Twins third baseman Royce Lewis, who has been sidelined since an Opening Day quadriceps injury, started taking swings Friday and is expected to begin running for the first time at the end of next week.
Twins head trainer Nick Paparesta declined to speculate on a timeline for Lewis’ return until he starts running, but his recovery is moving as the training staff expected.
“He’s been doing really well,” Paparesta said Saturday. “He’s still got some boxes to check for us, but it’s heading in the right direction for him.”
When Lewis injured his quad running from first to third on a double in the Twins’ 4-1 Opening Day victory at Kansas City, the Twins announced he would be evaluated in a month and expected to miss at least the first two months of the season, with fears the injury could keep him out through the first half of the year.
Lewis has expressed optimism with the way he feels, but he was diagnosed with a “severe quad strain” and is still at the very beginning of the planned running progression.
“You want a guy that has a desire and has a sense of urgency beneath him to go out there and play,” Paparesta said, “but I think sometimes people forget that we’re only three weeks into the season. He’s only been hurt for three weeks. I know ‘only’ seems like it’s a long time, but we are three weeks into the season, and we need to be conscientious about the rest of the year ahead of us.”
Duarte out for season
Paparesta provided updates on several more injured Twins players:
• Twins reliever Daniel Duarte, who made the Opening Day bullpen after entering camp as a nonroster invitee, will miss the rest of the season. The 27-year-old righthander is scheduled to undergo season-ending elbow surgery on May 8 with Dr. Keith Meister in Texas, though it hasn’t been determined whether it will be Tommy John ligament replacement surgery or a similar alternative.