Royce Lewis launches first rehab homer for St. Paul Saints

Royce Lewis looked every bit like a major leaguer again at CHS Field, launching a towering home run to left-center in St. Paul’s game against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs on Saturday. Walker Jenkins scored on the blast, and Minor League Baseball marked it as Lewis’s first homer of his rehab assignment.

The swing mattered because Lewis had just begun a brief rehab stint with the Saints after coming back from a sprained left knee. MLB.com reported that the Twins expected the assignment to be short, with Lewis potentially returning to Minnesota as soon as Tuesday, April 21, the first day he was eligible to come off the injured list.

This was not just about the ball leaving the park. The rehab assignment was designed to give Lewis game reps and lower-body workload in live action before the Twins decide he is ready to rejoin the lineup. For a player who has already become one of Minnesota’s most important infield bats, every hard contact and every clean movement in the field carries added weight.

Lewis has also made St. Paul a familiar stop on the way back from injury. In May 2023, after recovering from a torn ACL, he crushed two home runs in a game for the Saints and finished 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored. He added a hit during another rehab assignment in May 2024 and later produced a two-hit game for St. Paul, reinforcing the idea that Triple-A has often been the last checkpoint before his return to the Twins.

The homer against Lehigh Valley offered the clearest evidence yet that Lewis’s timing is coming back fast. For Minnesota, that is the best possible update: a key hitter already showing power, a short rehab clock, and a return that could arrive almost as soon as the first legal day back on the roster.