The Twins announced to reporters, including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com, that Royce Lewis has a partial tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, the same ligament he had surgically repaired last year, which will require another surgery. The estimated recovery time is 12 months.
This comes as brutal news for both Lewis and the team, as the youngster already went through this whole process a year ago. It was February of last year that Lewis underwent the procedure the first time, which wiped out the entirety of his 2021 season. This year, he was able to finish the long journey back to health and showed tremendous signs of promise over the first few months of the season.
With Carlos Correa missing some time this year, Lewis was able to make his major league debut. Although he was optioned when Correa returned, he eventually came back with the aim of being a super utility player of sorts, not letting Correa’s presence stop him from getting into the lineup. Such a plan was feasible because Lewis was hitting so incredibly well on the year. In 12 MLB games, he hit .300/.317/.550 for a 148 wRC+, while also slashing .313/.405/.534 in Triple-A for a wRC+ of 151.
Unfortunately, the very day he was recalled, he left the game with a bone bruise in his right knee, which will now finish his season. Unlike his recovery from surgery last year, Lewis will be on the major league injured list, thus entitling him to MLB pay and service time. Since he was in the minors for the first month of the season and then another stretch when he was optioned in May, he will come up short of earning a full year of service. He will still have a shot at earning Super Two status and qualifying for arbitration after the 2024 season, though future optional assignments could also change that trajectory. For his part, Lewis seems to be staying positive about the whole situation, telling Park that he’s not afraid of the surgery because he’s already been through it before.
For the Twins, they will now be without one of their most exciting young players, who was capable of covering shortstop for Carlos Correa but was also spending some time at third base and in the outfield in order to get into the lineup when Correa was healthy. Correa’s contract affords him the ability to opt-out of his contract at the end of this year, something he is expected to do. Many had considered Lewis to be the heir apparent at shortstop, with his dalliances at other positions a temporary measure just for this season. Now the club will likely go into the winter with less certainty around their shortstop situation next year, with the potential that neither Correa nor Lewis will man the position when Opening Day 2023 rolls around.
This is awful
Poor guy can’t catch a break…
This poor guy. Just can’t get a break.
actually, he caught two tears
Don’t quit your day job, unless you’re a comedian.
i took yesterday off, and don’t even work.
Baseball Gods what the F are you doing to these young guys!
Same thing they have been doing to young guys since baseball began.
Terrible day to be former 1st overall pick. Prayers up for Adley, Moniak, and Tork
Moniak already can’t go down from here.
1st overall spot is cursed lately.
I’m not trying to play internet doctor here, but isn’t the chance of tearing the same ACL a second time supposed to be low? You hear about this with football players from time to time and it’s usually a bad omen for the future
It is the same % chance if tearing it in the first place.
Not exactly. ACL repair is usually by replacing the ligament with a tendon from elsewhere in the patient. There’s no guarantee it’s going to have the same resistance to damage, and the join between the old ligament and the replacement tendon may not grow together perfectly during healing.
On the other hand, it could heal really well and actually be stronger than the original. That doesn’t appear to have happened.
Gotcha, that makes more sense. I just remembered hearing in regards to football, that it’s a bigger issue for a player to tear the same ACL twice than it would be if they tore both of them separately
I put the wrong comment in the wrong place
Uggh.
Man this has to be such a deflating moment for him. The baseball god is a cruel god.
Such a shame. Aptly named as he’s got Rolls Royce talent.
Typical modern day Rolls crapping out with no miles on it with the potential to be a beast.
This is on the Manager of the Twins who played Lewis out of position in CF when other options were available. Position: changes, experiments, indoctrinations belong at the minor league level, NOT MLB. This is on Baldelli, Lewis & Agent should sue the organization.
That’s not how it works
Players play out of position all the time and actually kind of required in todays game.
This is simply bad luck nothing more.
These are Lewis’ quotes from yesterday when he announced he was doing acl surgery:
“I’m not familiar with the outfield in general, so that’s probably why I’m very happy I made the catch….”I was probably about five feet more away [from the wall] than I thought,” he said. “You can see it in the play. I landed before I even hit the wall, going in with my momentum at whatever miles per hour. … It was like getting into a car accident sideways.
Twins playing him out of position absolutely contributed to this injury. Not sure how you can conclude otherwise.
Royce played himself into the big leagues by having a great start in AAA and having Correa suffer a disabling injury. When Correa returned, it was either play other positions or stay in Triple A. Lewis played a few games at third and in the outfield and returned. His first game in center, he went to the wall to make a catch and got injured. It looked like impact was on his shoulder, but the injury is a torn ACL.
This is awful, but look at a guy like Jake Burger who had back to back season ending surgeries and is beginning to establishing himself as a pro…. I hope Royce can get his body healthy and keep his mind right during the process. You got this Royce
Poor guy.
When are these analytically-driven computer-baseball people in Front Offices going to understand that playing defense in the majors takes skills that takes years to learn, and that you don’t just play a guy in a position because you want to get his bat in the lineup.
And this nonsense about 1B being a position anyone can play – I’ve seen 3 different guys sent out to play 1B so far this year that not only botched plays which cost their team games, but came close to causing them and batters running to 1B major inquires.
Long been time to get their eyes out of the spreadsheets and onto the field of play.
Exactly! This guy is a middle infielder and he got injured playing the outfield, a position he wasn’t used to playing! The Twins deserve this to happen to them, but poor Lewis doesn’t deserve it…He has so much promise and will now miss another year due to the stupidity of the management from the Twins!
terrible news. He looked like he was going to be a allstar for many years.
Yes the cracked medical staff of the Twins.. playing Sayno with a broken Leg.. and another in the long line of Miss Diagnosis.. tell the world a ACL tear is a bone bruise.. Its crazy they allow them near the players… get someone who is going to be square with the players and tell the management the facts, not what they want to hear… That Bone bruise is the laziest of Diagnosis… Fire them all..
This kid is so snake bitten he asked for a Diamondbacks jersey
Bad day for former 1st round picks today.
These are Lewis’ quotes from yesterday when he announced he was doing acl surgery:
“I’m not familiar with the outfield in general, so that’s probably why I’m very happy I made the catch….”I was probably about five feet more away [from the wall] than I thought,” he said. “You can see it in the play. I landed before I even hit the wall, going in with my momentum at whatever miles per hour. … It was like getting into a car accident sideways.
Twins playing him out of position absolutely contributed to this injury. Not sure how you can conclude otherwise.
All the artificial supplements that players start putting into their bodies at a young age has to contribute to the higher number of season ending injuries.
Oops I did it again- Brittney