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It's been quite an interesting journey for Royce Lewis. The Twins surprised the baseball world when they selected him first overall in 2017, signing the California prep star below slot while passing up flashy names like Hunter Greene, Brendan McKay and MacKenzie Gore to gamble on the toolsy shortstop. It paid off. Lewis emerged as a superior prospect compared to all others at the top of that draft, and was a consensus Top 10 prospect in baseball heading into 2019, where he appeared in the Futures Game. But that season was a bit of a struggle for him, facing advanced competition in the higher minors. Lewis missed the next two seasons entirely, with COVID wiping out 2020 and a knee injury sidelining him for all of 2021. He came into this 2022 campaign plagued by question marks, but wasted no time in putting them to rest. Playing at Triple-A for the first time, Lewis has been an absolute monster. He hit his 11th double on Thursday night and is batting .310 with a .993 OPS for the Saints. The speedster didn't lose a step from his knee surgery, as he's already got eight steals on nine attempts. Perhaps most impressively, this historically undisciplined hitter has a 20-to-17 K/BB ratio in 107 plate appearances. Lewis came back after a two-year layoff and immediately conquered the biggest weakness in his game. Those of us who've been following him along the way are not shocked. Lewis is a rare specimen and it's extremely exciting that we'll now get to see him take the big-league stage, even if the circumstances that precipitated it are undeniably bogus. Lewis has played shortstop almost exclusively in the minors and is poised to play there almost every day for the Twins in Correa's absence, however long that lasts. (Presumably not long since he avoided the IL.) Lewis' defense will be worth watching closely, since many feel he's not destined to stick at the position. Despite his rocky road, Royce Lewis is going to debut in the majors at age 22, less than five years after being drafted out of high school. Somehow, despite all the turbulence, his timeline still worked out almost exactly as you'd hope. Now he's got a chance to make an impression -- albeit perhaps a brief one. Editor's Note: This article was updated to correct the mistaken assumption that Correa's broken finger was confirmed by Friday morning's CT scan. We apologize for the error.

Shortly after the lockout ended, the Twins engaged in a frenzied activity to reshape their roster and prepare for the 2022 season. One of the first moves they made, was trading fan favorite Mitch Garver to the Texas Rangers for Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who eventually was flipped to the Yankees to shed Josh Donaldson’s contract. Trading an aging catcher, with a lengthy injury history, made a lot of sense, even if Twins fans didn’t like the move. How the trade would be reflected upon, depended largely on the development of Ryan Jeffers and what he could offer offensively in 2022. Early in the 2022 season, the returns are promising. Jeffers’ development since being taken in the second round of the 2018 draft out of UNC Wilmington has been remarkable. At the time, the pick was immediately labeled a reach from Minnesota. The Twins, however, saw a solid power bat and a cerebral player they felt they could develop defensively, despite not having had a college catching coach. Jeffers was essentially self-taught defensively. Let’s dig into his offensive and defensive production in 2022 to see what’s under the hood. Offense When Jeffers was first called up in 2020, hitting .273/.355/.436 and managed a 120 wRC+ in a small, 26-game sample. 2021 was, by comparison, a disaster. Jeffers lost his strike zone control, walking less and striking out more, and struggled to get bat to ball, managing 0.6 fWAR in 86 games. In 18 games in 2022, Jeffers has already matched his season-long fWAR from 2021, hitting .228/.302/.456 to go along with a 125 wRC+. Looking at Jeffers’ Statcast profile tells its own interesting and encouraging tale. Jeffers ranks in the 96th percentile for Barrel % and 89th percentile for xSLG, those are elite numbers. You may not like the profile of hitter, but Jeffers is settling in on being a slugger that will strike out a lot but make a ton of hard, effective contact. That’s valuable in and of itself, for a catcher, even more so. There are a number of factors that hurt the perception of Jeffers’ offensive profile and production. Firstly, Mitch Garver’s 2019 season. It was a unicorn season, both for Garver and in the history of the position. Combine it with Garver’s approach at the plate, which combined elite power and strike-zone control, and it’s easy to wave away Jeffers’ low OBP as uninteresting and lacking value. Let’s put his numbers early in 2022 in some positional context. Jeffers ranks fifth in fWAR among all MLB catchers, seventh in SLG, seventh in wRC+, and ninth in wOBA. He just doesn't get on base a lot, and that’s OK. If Jeffers maintains his offensive production and a wRC+ of slightly above 100, he’s going to have an incredibly valuable 2022 season for the Twins. Defense Let’s start with the obvious, Ryan Jeffers is not good at throwing out runners. He ranks fifth last in this category among catchers in 2022. Also, who cares? Jeffers has had four bases stolen on his watch in 2022, and has thrown out one runner, for a CS% of 20%. Yadier Molina is at 29%. Base stealing has become such an irrelevant part of the game that this area of weakness is inconsequential. Measuring defense is difficult, for catchers, it’s almost impossible. There are no effective metrics to help understand the effectiveness with which a catcher ‘calls’ a game. Here’s what we do know about Jeffers. Per Statcast, he’s in the 84th percentile for framing among MLB catchers. Per Baseball Prospectus, he’s seventh-best in baseball. Rdrs/yr measures the number of runs above or below average a fielder would save over 1,200 innings (approximately 135 games). Jeffers sits at 36, that’s good for second-best among catchers in baseball. This is reflected in the eye test for Jeffers. How many run-saving blocks has he already made this year? While the defensive numbers can’t paint the full picture, the outline is clear. Jeffers is a defensive standout. All of this, of course, is a relatively meaningless sample of around 20 games. There’s plenty of season left to go right or go wrong. The early indicators point to Ryan Jeffers as an extremely valuable long-term commodity for the Minnesota Twins.

Carlos Correa exited in the seventh inning after taking another pitch to his right hand during a partial swing. He underwent x-rays and was diagnosed with a potential non-displaced fracture in his middle finger. He underwent a CT scan on Friday to confirm the initial diagnosis, but the results of the exam had not yet been announced when this article was published. In the past hour, we have learned that Correa did NOT break a finger, and at least for now, he will avoid the Injured List. (Quick note: Why is it that x-ray imaging detected a potential fracture, but the CT scan did not? Both imaging techniques are good at identifying boney injuries, but CT scan provided a much clearer and more in-depth picture than x-rays. As such, they are considered the gold standard for skeletal pathology. If x-rays are inconclusive, CT scans are often utilized to make a firm diagnosis.) The reaction from Correa and a teammate... Now, Correa is still sore and won't be able to play for a few games. So, Royce Lewis is still being promoted and will take Luis Arraez's spot on the roster. Arraez is out after a positive Covid test. With that, we had asked Lucas to tell us what he knows about a non-displaced fracture of the finger, why it doesn't need surgery, and how long would it take for Correa to potentially get back in the lineup. We are still going to leave this article here as information on what could have happened, and thankfully has been avoided now. -------------------------------- Luckily for Correa and Twins, bone is one of the only tissues in the body to heal completely and typically does so within 4-6 weeks of the fracture. The term “non-displaced” means that the two portions of the fractured bone did not separate from each other and, therefore, can typically mend on their own without surgery. The prognosis for this type of injury is excellent as the finger bones have good blood supply, making a complicated recovery unlikely. In the grand scheme, Correa’s injury is relatively minor, and he should be back on the diamond by mid-to-late-June. The Twins’ schedule is relatively fluffy during the weeks in which Correa is expected to miss and he should be back in the lineup by the time the schedule heats up after the All-Star Break. In the meantime, the Twins will rely on top prospect Royce Lewis in his stead. Lewis missed the previous two seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an ACL injury, but he has torn up Triple-A pitching through the first 24 games of the season, slashing .310/.430/.563 with three home runs and 11 doubles.

With news that Bally Sports North is close to finally offering a subscription service for local sports fans, rumors are swirling that a premium version will soon be available. “The outcry for a non-cable, non-satellite option for local sports fans is undeniable,” said a BSN executive who requested anonymity. “We also know that there’s an appetite for a premium experience. Our goal is to provide a bespoke product for every level of consumer.” Although details on the available tiers are unconfirmed, multiple sources say there are four options being discussed: BSN Basic: $20/month, Twins/Wolves/Wild/Lynx/United games available on tape delay no sooner than 72 hours after the live event; however, you must submit a written request to the Bally Sports North offices in Minneapolis to watch it. “Politeness will be a plus,” noted one source. BSN Basic Plus: $25/month, one live event per week. The event will not be telecast but rather described by a feral Kevin Lynch off his cell phone's Twitter feed. BSN Platinum: $35/month, all live events streamed as they happen unless there are blackout rules, conflicts with new episodes of Tim Laudner’s Street Justice, or BSN just calls it a weekend early and heads to the lake. BSN The Laudner Level: $40/month, all episodes of Tim Laudner's Street Justice available on demand, plus exclusive behind-the-scenes footage exclusive to BSN The Laudner Level subscribers. No live sports, but they will share all Athletic promo subscription offers they see online. “There’s a lot of noise out there about people wanting to watch the Twins or the Wild live, but our market research indicates the consumer really values choice,” said the BSN executive. “If they have the option to watch a World Series champ take the law into his own hands on an all-new episode of Tim Laudner’s Street Justice, then we think they’ll choose our Platinum or Laudner Level services. This week Tim busts some kids who are rearranging letters on the Lakeville Dairy Queen marquee to say 'PENIS.' Tough stuff, powerful.” When asked if they envision a streaming tier that would contain only live, local sports, the executive laughed for 17 minutes straight.