TODAY: The Twins officially announced the IL placements, with Laweryson retroactive to April 9 and Lewis to April 10. Kreidler and right-hander Andrew Morris were called up to take Lewis and Laweryson’s places on the active roster, and the 24-year-old Morris will be making his big league debut whenever he appears in his first game for Minnesota.
Morris was a fourth-round pick for the Twins in the 2022 draft, and he has a 3.78 ERA, 21.45% strikeout rate, and 7.27% walk rate over 135 2/3 innings at Triple-A. Morris started 28 of his 30 Triple-A appearances, though the scouting reports at both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America view Morris perhaps more as a swingman or multi-inning at the Major League level. Pipeline and BA each rank Morris as the 13th-best prospect in Minnesota’s system, and he has a five-pitch arsenal highlighted by a 55-grade slider and a fastball that can reach 99mph but usually sits in the 95-96mph range.
APRIL 10: The Twins will make a couple roster moves before tomorrow’s game at Rogers Centre. Manager Derek Shelton said tonight (relayed by Twins TV’s Audra Martin) that third baseman Royce Lewis and reliever Cody Laweryson are each headed to the injured list. Lewis has a left knee sprain, while Laweryson suffered a right forearm strain. Shelton didn’t specify return timelines for either player.
Lewis suffered his injury during Thursday’s win over Detroit. He came up limping after a swinging strike in his final at-bat of that game. Lewis was able to gut out the plate appearance and hit an infield single. He finished the contest but felt more discomfort today. Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star-Tribune writes that Lewis went for imaging this evening that revealed the sprain.
This will be the ninth injured list stint of Lewis’ four-year MLB career. He has twice torn the ACL in his right knee, once before his big league debut, and battled various left leg injuries. That included a pair of hamstring strains last year. Lewis narrowly topped 100 games for the first time in his career.
The former first overall pick had been out to a nice start. Although he’s only hitting .222, he has taken eight walks and collected four extra-base hits (two doubles and homers apiece). Lewis was at the hot corner for 12 of Minnesota’s first 14 games. Utilityman Tristan Gray has gotten the other two starts and projects as the regular there for the time being. Gray has a homer and a double in the early going but is a .220/.279/.394 hitter over 53 career contests.
Laweryson made his first Opening Day roster this year. The 27-year-old righty made five appearances last season as a September call-up. He has worked 6 1/3 frames of four-run ball (three earned) with eight strikeouts in five outings this year. Laweryson has a save and a hold as part of a wide open Minnesota bullpen.
Minnesota will announce their corresponding call-ups tomorrow. Ryan Kreidler and Eric Wagaman are on the 40-man roster as depth infielders. Kreidler offers more defensive value and is hitting better in Triple-A to begin the season. Zak Kent, who was optioned earlier in the week, seems likeliest to take the bullpen spot if the Twins don’t want to designate anyone for assignment.
I’m here for my dose of mlbtraderumors Déjà vu
Lewis injured is obligatory.
The John Means of hitters
Somewhere Royce Lewis’s ex-girlfriend has a voodoo of him and she’s been having a ton of fun the last few years.
And the sky is blue.
Wow. Almost made it to the end of the 2nd week of April.
I’m here to ask how far will Pittsburgh let Connor Griffin‘s batting average drop to? It’s at .143 right now. will they let him drop below to .99?.
Is that average the cause of Royce’s injury?
Maybe you want to give him more than 21 ABs before sending him down?
That’s pretty much become standard with high prospects these past couple of years: a relatively short period of a bad or worse slash line, and then they adjust and start performing in the projected range. Just had to wait it out; it tends to be around a couple of weeks, by my very loose perception.
Have you watched his at bats? He is hitting the ball hard, just right at defenders. He’ll be fine when his luck swings the other way.
He’ll be fine. The worst thing they could do is send him down. They’re 8-5, and the new bats have added a jolt. Let him get comfortable. He’ll make the adjustments.
They’re probably more concerned with his OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+, and other numbers that matter.
Not sure why you are posting on an article about the Twins, but I would suspect that the Pirates are going to give Griffin one heck of a lot more than 25 PA before they make any kind of decision.
He was hitting .438 for Indianapolis and I didn’t see you asking when they were going to call him up either.
Man I did not have a Royce Lewis to the IL on my Bingo Card.
It’s called the free space sadly
Ignorant Son-of-a-b—
I assume that’s facetious.
Betting odds were so high on this that if you bet $100 on “Royce heads to IL”, you’d still owe $10 if it happened.
Twins have two awesome guys who just can’t stay healthy, him and Buxton. So good but so glass boned
Unfortunately I don’t want it to be true but both of their top prospects are as well Emmanuel Rodriguez is one of my favorite prospects but he always finds a cartoonish way to get injured and Jenkins has battled injuries as well
Lewis is not that awesome any longer.
I think Buxton is a level above Lewis in durability though. Still injury prone but not nearly as much as Royce.
The production is a couple notchs above, too.
Hey everyone’s free space on their 2026 bingo cards hit! Who could guessed
Who could’ve guessed this one! Didn’t have this on my bingo card!
Royce Lewis injured?!?!?!
Death, taxes, and Lewis to the IL just before tax day ironically.
Royce Lewis is never going to get and stay healthy. It took me a few years to come to that conclusion, but here we are.
Lewis may have set a new record for him in hitting the IL on April 10. does anyone know if he has gone on the IL earlier in the season than that?
I think they’ll eventually rename the IL after Lewis.
The Rendon/Lewis List