The Twins won their season-opener against the Royals yesterday, jumping out to a quick 1-0 lead with a first-inning homer off the bat of burgeoning star Royce Lewis. The former No. 1 overall pick singled in his next at-bat but departed shortly thereafter, coming up lame when going first-to-third on a Carlos Correa double. The Twins announced that Lewis had a quadriceps injury. He underwent an MRI last night, per Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Further updates figure to be available before tomorrow’s game, though Miller notes that Lewis was optimistic and described the feeling as cramping more than severe pain.
In many ways, it’s a three-inning microcosm of Lewis’ career. The 24-year-old is a .313/.369/.564 hitter in 284 plate appearances — not including last year’s four postseason homers in 26 plate appearances — but he’s also twice torn his ACL and had IL stints for oblique and hamstring strains. A healthy Lewis has superstar potential, but injuries have been far too frequent early in his career. If Lewis requires a trip to the injured list, top prospect Brooks Lee won’t be an option to replace him. The 2022 No. 8 overall pick is dealing with a back injury, and Triple-A skipper Toby Gardenhire tells KSTP’s Darren Wolfson that he’ll be down for about three to four weeks (X link). Minnesota also had an injury scare with right fielder Max Kepler, who exited the game after fouling a ball into his leg. X-rays came back negative, per the Star-Tribune’s Bobby Nightengale (X link).
A few more injury situations worth monitoring as they unfold…
- The Diamondbacks lost Eduardo Rodriguez to a lat strain late in spring training — a discouraging development for the left-hander, who inked a four-year deal worth $80MM over the winter. No timetable was provided at the time of the injury, but manager Torey Lovullo told the team’s beat yesterday that Rodriguez could throw off a mound in about five days (X link via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Jon Heyman of the New York Post, meanwhile, writes that the Snakes expect Rodriguez to be down for about a month. That’d be a notable absence but far from a worst-case scenario, as lat strains for pitchers can often result in multiple months on the shelf. In 152 2/3 frames last season, E-Rod notched a 3.30 ERA, 23% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate for the Tigers.
- Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts provided a series of updates on some injured pitchers yesterday (X thread via Jack Harris of the L.A. Times). There was good news on both Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw, each of whom Roberts described as ahead of schedule. The Dodgers have made clear they’re being cautious with Buehler’s rehab from a second career Tommy John surgery, but the right-hander’s progress so far is encouraging enough that he’ll be back “sooner than I think we anticipated,” per Roberts. Kershaw, who had shoulder surgery in early November, is long-tossing from 120 feet and ahead of initial rehab projections. Roberts’ updates on righties Brusdar Graterol and Blake Treinen were far less encouraging. Both are playing catch but are “a ways away” from activation. Graterol was slowed by hip and shoulder troubles during camp, while Treinen suffered a bruised lung when a comeback liner hit him in the chest. The Dodgers originally suggested that it wouldn’t require a lengthy absence, but Treinen has yet to even throw a bullpen session.
- Right-hander Luke Jackson exited last night’s game with Giants trainers after suffering some degree of back injury. Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that the 32-year-old Jackson underwent an MRI and will be further evaluated today. Jackson missed just under a month with a back strain last year but said following last night’s injury that the initial pain this time around was not as severe as it was in 2023. The Giants inked Jackson to a two-year, $11.5MM contract in the 2022-23 offseason while he was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. He made his team debut late last May and was excellent when healthy enough to be on the roster: 33 1/3 innings, 2.97 ERA, 30.1% strikeout rate. Last night, however, Jackson’s velocity was down more than a mile per hour from his 2023 average, and he allowed all three hitters he faced to reach base. All three came around to score.
At this point, the Minnesota Twins organization need to pull out all the stops and get the sage/smellingsalts going around the clubhouse. Just try SOMETHING. The baseball world deserves to see a full season of Buxton AND Lewis on the field.
At the very least, have an intervention with the strength and conditioning staff.
Gotta find a chicken for Jobu… and stop drinking his rum!
No. The baseball world does not need that. Just ask CC
“burgeoning”?
You would prefer flourishing ?
“Budding,” perhaps, except his stardom assuming health seems almost assured, making burgeoning, with its implication that such stardom has already revealed itself, is already present in some form, a solid choice.
Carry on, gentlemen.
Swelling. You can always put ice on it.
Well, the timing couldn’t be worse for the announcers either. After his home run the announcer said, “Is there anything that he can’t do?!”
– Stay healthy, unfortunately ….
Then he goes in the IL wi5h quad issue
I question his conditioning. Does he work out enough? Do stretches, eat a proper diet? Practice running and sprinting? Maybe hes got to focus on stretching and yoga.
Are you really asking if players strtch and practice running? Fixing diets is a common thing heard from athletes but suggesting he doesn’t stretch is pretty wild lol
@Waldo29 I’d be surprised if he isn’t already on a diet that reduces lactic acid or increases lactic acid absorption, for example, and with it reducing the likelihood of muscle strains.
Sorry to have to put it this way, but Lewis might be worth 100 million dollars or more to the Twins. They can’t make him do the work, but he’s very probably doing the work, since it’s probably in his character given his life to date, and because the incentives for him are huge. Most MLB players are like that, particularly after their first serious injury.
Many people are simply fragile with regard to health. A weak ACL isn’t a character issue.
There’s a spectrum of health and the sooner the Twinkies accept that Lewis is a DH who should be cautious on the bases, the sooner they’ll have a valuable player much more likely to stay on the field.
Of course they won’t do that, because Paul Molitor. They’ll keep playing Lewis in the field, probably playing him into the ground, and he’ll eventually re-emerge as a fringy 29 year old with the Nats.
Treinen just can’t catch a break. Hoping that he somehow returns without too much rust. He can be a difference maker if fully healthy.
“Meanwhile” has to come at the start of the sentence—it can’t come in the middle, separated by two commas.