The Minnesota Twins aren't dreadfully far away from competing in the American League; there's plenty of talent on the roster and if they play their cards right at this trade deadline, contention next year isn't out of the picture. Jhoan Duran, Joe Ryan, Willi Castro and Girffin Jax should fetch the Twins some solid returns, and a few home run swings in the offseason could catapult them right back into the postseason picture.
Speaking of home run swings, Royce Lewis hit another home run today, and he might officially be on a heater, as that's his third home run in four games. But also, speaking of Royce Lewis... he'd likely fetch the best return of anybody on the Twins not named Byron Buxton right now.
Lewis is a massively talented baseball player who is under team control for the next three seasons. He's also had huge trouble staying on the field and has played just 198 games in his big league career which started in 2022. That's a double-edged sword — with so few games, we probably haven't even seen the best of Lewis yet. But there's also reason to be concerned that the injury troubles persist and we never see Lewis unlocked.
Here's the problem; Royce Lewis, fully healthy, is probably a good enough player to be the centerpiece of a Twins lineup for years to come. But Royce Lewis not fully healthy is not a player a franchise can rely on being on the field enough to even consider making him an important part of a competitive lineup.
Maybe he would be better served as a complementary piece on an already-competitive lineup, where he isn't expected to be the star, and whenever he is present, is the guy who lifts the roster over the top. Granted, he's far more talented than a typical guy who's "nice to have," but after four years of injury-riddled seasons, it might make more sense for a contending team to use him in that role than it does for Minnesota to hope for a few full seasons from him.
Trading Royce Lewis might make more sense than keeping him
I need to write quickly before Twins fans show up at my doorstep with pitchforks.
Trading Royce Lewis would not feel good! And maybe Minnesota really thinks that it can build a contender totally separate from whether Lewis is in the lineup on a nightly basis. If that's true, then great! In that scenario, Minnesota can be the team that uses him as an elite complementary piece to the rest of the lineup.
But if Minnesota can't build that roster outside of Lewis, then would it behoove them to trade him now, and try to build that roster mostly from scratch.