The extreme highs and lows of budding Twins star Royce Lewis

First, they threw a global pandemic at Royce Lewis, wiping out his (and every one else’s) minor league season in 2020 as baseball grappled with the impact of Covid-19.

Then they came for his ligaments and muscles: ACL tears in 2021 and 2022; oblique and hamstring injuries in 2023; and, cruelly, a quad injury just three innings into 2024.

On Tuesday, they came for Lewis again. And this time, worst of all, they might have taken (at least temporarily) his confident spirt.

Forced from a 5-3 victory over Detroit after experiencing tightness in his groin — an injury fittingly juxtaposed against a two-run double that helped the Twins win — the relentlessly upbeat Lewis sounded just as pessimistic as all the Twins fans who had taken to social media with memes and shouts when he left the game.

“This is out of my control. I have no idea. But probably not very optimistic, to be honest with you,” Lewis said after the game. “I’m praying, but it’s usually always horrible news.”

Lest you think Lewis is being overly dramatic, he unfortunately has a lot of recent evidence to back up that sentiment, as I talked about on Wednesday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

What had been a fairly normal progression for the first three years of his minor league career has turned into a five-season odyssey of extreme highs and lows for the 2017 No. 1 overall pick.

In those three minor league seasons from 2017-19, Lewis racked up 1,340 plate appearances and was generally the picture of health.

That steady march toward the big leagues was halted by the pandemic and then his first ACL tear. He played a Class AA game on Sept. 2, 2019 and wouldn’t appear in another minor league game until a Class AAA tilt on April 5, 2022 — a span of 946 days.

Even after all that time off, he was tremendous upon his return. A .940 OPS in his first month with the Saints earned him a promotion to the Twins in 2022, a debut that was cut down after just 12 games when he tore that same ACL again.

Another year of rehab, another dazzling debut in 2023, another frustrating injury (oblique), another sparkling return, another injury (hamstring) and an improbable playoff debut for the ages followed.

Then a homer in his first at bat of 2024, another hit after that, and then two months gone because of a calf strain. Lewis came back swinging last month, as he always does, and now this latest setback.

For better or worse, Lewis doesn’t do anything small. It’s all extreme highs and lows, which is why even one of the most optimistic people on the planet was bracing for the worst on Tuesday.

Here are four more things to know today:

*Also on the Wednesday’s podcast, La Velle E. Neal III joined me to talk about U.S. soccer, the Wild, the Wolves, the Loons and whether the Twins should trade Max Kepler.

*Plus I ranted about an ESPN headline I saw: “Why Giants fans should be excited about prospect of landing QB Carson Beck.” I get it. Mock drafts start about five seconds after the last draft ends. And this is the only dead zone in the entire NFL news cycle. But trying to get a fan base excited about a potential 2025 NFL No. 1 draft pick before a single down is played in 2024 is ridiculous. Maybe get excited about the 17 games that might prove such conjecture is utter fiction?

*The Wolves will get a needed injection of pace without Kyle Anderson, while “Slo-Mo” should be a good fit with high basketball IQ players like Steph Curry and Draymond Green in Golden State.

*There will not be a podcast Thursday for the July 4 holiday, but the show will resume Friday.