KANSAS CITY -- It looks like Royce Lewis will miss meaningful time for a fifth consecutive season.

Lewis was placed on the IL on Saturday with what president of baseball operations Derek Falvey described as a ¡°severe¡± right quad strain he sustained on Opening Day. In a corresponding move, the Twins' No. 15 prospect, Austin Martin, received his first Major League callup to fill the roster spot.

¡°Maybe I'm too electric for my own good,¡± Lewis said.

The Twins weren¡¯t able to specify a firm timeline, but what¡¯s known at this point is that Lewis will need at least a month of pure recovery before the Twins re-evaluate him to see how much more recovery time he¡¯ll need before he begins to build back into baseball activity.

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From that, it appears that two months would be an estimate at the most optimistic preliminary timeline for Lewis¡¯ return.

¡°He's a unique healer,¡± Falvey said. ¡°He seems to come back pretty quickly. He's already feeling better than he felt yesterday and that's his nature. He's very optimistic, and that's the way we want to approach this.¡±

With Martin recalled from the Minors, Willi Castro and Kyle Farmer could see significant time at third base in Lewis¡¯ absence, as was the case when Lewis missed time last season. Martin, who can play second base and outfield, played left field when he debuted as a pinch-runner in the seventh inning of Saturday¡¯s 7-1 win over the Royals -- though he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth and didn¡¯t get to hit.

¡°I'm comfortable on a baseball field,¡± Martin said. ¡°Doesn't matter what glove I have on my hand, what position I'm at. As long as I'm playing baseball, I'm fine.¡±

But in the longer term, there¡¯s a decent chance the Twins could give a consistent look at third base to Brooks Lee, MLB Pipeline¡¯s No. 18 overall prospect, who is also sidelined for several weeks to begin the season with a continuation of the back pain that cut short his Spring Training.

Indications are indeed that Lee, coming off a 12-for-36 (.333) spring with a .962 OPS, would have been firmly in consideration for this callup had he been healthy, considering the everyday playing time available. Falvey did not have a specific timeline for Lee¡¯s return -- noting caution to ensure the injury doesn¡¯t recur -- but Lee appears to be on track to be healthy before Lewis.

This marked the fifth time Lewis was placed on the IL as a professional, which, when coupled with the 2020 Minor League season lost to COVID-19, has led to Lewis losing massive chunks of developmental time at or near the MLB level -- not that his performance has suffered in any way when he has been healthy, with Lewis carrying a career wRC+ of 159 in the Majors.

¡°I wouldn't even call this long,¡± Lewis said. ¡°The long ones I've dealt with were a year long. Like I said, it's not the knee, so we know it's not surgery. That's important to me.¡±

He was coming off his first fully healthy, normal spring since 2019 and seemingly poised for stardom -- and perhaps beyond -- in an everyday role this season, until he pulled up with the quad injury sustained while trying to score on a Carlos Correa RBI double on Opening Day.

Lewis knows the drill all too well here, having already rehabbed from two ACL tears to his right knee, an oblique injury and a hamstring injury in the past three years alone. And that¡¯s perhaps the toughest part of all this: As a response to all that, Lewis took care with a new offseason routine to make sure the muscles in his lower half were in a better place.

¡°He really went into the offseason with a focus on mobility, flexibility,¡± Falvey said. ¡°We all saw it. Physically, he looked different this spring than maybe he even did last year, and got himself in a great spot. That¡¯s what¡¯s most frustrating to him.¡±

That involved a lot of plyometric work, Lewis said, focused around building explosive strength, and isometric exercises focused on his tendon health, which left his legs feeling ¡°fresh¡± and ready to tackle the season. Lewis emphasizes there¡¯s nothing he would -- or could -- have done differently.

Still, the recovery process begins anew.

¡°I've just come to learn it's part of the game,¡± Lewis said. ¡°Truly, it's out of your hands. You can't do anything about it. ¡­ You work as hard as you can for something to be taken away from you. It's not even in your control.¡±

¡°It¡¯s really hard news to get,¡± manager Rocco Baldelli said. ¡°You feel terrible for Royce having to deal with this after everything else that he¡¯s gone through.¡±