Royce Lewis returns to Twins and hopes for a healthy rest of the season

MIAMI — Royce Lewis was riding a four-game hitting streak when he strained his left hamstring June 13. It took exactly two pitches Tuesday night for him to extend the hot streak to five games.

Lewis, activated from the 10-day injured list earlier in the day, hit a hard chopper down the third base line and past diving Miami Marlins third baseman Connor Norby, a stand-up double reminiscent of Lewis’ pre-2025 habit of returning from injuries with a flourish.

This one kept him out of action for 17 days, but if felt much longer, Lewis said, “because I felt good again four days after getting hurt.”

He went 0-for-8 in three days of a rehab assignment over the weekend in St. Paul, and having already missed a month with a previous hamstring strain, he’s not sure how quickly he will feel relaxed at the plate again.

“It’s been like having spring training over and over again. That’s been the whole thing — it’s a game and a league of adjustments, and every time I make one, it seems like there’s an injury and so it’s stop and start,” Lewis said. “My goal is just staying healthy for the next however many games we have.”

It’s 77 games remaining after Tuesday, and even Lewis said he knows he will be susceptible to recurrences for the rest of the season, however careful he might be. Ever since sustaining injuries to the ACL in his right knee in 2021 and 2022, it’s been that way.

“Doctors will tell you: Soft-tissue injuries are very high occurrence after an ACL [tear]. I’m trying my best, but I have to run every day, so it’s hard,” Lewis said. “I just feel like the soft-tissue stuff is just harder to fix. I’ll do as much running as I can every day, and hope it helps.”

Despite being thrilled to be back with the team, Lewis couldn’t hide how much his history of nagging injuries weighs on him.

“My whole day is a workday now. When I was 19, I used to just come and play the game and have fun,” said the 26-year-old infielder, the first overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft. “My dream was always playing baseball. It never was this. So what I’m going through is definitely not the dream I thought I was going to be living. But I’m just trying to get back to having fun and playing the game I love.”

Former Twins outfielder Carlos Gómez visited the Twins clubhouse before Tuesday’s game and was shocked and delighted when two of his long-ago Twins teammates, Glen Perkins and Denard Span, walked in, too.

“It’s an old-timers’ game in here!” Gómez said with a laugh with Perkins and Span, here as analysts on the Twins’ radio and TV broadcasts.

Gómez, the central player in the package the Twins received from the New York Mets for Johan Santana in January 2008, played two seasons for the Twins, patrolling the Metrodome outfield, stealing bases (33 his first season), striking out (his 142 whiffs in 2008 were second most in Twins history at the time, though that number has been eclipsed eight times since) and generally amusing and/or frustrating manager Ron Gardenhire.

“I still talk to Gardy every year,” Gómez said. “I thank him. I’m grateful for the people who helped me be a major leaguer.”

His career lasted 13 seasons with six teams, ending with the Mets in 2019, and included two All-Star appearances, a Gold Glove and a plaque on the Milwaukee Brewers Wall of Fame. He hugged or shook hands with roughly half of the Twins’ players and sat and chatted with shortstop Carlos Correa for 15 minutes.

Gómez now works in the Dominican Republic as a Latin American ambassador for the MLB Players Association, making presentations to young players as they enter the majors. He also keeps busy, he said, coaching his 16-year-old son Yandel, a highly regarded pitching prospect.