Twins top prospect's pushups get pushback

Thursday’s Minor League matchup between Class A Advanced Fort Myers and Bradenton featured another test of baseball’s unwritten rules -- and it happened to involve one of the game’s top prospects.

Shortstop Royce Lewis, the Twins top-ranked prospect and baseball’s No. 7 prospect overall per MLB Pipeline, did a quick set of pushups after knocking a fifth-inning double to the left-center-field wall. That didn’t appear to sit well with Bradenton pitcher Gavin Wallace, who threw a pitch behind Lewis in his next plate appearance in the sixth. Wallace was ejected alongside Bradenton manager Wyatt Toregas and shortstop Robbie Glendinning after the pitch.

Opinions differed on the reasons behind Lewis’ pushups; a Bradenton broadcaster stated that Lewis was “hot dogging” at second base, while Fort Myers’ official Twitter speculated he might have been “punishing” himself for not hitting the ball farther.

Fort Myers went on to win, 13-7, with the incident involving Lewis perhaps overshadowing a three-homer game by Twins prospect Lewin Diaz. Lewis, Minnesota’s No. 1 overall Draft pick in 2017, is slashing .233/.310/.320 with nine doubles to begin 2019.

The pushups, however, may have paid immediate dividends as Lewis hit his first homer of a the season in his first at-bat of Friday's game. However, the series with Bradenton ended on Thursday and Friday's game was against St. Lucie.