It feels hard to believe now, but it’s true: the Opening Day starter at third base for the Minnesota Twins last year was José Miranda. His last hurrah didn’t last long; Miranda was demoted to the minors in mid-April with a .417 OPS and did not return. He moved on during the offseason, landing with the Padres, and now the layer of third-base depth that Miranda provided — however tenuous — is gone, along with the rest of their in-house backups from last year, leaving a lot of pressure on Royce Lewis to stay healthy and produce. 

What could go wrong?

TWINS THIRD BASEMEN AT A GLANCE

Starter: Royce Lewis
Backup: Kody Clemens
Depth: Eric Wagaman, Gio Urshela, Tristan Gray
Prospects: Quentin Young, Brandon Winokur, Billy Amick

Twins fWAR Ranking Last Year: 20th out of 30
Twins fWAR Projection This Year: 14th out of 30

THE GOOD
We all know what Lewis is capable of. He’s done it in the regular season, the playoffs. He’s doing it again this spring — it took him exactly one at-bat to remind us of his awesome power. 

 

Now that’s the guy we remember. The first overall draft pick, top prospect and rookie phenom. The unstoppable force who took the league by storm and lifted the franchise out of its postseason malaise. Even with his struggles over the past couple years, he has a very respectable .255/.310/.453 career slash line and 109 OPS+ at age 26.

Of course, those good-not-great numbers are split down the middle, blending Lewis’ otherworldly production in 2022-23 (148 OPS+ in 70 games) with his sub-par performance over a much larger sample in 2024-25 (93 OPS+ in 188 games). He doesn’t need to get quite back to the level of his early peak — that may not even be possible, given the cumulative toll of his injuries — but the Twins need something far closer than what we saw in 2025. And it’s more than possible!

Believing in a Lewis resurgence is more than just wishcasting. He’s still relatively young, his natural talent is obvious, and he ended last year looking as healthy and spry as we’ve seen him in a long time. Lewis graded out better defensively than ever before, and made some legitimately dazzling plays down the stretch. He stole nine bases on 10 attempts in September, and has been running early this spring, as if to make a statement about how good his legs feel.

The missing piece is his bat, with Lewis acknowledging that his swing has long felt broken and out of whack. He spent the offseason working with a personal hitting coach, and early signs have been positive. 

 

THE BAD
Aside from Lewis, these are the players who made starts at third base for the Twins last year: Brooks Lee (32), Jonah Bride (16), Willi Castro (9), Miranda (9), Ryan Fitzgerald (4). Lee is now the starting shortstop and everyone else is no longer in the organization. 

While Lewis’ run of good health in the second half last year was encouraging, the injury stormcloud isn’t going to stop looming over him for a while, especially given that he already had an early scare this spring. Fortunately, the side discomfort that scratched him from the lineup last Thursday came up clean on an MRI, and Lewis was back in the lineup batting leadoff on Tuesday, but it was a stark reminder that contingency plans behind him matter.

I found myself asking: if a more serious injury struck and Lewis were sidelined for a prolonged period, who would step in as the regular third baseman? I guess as of now it’s Gio Urshela, who joined the Twins on a minor-league deal in early February. He offers a lot of MLB experience at third and an okay glove, but little else. Urshela hasn’t hit at all for multiple years and he’s legitimately one of the slowest players in the major leagues. But I also think a long-term injury to Lewis is the only thing that gets Urshela on the roster.

In the event of a more short-term absence or rest day for Lewis, the top backups as of now are seemingly Kody Clemens and Eric Wagaman. Maybe those two could even form a platoon if Lewis went down. But man, what an incredibly dire situation that would be on defense. Tristan Gray, Ryan Kreidler or Orlando Arcia are more palatable gloves at the hot corner, depending who’s on the roster, but like Urshela they haven’t hit. The Twins don’t really have much going on in terms of quality infield depth, and that’s felt at third as much as anywhere.

THE BOTTOM LINE
This feels like a make-or-break season for Lewis. He still has three remaining years of control but if he doesn’t significantly improve or can’t stay on the field, you’ve got to think the Twins will be inclined to chart a new path at third base. Presently, it’s totally unclear how that path might look take shape. Maybe Kaelen Culpepper shifts over to third at some point, though that would open up its own can of worms for planning elsewhere, as we’ll address in the next installment of this series. 

For now, all eyes are on Lewis, whose own success (or lack thereof) will play a huge role in determining whether the Twins are able to field a competitive team this season.

Catch up on the rest of our roster preview series: