Royce Lewis injury puts an immediate damper on Opening Day for Twins

Spring Training ended with a barrage of injuries rocking the Minnesota Twins, and that streak unfortunately continued on Opening Day.

It took fewer than three full innings of baseball for the Twins to suffer what could be a devestating blow to the lineup. Royce Lewis left the game early after seemingly tweaking his ankle while rounding second on an RBI double by Carlos Correa.

Rocco Baldelli came out to take a look at him and ended up removing Lewis from the game.

Minnesota shifted Kyle Farmer over to third base and inserted Edouard Julien into the lineup to account for the loss of Lewis. It was unclear exactly what he injured, and more importantly how severe it is, but the knee-jerk reaction is that he did something to his ankle while rounding second.

It's pretty hard to overstate just how terrible of a break this is on so many levels. Minnesota is coming off a week where four pitchers were placed on the IL, including Anthony DeSclafani who might need season-ending surgery. Jhoan Duran, Caleb Thielbar, and Justin Topa are all starting the season on the IL as well, which is putting the team's bullpen depth to the test right away.

Losing Lewis is a whole different kind of awful, though. He's a dark horse MVP candidate and one of the most important players in the Twins' lineup. He also has a tough history with injuries, as he famously came back from two ACL injuries to have the incredible season he did last year.

Exceptions were high this year for Minnesota not only because of how the season ended but because of the promise guys like Lewis showed. Hopefully it's nothing major, but to lose him less than three innings into the season is exactly the opposite of what the Twins need.

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