Twins takeaways: Royce Lewis injured again, Jose Miranda passed over, Brooks Lee heats up

New York Times

16-06-2025

Royce Lewis is back on the injured list with another left hamstring strain.
This time, the Minnesota Twins have classified it as a mild strain, whereas the hamstring injury Lewis suffered during spring training was a moderate strain that sidelined the third baseman for nearly two months.
It's unfortunate timing for Lewis, who was finally having some success at the plate after a prolonged slump that carried over from last season, going 11-for-28 (.393) in a nine-game stretch. He was injured Friday while running out a base hit that pushed his batting average above .200.
Royce Lewis pulled something running to first and has come out of the game.
[image or embed]
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) June 13, 2025 at 9:41 PM
'I'm tired of being the one that's getting bullied and picked on by this game,' Lewis told reporters in Houston. 'Whether it wants me to suffer on the offensive side, or when I'm going hot, it just wants to kick me out with an injury, it seems like it's just picking on me at this moment.'
Lewis' frustration is easy to understand. His career was forever altered by sustaining back-to-back season-ending torn right ACLs in 2021 and 2022. It was a long road back from those surgeries, and this is his sixth IL stint in the past two years since returning.
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• June 2025: Hamstring
• March 2025: Hamstring
• July 2024: Adductor
• March 2024: Quadriceps
• September 2023: Hamstring
• July 2023: Oblique
Lewis was once among baseball's fastest prospects, but the never-ending injuries sapped most of that speed. In an unsuccessful effort to avoid more leg problems, the Twins asked him to jog this season unless it was absolutely necessary, resulting in a sprint speed in the 13th percentile league-wide.
And yet, even abandoning the once-elite and still-valuable running aspect of his game hasn't helped stave off the leg issues. This latest hamstring injury occurred on a routine play in which Lewis ran somewhat hard for less than 50 feet before pulling up in discomfort. March's injury was a similar story.
Lewis has played just 182 of 530 possible games (34 percent) since making his highly anticipated Twins debut on May 6, 2022, and he's facing another extended absence that might keep him out through the All-Star break in mid-July. His career high for games played in a season will almost certainly remain at 82, which he accomplished last season.
DaShawn Keirsey Jr. was recalled from Triple-A St. Paul to replace Lewis on the roster despite hitting poorly in a limited role with the Twins earlier this season. This is noteworthy because he's an outfielder taking the place of an infielder, and he was chosen over Jose Miranda and Edouard Julien.
Keirsey made the Opening Day roster and spent the first 56 games with the Twins but received just 66 plate appearances and hit .109 with 21 strikeouts and one walk, often looking overmatched. He was used mostly off the bench as a defensive replacement and pinch runner.
DaShawn Keirsey Jr. robs extra bases and a run 🤯 pic.twitter.com/BKavjBxKwO
— MLB (@MLB) April 30, 2025
Demoted to the minors last month, Keirsey batted .231 with a .619 OPS in 10 games for St. Paul, far from the level of performance that usually warrants a quick return to the majors. It's clear this is less about Keirsey, who figures to play sparingly again, and more about bypassing Miranda and Julien.
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Miranda would have been the natural roster replacement for Lewis. He's a fellow right-handed hitter and has lots of experience filling in for Lewis at third base, including earlier this season. However, the 26-year-old has underwhelmed with St. Paul after a mid-April demotion.
Miranda has played 31 games for St. Paul, hitting .210 with two homers and a .607 OPS that's 138 percentage points below the International League average. Julien has been more productive there thanks to a high walk rate, but he has hardly impressed while hitting .248 with two homers in 35 games.
Miranda and Julien are bat-first players who were once considered part of the lineup's core, and they have 530 games in the majors between them. Yet with Lewis out and the Twins in need of infield depth and any kind of boost for a punchless lineup, they opted for a little-used backup outfielder.
Brooks Lee is now in line for the bulk of the starts at third base, with Willi Castro and Jonah Bride also seeing some time there. It's been a huge weak spot all season, as Twins third basemen have combined to hit just .234 with a .635 OPS that ranks 24th in MLB.
Swapping out Lewis for Keirsey means Castro will be needed more as an infielder than an outfielder, likely sharing second base with Kody Clemens and occasionally sliding over to third base. As is annually the case, Castro's versatility has become essential. And he's hitting .350 over the past month.
Three weeks ago, I wrote an article about why manager Rocco Baldelli had seemingly unwavering faith in Lee being a good major-league hitter despite uninspiring numbers that painted a much different picture.
At the time, Lee was hitting just .230 with four homers and a .622 OPS in 39 games after a disappointing rookie campaign in 2024, but Baldelli was effusive in his praise for the 24-year-old and kept running him out there in a prominent lineup spot.
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'You can throw things at him, and he can handle them,' Baldelli said then. 'I'm into challenging players. I think they respond and grow and turn into even better versions of themselves. He's got really good ability. He doesn't have a ton of major-league experience, but you see him getting better.'
It turns out Baldelli's faith was justified, and the challenge worked.
Brooks Lee.. so hot right now pic.twitter.com/fvFKl8Y4MD
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) June 15, 2025
Lee had gone hitless in six of his last seven games when that was published on May 28. Since then, he has at least one hit in every game, and Lee is now riding a 15-game hitting streak in which he has batted .350 with three homers to raise his season OPS from .630 to .708 (league average is .709).
Lee was one of the Twins' only bright spots offensively this weekend during a three-game sweep in Houston that saw the lineup score just six total runs. Lee had five hits in three games, homering from both sides of the plate, but the rest of the lineup combined to hit .157 with 32 strikeouts in 89 at-bats.
Swept by the Astros, including back-to-back walk-off losses, the Twins have dropped five of their last six series, defeating only the last-place Athletics in Sacramento. They are 10-15 (.400) since the 13-game winning streak ended, which nearly matches their 13-20 (.394) record before the streak.
(Photo of Royce Lewis: Ellen Schmidt / Getty Images)