FORT MYERS, FLA. – Royce Lewis has accomplished a lot in 70 major league games, using his uncanny ability to hit grand slams, deliver clutch hits and inject energy into the Twins lineup.
His jersey is one of the most popular around the ballpark at Twins home games in Minnesota and Florida.
Ask Lewis, the 24-year-old third baseman, about his mindset during spring training, and he doesn’t sound like a guy who feels like he has achieved anything yet.
“I haven’t had a full season since 2019, let alone any full season in the big leagues,” Lewis said. “This is definitely like my true rookie year in all honesty for me. That’s how I’m going about it.”
Lewis was one of the last players in the batting cages Friday, after a long set of fielding drills with infield prospect Brooks Lee and infield coach Tony Diaz. Last spring, he was still recovering from surgery to repair a knee ligament.
Another reason why Lewis feels like a rookie, in some ways, is he no longer is worrying about learning multiple positions. There are no experiments in center field. He hasn’t spent any time at shortstop this camp.
“The last time I played third was my junior year of high school,” Lewis said. “You could say I played third in the minor leagues, but that doesn’t really count to me. You really have to have a full season or two there — not only at third, I’m talking about every position — to make a full change, feel comfortable at it.
“I think as an athlete you can make things happen, like when I went to play center, but even then to make that transition, I don’t have experience with the wall, running into a wall, and that’s probably where the injury occurred there.”
