Royce Lewis is officially on his way to returning to the Twins lineup

It's been 57 days since Minnesota Twins fans last saw Royce Lewis play baseball, but it sounds like that's about the change.

Lewis left after three innings on Opening Day with a right quad strain that has kept him out of action ever since and seriously complicated the Twins' plans so far this year. It's been an up-and-down season, with a 12-game winning streak being surrounded by two losing streaks of five or more games, and while things have started to settle the team still feels like it's underperforming.

Part of that is a key piece missing from the lineup. Lewis hit a home run in his first at-bat of the season, something that announced what many experts believed could be the start of an MVP campaign, and Minnesota has been missing him ever since.

The wait might soon be over, though.

Royce Lewis is starting a rehab assignment in St. Paul as his first step toward returning to the Twins

Lewis has been slowly working his way back over the last few weeks but hasn't yet resumed any baseball activities on the field. Friday was always going to be a big day for him in terms of determining how far along in his recovery he actually is, and it turns out he's on the right track.

Things looked good when Lewis was looked at on Friday and he's going to start a rehab assignment with the St. Paul Saints this weekend. That means we are potentially on the cusp of Lewis finally returning to the Twins lineup in the very near future.

There's still a lot that needs to happen before Lewis actually returns to the MLB roster, but we're well on the way to that finally happening. We'll see how things go in St. Paul, and there's no need to rush him back before he's truly ready, but this is a massively positive step.

Initial fears were that Lewis would be out until the All-Star Break, but now is seems like he'll be back wel lbefore then. A return sometime in June lines up with the timeline of him starting his rehab assignement next week, with the likelihood that he spends at least a week or two with the Saints shaking off the rust and confirming that he's ready to return.

The last thing the Twins need is to rush Lewis back and have him suffer another injury. He seems to be pretty far along in his recovery if the team feels comfortable sending him to St. Paul right now, which is a good sign. Until he's back in the lineup at Target Field, though, it's worth proceeding with cautious optimism.

More Minnesota Twins news and rumors