The Minnesota Twins may be coming to the end of the road with Royce Lewis. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft started his career on a high note, but currently looks like a shell of himself, hitting .167/.269/.300 with three homers and 12 RBI in 27 games this season.
With the poor performance, Lewis’s confidence has almost completely dried up and he may have had another shock to the system when the Twins optioned Matt Wallner to Triple-A St. Paul on Thursday morning.
The Twins would be in better shape if Lewis found a way to turn it around. But with a player that was part of a group that fans believed was the future just a couple of years ago sent to the minors, Wallner’s demotion could have Lewis’s tenure with the Twins flashing before his eyes.
Matt Wallner’s demotion is another warning shot for Royce Lewis
Back in 2023, Wallner and Lewis were part of an emerging core that also included infielder Edouard Julien. Together, they become the first trio of rookie teammates since the expansion era began in 1961 to have an OPS of .839 higher in the same season and that group played a key role in helping them end an 18-game postseason losing streak that was the longest in the history of the North American “Big Four” leagues (MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL).
But since then, the wheels have fallen off for all three players. Julien was traded to the Colorado Rockies last winter and Wallner was a worthy candidate for a demotion, hitting .167/.259/.292 with four homers and 10 RBI over his first 34 games. Baseball Savant added to the case to send Wallner down as he has the highest strikeout (39.3%) and whiff (44.0%) rates among qualified hitters and there’s a lot of red outside of his 75.4 mph bat speed, which ranks in the 89th percentile.
Long story short, Wallner swung hard but didn’t connect often and it led him into a platoon with Austin Martin as the season progressed. Now in Triple-A, Wallner may be approaching his last chance to stick with the Twins and could foreshadow what could happen to Lewis if he doesn’t get his bat going.
Lewis got off to a scorching start to his career, hitting .307/.364.549 with 17 homers and 57 RBI over 70 games between the 2022 and 2023 seasons. But pitchers began to figure out his tendencies and Lewis hasn’t adjusted, hitting .227/.386/.402 with 32 homers and 111 RBI over his past 215 games.
Things have hit a new low this season and his numbers look worse considering Lewis has just one home run since hitting two in the opening series of the year against the Baltimore Orioles and he’s been just as free swinging as Wallner ranking in the third percentile with a 37.3% whiff rate and the 14th percentile with a 29.8% strikeout rate per Baseball Savant.
That stat line is for a player who looks like he needs a reset and even Lewis admitted he’s looking over his shoulder with the options available to replace him. Tristan Gray (.242/.282/.394, 3 HR, 14 RBI) and Ryan Kreidler (.214/.389/.714, 2 HR, 4 RBI) both have experience playing third base and clear the low bar Lewis has set at the plate and Orlando Arcia has been raking at Triple-A with a .324/.377/.577 slash line to go with eight homers and 27 RBI entering Thursday.
With 2024 first-round pick Kaelen Culpepper also pining for a call-up by the end of the season, Lewis may have seen ghosts as Wallner packed up his things in the Twins clubhouse on Thursday morning. It puts more pressure on Lewis to pick things up or it could be another hint that his time in Minnesota could be heading to an abrupt ending.
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