Royce Lewis placed on 10-day IL and could miss significant time with Grade 2 injury

For the second time this season, the Minnesota Twins are placing Royce Lewis on the injured list.

Lewis exited Opening Day with a right quad strain that sidelined him until June, and he's once again going to miss time with a lower body injury. This time it's his hip area that is cause for concern, as the Twins placed Lewis on the 10-day IL with a right adductor strain.

The injury at least opened up a lane for Brooks Lee to finally get called up. Lee likely would have gotten the call back in late March the first time Lewis hit the IL but Minnesota's star prospect was dealing with an injury of his own.

This time around, Lee is healthy and lighting things up in St. Paul and able to fulfill the prophecy he failed to earlier in the year.

It's a Grade 2 strain for Lewis, though, which is even worse news than initially thought. Simply watching Lewis hobble off the field on Tuesday night was bad enough, but that sort of injury puts him on a timeline that could once again force him to miss a considerable amount of time.

Minnesota Twins get bad news about new Royce Lewis injury

Pioneer Press beat writer Betsy Helfand confirmed that the team doesn't expect Lewis back until after the All-Star Break. On one hand that lines up perfectly with placing him on the IL but it's also hard to not be deeply concerned about what the timeline actually ends up being.

Lewis suffered a Grade 2 adductor strain, which takes around 3-6 weeks to recover from. That puts him out much longer than 10 days, and makes the expectation that he won't be back until after the All-Star Break feel a lot less promising than it initially sounds.

Realistically the Twins will probably be without Lewis until August, which is not an official timeline but one that makes a ton of long-term sense. The last thing Minnesota needs is to get caught in this stop-and-start game with Lewis' health; he's already hit the IL twice this year with Grade 2 muscle strains and the team can't afford to have it happen a third time.

Lewis won't like it, something he was very blunt about in the aftermath of this latest injury, but shutting him down is the best move for all involved. His borderline psychotic competitive spirit is deeply admirable and is the sort of identity the Twins need to have, but he's of no use to anyone if he's unable to mash opposing pitchers in October.

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