Royce Lewis an MLB baseball player for the Minnesota Twins who has solidified himself as a star after 6 years and multiple injuries. The Number 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft has been through a lot to get to where he is right now.
Lewis went to JSerra Catholic High School in California. In his junior year of high school, he was named Los Angeles Times high school baseball player of the year. In his senior year, he was named high school Gatorade baseball player of the year. After an incredible high school career he committed to play baseball at the University of California, Irvine for college. As the number 1 prospect in the 2017 MLB draft class, he decided to go straight to the MLB and skip college.
The Minnesota Twins held the first overall pick and had the option to pick anyone. Minnesota had the worst record (59-103) in the whole MLB that season and was the only team to not get 60 or more wins. New general manager Thad Levine decided that they wanted to take a chance on Lewis with the Number. 1 overall pick. As the first overall pick, Lewis had high expectations.
In his first 2 years in the Minor Leagues (2017-2019), he was a well-average to above-average player who posted a .270-.300 batting average. Which is pretty good for a minor-league player. Then from 2020 to 2021, he did not play at all. In 2020 covid happened and the minor league season was canceled. Then in February of 2021, he tore his ACL in his right knee and could not play for the whole season and whole year.
After a year of rehabbing, he came back even stronger than ever. In Triple-A baseball (one step lower than MLB) he had a .313 batting average in 34 games. On July 6th, 2022, Lewis made his MLB debut and was showing out. Sadly after only 12 games in the MLB, he tore his ACL in his right knee again. A ton of people were wondering if he was going to be able to continue playing.
Lewis knew he had to come back stronger than ever to prove doubters wrong. After rehabbing for just under a year, he finally made it back to the minor leagues. He played a total of 14 games and did very well. He then got called back up to the big leagues, and in his first game back on May 29th, 2023, He hit a home run in a win over the Houston Astros. After that game, he was incredible even though he got a couple of injuries. He hit 4 grand slams in one year which broke the Twins record for most grand slams in one season. He posted a .309 batting average and 15 homers in 58 games.
