Twins’ Royce Lewis makes gains with hamstring injury but remains weeks from full strength

Royce Lewis was cleared by the Twins to begin a limited running program Saturday, which doesn’t sound like a big step. Unless, like Lewis, you’ve suffered two major injuries in the past 13 months simply by running.

“Any time they let me do something [more], it’s always pretty good,” said Lewis, who suffered a moderate strain of his left hamstring while running out a ground ball in Fort Myers, Fla., on March 16. “I’ll probably run three days in a row, take a break, then try to get on [the] bases. It’s a long progression.”

And it likely will take another three weeks before the 25-year-old third baseman is ready to play minor league rehab games on his way back to the Twins, team President Derek Falvey said. Internally, Falvey said, the Twins knew “it was going to take four to six weeks, maybe six-plus weeks. It can kind of bleed into that stretch. … He’ll go back out somewhere when he’s starting to progress to a point where he can get into real baseball activity and games.”

But the progress is real, Lewis said. “The first two days, I couldn’t straighten my leg,” he said. Now? “Not much pain, just achy.”

As good as he feels during workouts, even Lewis admits he’s weeks away from full recovery.

“It’s not like, just run two days and then you’re back — as much as I wish it was,” he said. “Trust me, I would love to be playing right now, but that’s just not the case.”

In other injury updates:

• Brooks Lee played seven innings at shortstop Sunday, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, in Class A Fort Myers’ 11-10 loss to Palm Beach. It was Lee’s first rehab game since he suffered back spasms last month, and he’ll play several times in the next week, Falvey said. “Usually, we have a better sense of what the next steps are after three or four games,” Falvey said. “So we’ll see how that tracks this week.”

• Righthander Brock Stewart had hoped to make a couple of rehab appearances for Class AAA St. Paul last week, but he reported tightness in a hamstring, forcing the Twins to pull back. Falvey said the Twins will know later this week what Stewart’s new timeline looks like.

• Righthander Michael Tonkin threw a bullpen session in Fort Myers as he recovers from shoulder soreness that cut his spring training short by several weeks. “It’s good news, but we don’t have a specific timetable on when he can progress to” facing hitters in batting practice, Falvey said, much less to playing rehab games.

A long rain delay in Chicago on Wednesday left TV broadcaster Cory Provus thinking he would miss his chance to attend a celebration of Bob Uecker’s life that night in Milwaukee.

But Falvey, he said, “wouldn’t even let me consider not going.”

With radio voice Kris Atteberry filling in on very short notice, Provus caught a train north and made it to the Miller High Life Theater just 10 minutes before the invitation-only program began. And Provus, Uecker’s partner in the booth for three seasons, is glad he did.

“It was an incredible night. No cameras allowed, no taking video,” Provus said. “It was all meant for the people in that room, people who meant a lot to Bob, and people who loved him.“

The program wasn’t a memorial for Uecker, who died at 90 in January, though; it was a reminiscence led by Bob Costas, who sat behind a desk in a stage set up like Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.” First, Joe Torre and Bud Selig talked about Uecker’s days as a player and afterward.

Selig, former Brewers owner and MLB commissioner, “talked about how he gave Bob his first job, hired him as a scout,” Provus said. “And that was a short-lived experiment, because Bob’s first report came back and had mashed potatoes and gravy stains all over it, and Bud couldn’t read it.”

The next interviews were with cast members of the TV sitcom “Mr. Belvedere,” talking about Hollywood Ueck. Then came Al Michaels and two former Brewers partners, Pat Hughes and Jeff Levering, sharing stories of sharing a broadcast booth with him.

“And then as we rounded third and headed home, it was about how Bob was beloved and welcomed long after his career was over. How the modern player wanted him around, and how that kept him going,” Provus said. “Christian Yelich was on the stage, and Mark Attanasio, the [Brewers’] owner, and Pat Murphy, their manager.”

Former Brewers Robin Yount, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and Trevor Hoffman were in attendance, Provus said. And Uecker’s son, Bob Uecker Jr., closed the program, “thanking everybody for coming, saying how special it’s been to get together, to hear all the stories, to laugh and cry together. It was so touching. I can’t thank the Twins enough for letting me be a part of it.”

Randy Dobnak gave up one hit over five shutout innings in his 2025 debut for the St. Paul Saints on Sunday, but for the second time in a week the Saints blew a 2-1 ninth-inning lead and lost to the Clippers 3-2 in Columbus, Ohio. Petey Halpin singled home the tying run in the ninth, and Will Brennan did the same an inning later to score the game-winner.

The Saints open a six-game homestand Tuesday against Omaha.