Royce Lewis didn't know if he was next during Twins' deadline fire sale

Was Royce Lewis one of those available when the Twins were selling off a huge chunk of their major league roster at the trade deadline in July? Likely not. However, Lewis recently admitted that he wasn't too sure at the time.

In an appearance on MLB Network on Wednesday, Lewis was asked about the Twins' deadline fire sale and whether he thought he was going to get traded, to which he said, "You know, part of me — you never know."

"I've seen Luka [Doncic] get traded to the Lakers, which I'm a big fan of, but you see something like that happen, and you realize anyone is available at all times," continued Lewis.

As the deadline approached, it was obvious Minnesota would be sellers and ship off several pending free agents. However, the full extent of the Twins' selling left fans in Minnesota stunned and angry and shocked the rest of the baseball world. In the week leading up to the deadline, the Twins' front office traded 10 of the 26 players from their major-league roster. They moved five pending free agents, as well as five players with multiple years of team control, including Carlos Correa.

"Part of me did [think I could get traded] but at the same time, I'm a big fan of Minnesota. I've always wanted to stay my whole career here and I'm looking forward to still having that opportunity," continued Lewis.

Following the fire sale, Minnesota went 19-35 to close out the season. The front office fired manager Rocco Baldelli after the season, replacing him with former Twins bench coach Derek Shelton. Lewis said that Shelton flew out to Dallas to visit with him since being hired, saying that it meant a lot to him that the new manager felt it was important to come see him.

That level of importance is one echoed by Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey, who on Thursday told MLB Network Lewis can be a star if he remains healthy.

"I mean Royce, we've already seen it at the big league level. He was so impactful in our 2023 playoff run, winning games for us. Then has gone through some ups and downs from a health standpoint. We know that, that's been a challenge for him, even last year at the beginning of the year. But he's gotten better at third base. He's got power to all fields. He's a great athlete," said Falvey. "I think the biggest focus for us this offseason is just making sure he's healthy coming into Spring Training, because if he is, he's a star in the middle of the lineup."

Meanwhile, some of the players dealt at the deadline went on to play parts in postseason runs for their new squads.

"That was obviously devasting, from a friendship standpoint," said Lewis. "I lost all my buddies and mentors, like Carlos Correa, Harrison Bader, Ty France, even Louis Varland, who's young and killing it and helped the Blue Jays go to the World Series. Seeing guys like that leave, definitely hurt. At the same time, we (who were) left there, we knew we still had a really good foundation for moving forward."