Royce Lewis, the super talented young Twins infielder is ready to put it injuries and talk of slumps behind him, and is clear in his intention to be healthy and ready for 2025. He speaks to WCCO's Jason DeRusha at spring training.
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00:00Rice we got asked about the hat. I mean there's part of the fun of spring training, right? Yeah, absolutely
00:04Yeah, just there's a lot of kids signatures up there. Yeah, I just honestly spur of the moment thing
00:10I was like, how about you sign my hat? So
00:13Started with one kid and then it went all the way out. So
00:17Camden was the first one and then just kept going from there and now I don't even know man
00:21I got a lot. We got a lot of them. We got a Grayson Noah Isaac
00:25All these guys man gunner they're all coming out here Connor too
00:29So I mean obviously you guys have a job to do and you expect
00:33Elite performance, but this is also a game and creating memories as part of what your job is to right?
00:39Uh, you know, I I don't know if it's like I feel like I'm doing that
00:42I think if anything they're creating memory for me because at the end of the day, you know baseball is gonna
00:47You know, it's gonna eat you up spit you out and it's gonna keep going. So
00:51I don't want to just be eaten and then just forgotten
00:54I also want to you know, keep these memories and take them with me
00:57And I think this is one of them that for sure, you know resonates in my heart
01:00You know
01:01I always wonder when you the way the season ended last year that lingers with fans as a professional athlete
01:07Do you are you able to kind of compartmentalize that and move forward?
01:11Maybe in a way that some of some fans aren't quite ready to do yet. Sure
01:15I think you have to you know, if you you know, let it stick stick sit with you. Excuse me
01:19It'll just like it'll suck it'll make this next year
01:22Brutal as well and it'll you'll start thinking about some things in the past
01:25But you know to that point like you don't completely forget about it
01:29You understand what happened and how that felt so that motivates you to do better and to work harder each and every day
01:34To not let that happen again offseason. What were you working on this this in these off months, man?
01:40I got what I got married. I know you got married in January. Congrats to you and Svante. Thank you. Thank you
01:45Yeah, we just know we just had a lot of fun, you know
01:48Get my mind off of baseball and take advantage of those offseason moments and spend time with the family
01:52With your friends and that's what we did man. We traveled I went all over and had a beautiful time new
01:58Hitting kind of coaches this year
02:01How do you expect your approach is gonna change?
02:05You know
02:06It depends on the pitcher every day for the approach aspect of it
02:09But in terms of just the swing, I think it's you know, just continuing to work off the fastball
02:14That's a big key always if you can't hit the fastball then how are you gonna hit the other stuff?
02:18so
02:19Just work off the fastball and be on time and be aggressive in the zone
02:23The infield has been sort of the question mark in the offseason who's gonna play where where are you gonna play?
02:28Where do you where do you want to play?
02:30Yeah, I'll play wherever man. I want to play for the Twins. That's that's my goal. So
02:35You know, I think I think we've been talking about it's gonna be on the dirt and you know recently I was told third base
02:40So that's where my mindset is right now is I'm gonna play third every day and be that guy and be a cornerstone
02:46Literally and figuratively for this team and help us win the championship defense is it you know
02:52Obviously in that third base spot when somebody smacks the ball over there. It comes really fast. Oh, yeah
02:57It's a reactionary position for sure
02:59so you're just working on a lot of angles, you know making sure you cut the distance make that throw a lot easier and
03:05You know have a lot of fun doing it man. It's baseball you at the end of the day just play catch
03:08Enjoy the moment. I'm playing next to a platinum gold Glover over there and at shortstop. So I'm gonna enjoy watching the show over there, too
03:15Rocco did mention that sort of the heart of this team is Carlos and buck and that people
03:22Everybody looks to those two to sort of set the tone
03:25How do you feel about that?
03:27Feel great, you know, I think that's how the team should be built off of you know
03:31It's these guys have big contracts that makes the most sense, you know, they're here for a long time
03:36When you think like, all right, what kind of leader do I want to be do you look around?
03:40Baseball and or look around this clubhouse and think all right, this is the kind of guy I want to lead the way
03:45I want to leave sure. I think for me I just got to be myself
03:48You don't have to you know force leadership. You don't have to
03:52You know, you just accept it if it comes to your way
03:55I think it's something that like we have 26 different leaders in this room. That's the way I look at it
03:59And so, you know as we come together, you know, maybe one day it's Brock Stewart that comes up and says hey guys
04:04Let's do this. Hey, you know, keep your heads up. Let's go or Joe Ryan or Pablo Lopez
04:09There's a lot of leaders in this room that I look up to personally
04:12But you know for me it makes it a lot easier when you talk to the position guys
04:15So Carlos and Buck, you know, they're guys that are doing it each and every day
04:19And I feel like you when you look around the league potentially most leaders are the ones that are playing every day
04:25You know, whether it's shortstop centerfield, there's whoever it is. It's the guys that are out there doing it each and every day
04:30Which no harm no foul to the pitchers, but when you go out once a day, you know once a week
04:34It's just different. It's just a different thing
04:36I think their pitchers should lead the pitchers like, you know, Pablo's a great leader for our team and on the staff
04:41He's gonna lead our staff get us going and I think Carlos and Buck combined
04:44You're gonna help us, you know lead the team and get us going
04:47Can't wait to get back out there and do it, right? Absolutely. Yeah, we're doing it. It's already day one. Let's go
04:51Day one is just about done. So awesome. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Thank you