Royce

Lewis

Lewis picked up his 16th stolen base of the season before padding Minnesota’s lead with an eighth-inning shot off Rangers reliever Cody Bradford. The 27-year-old’s future remains up in the air as Minnesota enters an offseason that is sure to be filled with changes after a late-season collapse left them out of the playoffs once again.

It just keeps getting more difficult imagining Lewis in a Twins uniform next year, even though it probably wouldn’t cost more than $4 million to keep him in arbitration. Going 3-for-32 in his last nine games has dropped him down to .226/.290/.381 for the season. That’s a .671 OPS, which is also what he finished at last season. Brooks Lee has overtaken him at third base, and he just hasn’t recently shown the kind of bat to justify a starting job at first.

Lewis is back handling first base and hitting fifth after missing just one game with shoulder soreness. The 27-year-old has piled up 14 homers and 14 steals in 462 plate appearances this season, but he doesn’t offer enough batting average upside or counting stats to be relevant outside of extremely deep formats.

It’s a positive sign that Lewis hasn’t been placed on the injured list after exiting Sunday’s game against the Guardians with left shoulder soreness. It’ll be veteran Victor Caratini taking over at first base. He’s presumably day-to-day for now.

No word yet on the severity of the injury or a timeline on when Lewis may be able to return. Given the oft-injured slugger’s extensive injury history though, it’s possible he could be looking at a trip to the injured list. Stay tuned as the Twins should have an update on his status after the game on Sunday.

Lewis went 0-for-11 in the series. He’s hitting .173 with one homer in his last 20 games.

Lewis has just one extra-base hit, one run scored and three RBI in the span, but at least he has gone 3-for-3 stealing bases. Today’s showing dropped his OPS under .700 to .695. At this point, it’s worth wondering if he’s entering his final month as a Twin.

Lewis got the comeback started with a 421-foot (104.2-mph EV) solo blast off of Michael Wacha in the fifth inning. His bat has started to show signs of life in recent weeks, but he’s still hitting a paltry .234/.311/.426 on the season with 13 homers and 38 RBI in 328 plate appearances.

The Twins made things interesting in the late innings, as Lewis’ three-run shot in the eighth brought Minnesota within one run. Luke Keaschall tied things up with a home run of his own in the ninth inning before the Mariners walked it off for the second straight day. Lewis now has a modest eight-game hitting streak going, though this is his first multi-hit game during this stretch.

Lewis did not start this game, but he did finish it. With the Twins trailing 2-1 and two outs, Lewis blasted a baseball high off the wall in right-center, and it scored a pair to give Minnesota the comeback victory. He also drew a walk earlier in the game, and it improves the 27-year-old’s slash to .215/.300/.387 over 261 at-bats. That’s a disappointing season, but Lewis has had just enough bright spots to justify believing there’s better things ahead.