Lewis' 'comfy' approach is leading to success

This story was excerpted from Do-Hyoung Park’s Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

One question I commonly heard throughout Royce Lewis’ rise through the Minors was if his big leg kick and longer swing would hold him back from success at the game’s highest level.

Clearly, Lewis is having a lot of success now that he finally has a path to healthy, consistent playing time in the big leagues. He entered Sunday hitting .318/.366/.492 in 36 games, and it looked to me like he’d both quieted the leg kick and started standing more upright in his stance in this recent go-around with the Twins.

But when Lewis is asked about that -- even in this increasingly technical and data-driven era of development -- he doesn’t really seem to be locked in at all on the specifics of what his body is doing. He’s not thinking too much; just being instinctual and reactive, trusting his preparation. That’s what works for him.

“Sometimes, I'll load, and my leg kick goes high,” Lewis said. “Sometimes, I'll load and it's quick. It just depends on kind of the timing of the pitcher, the pitch, the situation. My mind just does what it wants. Like I was saying, going back to just being an athlete, letting my body do what it does.

“Sometimes, it does things that I don't even know how to explain to you guys. And sometimes, it does things that I'm like, ‘I swung, but I didn't even mean to swing.’ My mind said 'No,' but my body said, 'Yes.' So, it's like, that just happens.”

Lewis talks about his big league experience as an ever-continuing learning process. Part of his reactive nature, he thinks, is that he just doesn’t have a ton of reps at the plate, stemming from even before he lost the entire 2020 season to the COVID cancellation of the Minors and most of ‘21 and ‘22 to his consecutive torn ACLs.

Usually, when a player comes from a warm-weather state like California, he’ll have a ton of reps in the box before he turns pro -- but Lewis said he didn’t have that luxury. He played other sports and played in a high school program that did not emphasize volume, leading to Lewis hitting “the bare minimum,” he said.

So, he’s still figuring out a lot about himself -- what works, what doesn’t. Lewis jokes that if he could play winter ball to keep getting more reps, he would. But for now -- and the Twins said this would be the case when they first activated him this year -- he’s mostly relying on instinct and athleticism, and it’s working for him.

“Honestly, I'm just doing what's comfy,” Lewis said. “When I feel athletic in the box, I'm able to be me.”

“I don't think that the technicians in there think about it quite like that,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “[Carlos] Correa's not going to look at you and drop a, ‘I'm doing this because it feels kind of comfy.’ But we're here to figure out what works. I think that's probably what works for Royce.”

Lewis hasn’t been afraid to push against the grain, even as a youngster. Earlier this season, when the offense was largely struggling, he wasn’t afraid to talk about how he didn’t always agree to wait for a mistake pitch to drive the ball, instead taking the initiative in the plate appearance and fighting his way on base.

Will this instinct-driven play always be the case as Lewis continues to learn more about himself and the league learns more about him? It’s tough to tell, because few have taken his injury-ridden path to the big leagues. But he’s made it work for himself -- and the Twins will rely on that down the stretch.

“I do think he's a guy that, when push comes to shove, you want him to do what comes naturally, because that generally leads to good things for us,” Baldelli said.

“You put in all your work, and then you go have fun,” Lewis said. “That's the way I look at it. That's the best way to play the game.”