Lewis set for rehab, eyes weekend return

MINNEAPOLIS -- Fortunately for the Twins and Royce Lewis, it turned out this likely won't be another of those prolonged absences to which they’ve grown all too accustomed over the years.

That’s because Lewis is slated to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A St. Paul on Tuesday after successfully clearing the running checkpoints that represented his final barrier to getting back on the field. That could perhaps put him on track to return to the club in time for this weekend’s road series in Detroit, if all goes well.

Though Jose Miranda has more checkpoints to clear before he, too, can begin his final progression back to the field, there’s also some sense that he could track toward the same timeline. That would put the Twins in position to get two of their big middle-of-the-order bats back into their scuffling lineup without too long of an absence.

And though this injury situation has become too familiar of a sight for Lewis throughout his career, he’s hoping these continued learning experiences will help him adapt.

“I think the goal, ultimately, is learning I don’t have to be Superman and play through every single thing,” Lewis said.

That’s why this injury wasn’t ultimately more severe and figures to keep him out less than a month, Lewis said. In the past, he would have tried to play through the minor tightness he felt in his right adductor -- a group of muscles in his hip -- and adapted his play until some event would trigger a more severe injury.

But through this experience and conversations with manager Rocco Baldelli, Lewis is learning the health-related push and pull of the long MLB season thanks to having a skipper who is both receptive to and proactive about managing his players’ workloads in a way that puts them in the best position to not deal with more major injuries.

“Knowing I don’t have to be Superman anymore is nice, because I always came in with the mentality I have to give it 110%, I have to fight for a spot," Lewis said. "And these guys are calming me down. I still feel like I have to earn that spot each and every day -- that’s why I play how I play. Until there is some guaranteed contract or money, it’s hard to feel comfortable.”

Still, there’s probably some more ease now for Lewis, given his career .303/.361/.584 slash line in 94 MLB games across three seasons -- not to mention his playoff success with four homers in six games last October.

The Twins have also seen firsthand how Byron Buxton, for example, took several years to take such cautions with his own health -- and still, Buxton errs toward the side of trying to stay on the field for his team as much as he can.

“He's always been attentive,” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said of Lewis. “He's always trying to do all the right things. Some of this is just growth and learning and maturation through the process of having dealt with issues. I remember watching that for Byron over the years and seeing how that changed and ebbed and flowed.”

So while Minnesota's offense has been in a particularly rough spot this week without arguably its three most productive bats in Lewis, Miranda and Carlos Correa (plantar fasciitis), two of them could perhaps be back by the end of the week. And at this point, everyone knows all too well Lewis’ penchant for grand entrances in his return from injury.

But perhaps these experiences will continue to better educate Lewis on how to avoid those injury absences altogether.

“I love the communication from [Baldelli],” Lewis said. “Between him and [me] learning that, now, going forward, I won’t have to fight through something if I’m feeling that tightness in the adductor. Hopefully, two days before [it happens], we catch it and then it doesn’t grab any tighter -- and then we don’t go for two weeks.”