Royce Lewis gives his reasoning for Twins’ second-half collapse
The Minnesota Twins star suffered a prolonged slump in the second half and believes he can avoid the fatigue that doomed his 2024 season.
The Minnesota Twins’ catastrophic collapse last season was due to three distinct problems. While the front office’s pitching acquisitions failed, player injuries curtailed the Twins and Minnesota’s lackluster offense down the stretch has been considered the top reasons for the collapse. The offense’s disappearance was one reason hitting coach David Popkins was not retained for the next season.
Many players share the blame for the poor offensive production, but one player in particular was Royce Lewis.
It’s no secret that Lewis has overcome multiple injuries throughout his professional career. When Lewis is healthy, Lewis is an active contributor for the Twins. However, Lewis’ 2024 season left much to be desired. Lewis failed to deliver on offense, hitting a mere .205 since June 2nd. In addition, Lewis compounded his poor production with an abysmal .267 OBP, making him one of the players most responsible for the 2024 Twins collapse.
So what was behind Lewis’ letdown of a season? According to Jeff Zimmerman’s January 3rd edition of Mining the News on Rotographs, fatigue caused Lewis’ season to derail. Zimmerman noted that Lewis’ bat speed fell by 1.7 mph during the middle of the season, which supports why fatigue contributed to his disappointing season.
“Between all that losing, long season catching up to the body and also just some swing mechanical stuff that, like, gets lost when you get tired like that,” Lewis said. “You try to find other ways in your body. Our body adapts to things and is trying to find a way to get to positions I needed to get to hit the baseball and it was creating a bad habit.”
There is no question that a 162-game schedule with few off days is taxing on the baseball players’ bodies. That said, the schedule is what MLB players must endure. Given Lewis’ injury-related absences, he’s never played a season over 100 games in his brief time with the Twins. Those absences are perhaps why Twins criticized the former first-overall draft pick last season.
Make no mistake: the Twins need a healthy Lewis for the 2025 season. Another injury-riddled season will leave questions marks about his future in Minnesota.
