Twins turn to Lewis for second-base depth

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The Twins went into this season hoping that the chance to let Royce Lewis prepare at only one defensive position -- third base -- would finally give him some welcome stability amid all the chaos of injuries and bouncing around the infield and outfield as he established his big league career.

It seems that has now changed -- because the Twins are now pushing Lewis to add second base to his arsenal.

Lewis has been taking pregame grounders and doing fielding drills at second base of late, a move that has made more sense with the crowd at third base due to the emergence of Jose Miranda and the club’s lack of depth at second base, where Kyle Farmer and a less effective version of Edouard Julien have held down the fort in the absence of Brooks Lee.

There doesn’t appear to be any imminent plan to shift Lewis over -- he hasn’t been told one, anyway -- but if he’s able to gain some fluency at the new position, it could certainly give the Twins more options, whether with in-game moves or creating lineups.

“I would never close a door by saying, 'No, it’s not going to happen,'” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “But it’s also far from a guarantee that we’ll see him in any games at second base this season. I think it’s a possibility, I would say that.”

Still, Lewis seemed rather tentative about the idea.

“If you take a baby out of its crib where it's safe, it's going to feel a little bit scared,” Lewis said. “That's kind of where I'm at right now.”

Lewis was happy to do what the team wanted of him, but he expressed trepidation about the possibility of moving to the other side of the infield, to a position he played exactly once in his Minor League career (in 2019, with Double-A Pensacola) and a handful of times in the Arizona Fall League, also in ‘19.

He explained that because he’d played the left side of the infield his entire life, getting the new angles on double plays and seeing the game from the new perspective could be a difficult transition to make in-season.

“Totally different,” Lewis said. “It's like if I were to bat righty and then one pitch later go bat lefty. It's a little different.”

He’s been getting help from bench coach Jayce Tingler, infield coordinator Tony Diaz and veteran utility infielder Farmer, but Lewis still said he even felt more comfortable in the outfield -- which won’t be an option -- than at second base as he continued to get limited work at second simply to gain that familiarity that he lacks.

But the reps, it seems, haven’t soothed the nerves.

“Just that it's in the middle of the season and I don't want to put the team at risk,” Lewis said. “If I'm not comfortable and I go in there, we're fighting for the playoffs. … We have high expectations with this team. We're good defensively. I just don't want to mess that up.”