On one hand, Royce Lewis is way ahead of the curve.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 Draft -- and currently the Twins’ No. 1 prospect, per MLB Pipeline -- did make it to Double-A in his first full season, after all, not long after his 20th birthday. He was a Florida State League All-Star, went to the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game and is ranked as the No. 9 prospect in all of baseball.

It’s enough to make it understandable if he wanted to shut it down for the year, especially considering he collected over 500 at-bats this season for the first time in his young career.

On the other hand, while Lewis continues to be one of the younger players at every level, he also saw his OPS drop from .803 in 2018 to .661 in ‘19. The biggest culprit was plate discipline. Lewis struck out 15.7 percent of the time in ‘18, a rate that jumped to 21.7 percent this season while seeing his walk rate drop from 8.0 percent to 6.7. It’s something Lewis will focus on during his time with the Salt River Rafters in the Arizona Fall League.

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“I think I can always continue to keep working on everything, like everyone else,” Lewis said. “But for me, mainly, I just want to work on not swinging out of the zone as much, just looking to keep it in the strike zone and hit pitches I can do damage with.”

While Lewis has struck out five times over his first four Fall League games, he’s definitely finding pitches to do damage with. Three of his first five hits have been for extra bases, with the second of his two home runs coming on Sunday night. That gives him a .333/.412/.800 line in the AFL’s first week. That’s come while he’s played in some different spots defensively. At the start of this week, he’s made three starts at third and one in center field, where he made a spectacular catch. Heading into the Fall League, Lewis played all but 12 innings of his career at shortstop.

“I was just really excited to play against this kind of competition out here, to come out to Arizona,” Lewis said. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about this place. It’s exciting and the facilities are really cool out here. I’m just excited to keep playing baseball.”

That speaks to how Lewis is wired. He’s never one content to rest on his laurels or think he's figured it out. There’s little question he’ll take what he learns in Arizona with him into 2020 with an eye towards reaching Minnesota sooner rather than later. But as much as he’s itching to get there, he also understands fully there’s work to be done and that it’s not about getting there, it’s about staying.

“At the end of the day, I want to be 100 percent ready, not one of those guys who goes up there, tries it out, kind of fails and has to go back down to figure it out again,” Lewis said. “So as long as that takes, or whatever that time needs to be, I’ll be ready to go up there and I’m excited for it.”

Twins hitters in the AFL

• Ben Rortvedt, C (No. 30 prospect): The Wisconsin high school product taken in the second round of the 2016 Draft reached Double-A in 2019, but then hit the injured list with knee inflammation in August. It’s been his defensive work that has allowed him to climb the ladder thus far, and he threw out 51.7 percent of potential basestealers in 2019. The AFL will allow him to keep working with high-level pitchers while making up for lost at-bats at the plate.

• Luke Raley, OF: If it weren’t for a left ankle injury suffered in May that kept him out for nearly the rest of the season, Raley might be in Minnesota right now. He was hitting .302/.362/.516 at the time of his injury, and the hope is he can make up for lost time this fall so he’s ready to contribute to the big league roster in 2020.

Twins pitchers in the AFL

• Dakota Chalmers, RHP: A highly thought of high school pitcher in the Draft class of 2015, Chalmers got a well-above pick value bonus of $1.2 million to sign with the A’s in the third round of that June’s Draft. He had Tommy John surgery in April ’18, and he was sent to the Twins in the Fernando Rodney deal in August. Chalmers is just making his way back, having thrown 34 2/3 innings this year, so he’s adding to that total while also trying to show he deserves a spot on the 40-man roster.

• Moises Gomez, RHP: Signed for $150,000 back in April of 2014, Gomez has worked almost exclusively as a reliever. He is coming off a year that saw him pitch across two levels of A ball after parts of five seasons in rookie ball. He finished with a 2.91 ERA and .155 BAA while striking out 13.3 per nine. He’ll get to continue working with Luis Ramirez, who was his pitching coach in Fort Myers this season.

• Jovani Moran, LHP: After letting Moran, the team’s 2015 seventh-round Draft pick out of the high school ranks in Puerto Rico, start during his summer debut, the Twins moved the lefty into the bullpen. He missed the 2016 season with an elbow injury, and he made it up to Double-A for the first time in 2019. He misses bats, but needs to work on his command, something he’s doing in Arizona while auditioning for a spot on the 40-man roster.

• Zach Neff, LHP: The Twins nabbed Neff in the 31st round of the 2018 Draft as a senior out of Mississippi State. He pitched well across two levels of A ball, finishing the season with a 2.97 ERA, .227 BAA and an 11.0 K/9 rate. This AFL stint should provide a good test and give the organization an idea if Neff is ready to tackle the upper levels of the system.