Spring Training is upon us and that means multiple nuggets will come out of Twins Territory south over the next month. The Minnesota Twins pitchers and catchers have reported.
Their first full squad workout is Monday. They play their first game on Saturday.
There are a plethora of pitches in camp, including even more that were non-roster invitees.
Among them is pitching prospect Cory Lewis. He is knocking on the door of a big league promotion and could bring something nobody has ever seen before with him.
Cory Lewis brings a unicorn arsenal to the Minnesota Twins
Cory Lewis isn’t a prospect in the same tier as someone like Walker Jenkins or Emmanuel Rodriguez. He is among the best Minnesota has to offer though, and could soon be pitching in the big leagues. When he does, his knuckleball will be something nobody has ever seen before.
“[Cory] Lewis, the Twins’ ninth-round pick in 2022, threw a pitch and the radar-tracking confirmed it: 85 mph. A couple of pitches later, Lewis hit 86. And before he finished, he showed off one that the equipment said reached 87 mph…In fact, MLB’s Statcast system has never in its 17 seasons recorded a knuckleball in the majors faster than the 84.2-mph pitch that Padres righthander Matt Waldron threw last June. It becomes more difficult for pitchers to keep it from spinning as they throw it harder — but not for Lewis.”
Phil Miller on Cory Lewis (Star Tribune)
As Miller notes, there have been plenty of knuckleball pitchers over the years. Former Minnesota Twins pitcher R.A. Dickey used one on his way to a Cy Young award.
Tim Wakefield popularized it with the Boston Red Sox. The former averaged 76.2 mph on his with the latter flipping it over at 65.7 mph.
Plenty of the arms from yesteryear became synonymous with the pitch. None of them have shown it with the lack of frequency and upward velocity that Lewis brings to the table.
Cory Lewis is not a knuckleballer. He is a starting pitcher that happens to make you look silly. At Triple-A last season he averaged 89.8 mph on his fastball.
He paired it with a few pitches, one of which is the knuckleball that sat at 83.3 mph.
The knuckleball is supposed to be a deceptive pitch because of an unknown location. It isn’t supposed to get on a hitter with the velocity he throws it at, but that’s what makes him unique.
“How he gets it up to that velocity, I don’t know. Everybody pays attention when they know they’re going to see something exciting and different…Cory’s is a completely different version of the knuckleball than I’m familiar with. His is a mid-80s [pitch]. It comes out almost like a fastball, but it’s not spinning. It’s very hard to catch and also difficult to hit.”
Rocco Baldelli on Lewis (Star Tribune)
Not long after Lewis was taken in the 9th round of the 2022 MLB Draft, his agent Ethan Chapman reached out to me. The message was simple, “keep an eye on this guy.”
MN Twins rise for Cory Lewis has been impressive
Lewis spent some of last season working his way back from injury, but he compiled 79 innings. 66 of them came at Double-A Wichita, but he put a mark on the year reaching Triple-A St. Paul for his final start.
After posting a 2.49 ERA across 101 1/3 innings during his first professional season, Lewis remained strong last year. He had a 2.51 ERA with 92 strikeouts.
He has given up just 13 professional home runs, and none have been hit off his knuckleball.
Last season the Twins got depth starting pitching in the form of David Festa and Zebby Matthews. That tandem remains, but the new names include Andrew Morris, Marco Raya, and Lewis.
Minnesota is relying on a lot of internal depth of standing pat most of the offseason. That’s a viable strategy if it works out.
Lewis is the type of pitcher who can factor into the equation. If and when he does, he’ll throw a pitch that Major League Baseball has never seen in this context before.
