PHOENIX — Just as he predicted, Royce is playing like Royce.
Although Royce Lewis uttered that phrase on June 4 in reference to playing without physical limitations, the young Minnesota Twins star also indicated that he intended to start having fun again after missing 58 games with a serious strain in his right quadriceps .
True to his word, Lewis has fun every night, and you only need to briefly scan his highlights to discover a player bursting with joy every time he takes the field.
From hitting nine home runs in 19 games since his return to celebrating his victories, Lewis expresses happiness like few of his peers in the league.
Although they are amazed by his powerful production, his Twins teammates say they are equally amazed by the energy and joy with which Lewis plays.
They maintain that he doesn’t look like anyone they’ve ever played with.
“It’s an immaculate vibe,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “I don’t understand how he can be like this all day and he brings it up every day, all day long. It’s pretty impressive. I couldn’t do it and I know a lot of guys couldn’t do it. I’m glad he’s the one who can be so upbeat all day. The energy is incomparable.”
Many players are excited to play in Major League Baseball. Few wear it on their sleeve like Lewis.
When Lewis knows he’s hit a home run, something he’s become quite accustomed to doing in his short career, he doesn’t stop. The first overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft often flips his bat, beats his chest and yells and gestures wildly toward his dugout before reaching first base and then continues his jog.
Royce Lewis celebrates a home run with a bat flip. (Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins//Keynote USA/Getty Images)
Lewis says he’s not interested in showing off his opponents. He’s simply taking the time to enjoy a positive moment in a sport where most are filled with frustration.
“I don’t take it for granted,” Lewis said. “You don’t know when your last day in the game will be, let alone when you can be successful because this game is so difficult. You have to celebrate them as much as you can. I just hope other teams and players know that I’m not trying to do anything to them, I’m just having fun with the game. That’s why I play, because I love it. The point is that I have fun. It has nothing to do with any launcher. “I’m not going to show anyone.”
Since returning to the field earlier this month and quickly hitting a home run in his first game, Lewis has had plenty of opportunities to celebrate. Entering Wednesday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Lewis had homered nine times in 68 at-bats in June, good for a pace of 162 games with 81 home runs.
It’s another storybook return for Lewis, who missed the entire 2021 season with a torn ACL in his right knee. In 2022, he made his major league debut in early May and got off to a great start, but tore his ACL again on May 29 and missed another year. Those absences come on top of Lewis spending the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season at the team’s alternate site.
Although he’s been around for years, Lewis, 25, has yet to play 100 MLB games. (Wednesday’s game was the 90th of his career.)
But Lewis insists his enthusiastic celebrations are not an attempt to make up for lost time. It’s the way he’s always played the game. Watching the Twins’ series at the Oakland Coliseum over the weekend, Lewis’ mother, Cindy, agreed with her son’s assessment.
“That’s who he is,” Cindy said. “Since he was 2 years old, we would take him to games and he would sit on (his father’s) lap and he would be locked up, studying the players. He didn’t want popcorn, he didn’t want candy. He loves it very much. When he is playing on the field, he is just happy.”
Royce Lewis’ HR and bat flip from the dugout pic.twitter.com/u9B7RktNQQ
— CJ Fogler’s account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) October 3, 2023
Those around the Twins would agree, as they regularly see that unbridled joy when he plays.
Descriptions of Lewis by teammates and coaches give insight into his uniqueness. Once in the minor leagues, he did push-ups at second base after a long fly ball ended up as a double instead of a home run, because he “needed to get stronger.”
“It’s a pleasure to be his teammate, to watch Royce be Royce,” center fielder Byron Buxton said. “The positive energy, the happiness that he brings every day is something you wish you had every day. It gets more difficult (over the course of a player’s career). …Passion and happiness are completely different. “Not everyone has it.”
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, selected in the 2000 draft, has been in professional baseball for more than two decades as a player, scout, coach and manager. In all those years, he remembers few, if any, players enjoying their time on the field the way Lewis does.
“He plays like a happy kid, excited to play with his friends,” Baldelli said. “That’s what he transmits: pure joy, which he shows. “We have other players who play with pure joy, but the emotion that comes off of him so easily makes him different from almost any other player.”
Royce Lewis celebrates with Carlos Correa after hitting a three-run home run. He has 10 home runs in 71 at-bats this season and 27 in 331 career at-bats. (Bruce Kluckhohn/USA Today)
Shortly after debuting in 2022, Lewis waxed poetic about life in the big leagues. Lewis, then 22, sounded like a kid at summer camp when he described how much fun he had playing and then “mashing” lobster and steak during the team’s postgame meal.
On the other end of the spectrum, Lewis didn’t hesitate to talk about his frustration while rehabbing this season after suffering his latest injury while running the bases in Kansas City on Opening Day. Lewis thought the Twins were too cautious and deliberate with his rehab process. He felt he was ready to go to the minors in mid-May, but had to wait until May 25 to begin a six-game rehab assignment before returning to the Twins the first week of June.
While his ACL recovery was expected to be exactly one year, there was no set timeline for rehabilitation from the quadriceps strain. That was a new challenge with this setback.
“I would do anything to be able to play and be present in the game,” Lewis said. “I don’t even have to play. I just want to be available and even (during days off) I continue to prepare. However, being available is a lot different than being on the injured list knowing there’s no chance he’ll be able to play. … It was difficult because I felt like I was ready. But at the same time, maybe I just prepared more with the extra time I was given. Now I don’t even think about the injuries and I’ll just be me.”
Once again, Royce plays like Royce.
He recently laughed when asked about the remark and noted that his teammates were making fun of him for the comment. But the statement was that Lewis was being genuine and, as always, he made his teammates laugh.
“I don’t even understand how he has so much energy,” Correa said. “He is a young player, he is hungry. You need people like that on your team. He not only hits home runs every day, but those things that he does. But he also keeps everyone happy, he makes everyone laugh. “It’s definitely the complete package.”
(Top photo by Royce Lewis: Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins//Keynote USA/Getty Images)
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