Minnesota Twins 2017 draft class has a star in Royce Lewis and great depth
By Nate Palmer
No. 1 Overall Selection: SS, Royce Lewis
There were many that were not too thrilled with the selection of Royce Lewis number one overall last season. Many thought that the Twins should have looked at some of the other big names and maybe none more than two-way player Hunter Greene. At this point in Lewis’ short career, no one is complaining. He has proven to be a very good baseball player, and as we will highlight later down this list, allowed the Twins to pay over slot for some very talented players later in the draft.
Lewis started his professional career with the GCL Twins where he hit .271/.390/.414 with a .803 OPS in 36 games. To fill out the stat sheet, he scored 38 runs, six doubles, two triples, three home runs, and 15 stolen bases. The Twins then promoted Lewis to Cedar Rapids, in the process having him skip a level, where he played 18 more games slashing .296/.363/.394.
Lewis started 2018 at Single-A Cedar Rapids where he is making a strong bid for a promotion. In 30 games he has a slash line of .311/.366/.370 and a .736 OPS with four doubles, a home run, and 12 stolen bases. Not to mention Lewis is doing this all while still being 19 years old and over two years younger than those he is competing against on average. With Nick Gordon being promoted to Triple-A recently. It will be interesting to see if the Twins might continue to move Lewis aggressively and have him skip another level and go straight to Double-A Chattanooga.