joking with me about it all day,” Lewis said. “He’s like, ‘They know who you are. You’re him.’ I said it to him, and I gave it back. I think he was very appreciative because he always gives me crap that I never give him the [celebrations] that he asks for.”

This is Lewis’ first normal offseason in a few years. He spent the past two winters rehabbing from knee surgeries. He didn’t play in 2020 because COVID-19 canceled the minor league season.

Baldelli says managing the big-picture expectations will be the test for Lewis this year. Everyone knows he could become a superstar. The key will be continuing to live in the moment.

The ovations are growing louder. More Lewis jerseys are populating TwinsFest. Lewis, for his part, says he doesn’t feel like fans are treating him differently from before.

“When you have a season like he had — or a partial season — I think everyone’s eyes get real big, and everyone gets not just excited, but people start going nuts,” Baldelli said. “And rightfully so. I understand it.”