FORT MYERS, Fla. — Royce Lewis isn't a Twin yet, and won't be for awhile now. Not after suffering a very Minnesota injury.
Lewis, the overall No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft, slipped on a patch of ice outside his Dallas home last week, the team announced, and tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. The Twins' top-rated prospect will undergo surgery in the Twin Cities on Friday, and will miss the entire 2021 season.
"You just feel for him. You feel for everybody around him," Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said in announcing the news. "It's disappointing, but you regroup, you face adversity, and our group is prepared to help him."
Lewis' knee was already sore during workouts as he prepared for camp over the past month, particularly during side-to-side drills, Falvey said, so the Twins cannot pinpoint the exact moment the ligament tore away from the bone.
But last week, as winter storms plunged Texas into an unusual winter freeze, "he slipped [on some ice] and felt his knee go, felt that same soreness," Falvey said. "It's just hard to know" if that slip did the damage. "The MRI revealed a full tear, but he wasn't in extreme pain."
Lewis, in fact, believed it was just a bruise or strain, and reported to camp last weekend, prepared to resume a promising career already put on hold by COVID-19, which triggered the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season. During a routine physical exam on Monday, the team's orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Michael Knudsen, determined that the injury was more serious and ordered the MRI, which confirmed the diagnosis.
Reconstructive surgery was recommended, followed by rehabilitation for 9-12 months. The Twins expect Lewis to be ready for camp next spring — 28 months after his last competitive at-bat.
"Yeah, that's difficult. It's something he recognizes," Falvey said of the shortstop, who also worked out last summer at second base, third base and center field as part of the Twins' secondary-site extra players at CHS Field in St. Paul. "He certainly will lose a couple of years' worth of regular, everyday at-bats. But how you respond to the adversity is more important than anything else."