OAKLAND, Calif. — Royce Lewis made their decision as difficult as possible. It still didn’t prevent the Twins from sending him back to the minor leagues after Tuesday night’s game.

Shortly after the Twins lost 5-2 to the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum, manager Rocco Baldelli delivered the news to Lewis, who had doubled, homered and made a stellar defensive play in the losing effort. With Carlos Correa being activated off the injured list for Wednesday’s series finale, Lewis is headed back to Triple-A St. Paul. 

Afterward, Baldelli made it clear the Twins want Lewis, who missed 2 1/2 seasons, to get more repetitions and everyday at-bats. The first overall pick of the 2017 MLB Draft, Lewis is batting .308/.325/.564 with four doubles and two homers in 40 plate appearances. 

“We have to make difficult decisions often,” Baldelli said. “You weigh a lot of different things. Any time a guy is playing the way Royce has been playing for us, and you’re not going to be able to potentially put him in the lineup and in the lineup where you want, things get pretty imperfect real quickly. I want what’s best for Royce and what’s best for our team. We need to keep winning games. I think we’ll be able to do that. We’re adding one of the best players in the game back to play shortstop for us every day.”

Though he’s still a rookie and has accrued fewer than 150 plate appearances since being named the Arizona Fall League most valuable player in 2019, Lewis had been one of the Twins’ best hitters in Correa’s absence. 

His homer to start the fifth inning Tuesday got the Twins on the board against Oakland’s Jame Kaprielian, who pitched them tough for a second straight outing. 

Promoted to fill in for Correa on May 6, Lewis has had no shortage of big moments in his first trip through the league. He keyed a winning rally Friday with a double and a grand slam that earned him a curtain call from the Target Field crowd. Continuing to provide the production he initially delivered at Triple A, Lewis singled in his first game and hit safely in nine of 11 contests. He refused to expand the zone but also hit with power. He doubled four times, homered twice and walked once with only four strikeouts.

The Twins went 6-5 with Lewis in the lineup.

“Getting to face a (Justin) Verlander, who’s an all-time great pitcher, seeing that kind of stuff and realizing it’s not impossible to hit, it definitely gives you some confidence,” Lewis said before Tuesday’s game. “You realize it’s the same game at the end of the day. They’ve got to throw the ball to me. I just have so much fun literally playing the game I love and being in the moment.”

He’s also made the plays when they’ve hit the ball to him.

With one out in the sixth inning Tuesday, Lewis made a diving stop on Christian Pache’s grounder and fired to first in time to throw out the center fielder.

Though there were constant questions from talent evaluators about whether Lewis could stick at shortstop, the rookie has been sharp since his arrival. Lewis has displayed good range, soft hands, outstanding athleticism and an accurate arm in the majors. Twins infield/assistant bench coach Tony Diaz has been impressed with Lewis.

“I’ve seen a solid shortstop that’s made really all the plays,” Diaz said. “The biggest thing with him is to remain athletic in his movements. That’s what we try to remind him and when he does that, he shines.

“He’s played really well. Really proud of him and excited for him and us.”

Did anyone else think that was gone, then about to be caught, then gone again? ROYCE LEWIS GOES YARD!!#mntwins pic.twitter.com/UNdEo3dvV3

— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) May 18, 2022

The Twins aren’t too upset to once again pencil Correa’s name back in the lineup. His return comes just 11 games after they feared he could miss six to eight weeks with what was initially presumed to be a non-displaced fracture of his right middle finger. Correa and his teammates were relieved a day later to learn the injury was deemed a bone bruise.  

Correa’s bat started to heat up before the injury. After a slow start to the season, Correa went 14-for-34 with three doubles and a homer in his last eight games. 

With their $35.1 million man back in the fold, the Twins didn’t think they’d find consistent enough at-bats for Lewis. But Baldelli did suggest the Twins would try to be creative in potentially finding Lewis future major-league at-bats by playing him at other positions in a lower-pressure environment at St. Paul. 

“We’re going to move him around the field a little bit, to get him a little bit of exposure at some different spots,” Baldelli said. “The last thing we would want to do is start sending him all around the field to play in places where he’s literally never played a game. You can do that at times if you do it one-off and you send a guy out to a particular spot. But bouncing him all around right now, probably not the best way to go and not the best way to prepare him to play at this level. But he was fantastic for us.”

Prior to the news, Lewis said his experience has been better than expected. Lewis said he hasn’t felt overwhelmed. He also credited Correa and Byron Buxton for creating a positive environment in which he’s thrived. 

“It’s been OK,” Lewis. “Just me being excited was the part that I had to slow down. Truly, literally excited to be here every day and playing. Not necessarily like I have to pinch myself, but still it’s hard to believe. You work your whole life to get here and now you gotta perform. Once you start competing, it’s fun to turn that on and start competing and not worry about the other stuff.”

Despite the disappointing news, one thing is certain: Lewis has quickly shown he belongs. Now more than ever, the Twins are certain Lewis is their shortstop of the future. With Correa eligible to opt out after the 2022 season, the Twins just want Lewis to continue to play the position every day while getting experience at other spots.

“He’s handled everything very easily,” Baldelli said before the game. “He’s had some big at-bats. He hits the grand slam for us, and has the curtain call and all that … he’s seen a lot. … But the way he’s handled it, the head on his shoulders, that’s been a good thing to see, too. … I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Royce Lewis.”

The Twins bullpen entered Tuesday with the fourth-most innings pitched in the majors. They haven’t received much length from their starting rotation. Given those factors, the Twins needed to get seven innings out of starting pitchers Dylan Bundy and Josh Winder.

The plan didn’t go well.

Though Bundy provided three scoreless innings in his first start off the COVID-19 injured list, Winder struggled pitching in relief. Winder surrendered a two-run homer in his first inning and had to work his way out of a bases-loaded jam in his second frame. Though Winder recorded a perfect sixth inning, he walked Jed Lowrie to open the seventh and hit Ramón Laureano.

Seth Brown doubled in a run and Sean Murphy singled in two more to give Oakland a 5-2 lead. Though the Twins brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth, they never closed the gap.

“There weren’t a ton of names to choose from,” Baldelli said. “And that’s OK because we’ve been winning games because of those guys. Our bullpen has been excellent. There are going to be days where we pick and choose times where we go with a little more length. In a game like this, we have two starters taking the mound for us and in those games, we needed probably at least seven innings between (them) to get where we needed to be. After this off-day we have coming up, we have 18 games in 17 days. We can’t afford to have our bullpen on fumes in a run like that. It’s never going to be a satisfying feeling leaving the ballpark after a game like that, especially the way we lost.”

(Photo of Royce Lewis: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)