Twins Reach 'Breaking Point' With Royce Lewis

One-time Minnesota Twins top prospect Royce Lewis has had a precipitous fall from grace over the past couple of years. After batting .163 this season with a .540 OPS and five errors in the field, Lewis has been sent to the minors. Twins insider Aaron Gleeman says the team has reached its 'breaking point' with the former top draft pick in all of baseball.

Twins are sending Royce Lewis to Triple A. The 2017 #1 overall pick is hitting .163 with a .539 OPS in 31 games this season pic.twitter.com/OIo4B3FR9Y
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 19, 2026

Following years and years of devastating injury problems that prevented his arrival in the big leagues, he finally appeared to be ready to break through as a star in MLB when he came up in June of 2023. He batted .309 with a .921 OPS and 15 homers in just 58 games. Of course, it didn't take long for injuries to crop up again, and he missed six weeks in July/August.

But he came into 2024 as the starting third baseman and even hit a home run on Opening Day—until he went down to injury again later in that game, and missed two months. But there he was, back in June, OPSing in the 1.000s all the way through to mid-August, until it all started to come unglued.

But this time it's not injuries that have been his undoing. It's been his play.

Lewis ranks 195th of 196 qualified batters over last 18 months

Since Aug. 13, 2024, he has slashed .214/.258/.339 with an OPS+ of just 68. Additionally, per Aaron Gleeman, he ranks 190th of 196 major leaguers (650 plate appearances min.) in that time in batting avg., and 195th in on-base pct. Yikes.

Top overall pick or not, the Twins could no longer afford to keep running Lewis out there. It's been nearly two years of dreadful performance. And now, with it leaking into his fielding as well, that was the last straw. Or as Gleeman says, "the breaking point."

Lewis doesn't turn 27 until next month, so there's still a chance he can try to recapture the magic that made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft. But he'll have to find it in the minors.