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Royce Lewis injury update: No timetable for return

Royce Lewis injury update: No timetable for return

MLB DraftKings Network Rail

Updated:

By: Zach Thompson

UPDATE: On Monday, the Twins announced that an MRI confirmed a “moderate” left hamstring strain for Lewis. He will miss Opening Day on the injured list and does not have a timetable for return yet.

As ominous as that initially sounds, Lewis seems overall positive about the situation, saying the injury is “not even close” to being as serious as the quad injury he suffered early last season and never seemed to completely recover from last season.

The Twins were hoping for a healthy and productive season from Royce Lewis, but unfortunately the oft-injured infielder didn’t even make it to Opening Day.

The Twins announced that he left due to a hamstring strain, but there has been no word about his timetable to return. The injury appears to be significant enough that he is in jeopardy of missing Opening Day, which is 11 days away for the Twins in St. Louis.

Fantasy baseball impact

Lewis was expected to start at 3B for the Twins this season and hit in the middle of the order. If he does require an IL stint to start the season, Jose Miranda could get work at the hot corner, and Brooks Lee likely will as well with Edouard Julien getting extra time at 2B. Willi Castro is also extremely versatile in the utility role, giving Minnesota plenty of lineup flexibility.

While the Twins have multiple options to fill the spot in the lineup, none of them bring Lewis’s offensive potential. When he has been healthy, Lewis has been excellent with 33 home runs, 104 RBI and a .351 wOBA over his first 152 MLB games. The major problem with Lewis is that those games have been spread over three seasons, and he hasn’t been available for more than 82 games in any season.

Stay tuned for further updates as Lewis’s recovery timeframe from this injury becomes clear, but it’s a disappointing development for the Twins who are favored to win the AL Central on DraftKings Sportsbook at +210 while the Tigers and Royals are just behind them at +270.

Zach Thompson
Zach has been part of the DraftKings team since 2017 and covers baseball, basketball, golf, football and any other sport that offers DFS fun. He has been playing fantasy sports since box scores were only available in the newspaper the following day. Even though he grew up almost 8,000 miles away in Guam, he is a diehard Boston sports fan but will take a fantasy value play wherever he can get it, even if it’s from the Yankees.
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