Hit: 50 Power: 60 Run: 65 Field: 55 Arm: 55 BA Grade: 60 Risk: High
Born: June 5, 1999. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-2. WT: 200.
Drafted: HS—San Juan Capistrano, CA, 2017 (1st round).
Signed by: John Leavitt.
TRACK RECORD: The No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft, Lewis has already endured numerous peaks and valleys in his career before he has even graduated from prospect status. After establishing himself as a promising hitter with an excellent 2018 season at Class A, Lewis looked lost at the plate in 2019. His batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage all dipped by 60-70 points while his strikeout rate soared. The coronavirus pandemic meant he didn’t get to play in any real games in 2020, and his 2021 season never got going because he was diagnosed in spring training with a completely torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that required surgery. He returned to action in 2022 and earned a pair of callups to Minnesota. In his first game in center field with the Twins, he re-tore his right ACL while making a catch at the wall. He had surgery to repair this partial tear in June. While multiple ACL tears are rare in baseball, it is more common in football. A study in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine showed that NFL players with two ACL injuries in the same knee returned to play with similar recovery rates to players who had one ACL injury, but it did often take them a little longer to return to action.
For all his injuries and struggles, Lewis should still turn out to be a middle-of-the-lineup force who can hit for average and power while being an asset defensively and on the basepaths. Before his second knee injury, Lewis was looking like everything the Twins had hoped for when they drafted him first overall. He has cleaned up his setup at the plate, which closed some holes in his swing. Most significantly, Lewis turned a big leg lift into a much smaller toe tap. That has allowed him to reduce a tendency to bail out with his lower half, which has improved his ability to stay on breaking pitches on the outer third of the plate. Lewis has excellent trunk rotation speed, which allows him to generate bat speed and power to all fields
