How Kyle Lewis Went From Rookie of the Year to Out of Baseball in Just Four Years

Kyle Lewis was one of the most exciting parts of the pandemic-shortened 2020 MLB season, and the Seattle Mariners were excited for their future with Lewis patrolling the outfield at T-Mobile Park. However, just a few short years after Lewis won the AL Rookie of the Year Award, he's no longer on a team in MLB, minor league baseball, or other professional baseball leagues. Lewis is a sad case of a one-year wonder where a perfect storm of a shortened season and a bit of a hot streak etched the former Mercer Bear into the major league history books. In this video, we dive into the career of Kyle Lewis, from being named the Golden Spikes Award winner in college, winning Rookie of the Year, and subsequently being out of baseball just four years later.
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Music (In Order):
• N Decisive Battle Them...
• Mt. Coronet - Pokémon ...
• Fast Game - MLB Power ...
• Pokemon Conquest - Ele...
• Menu Theme - Mario Sup...
00:00 - Hope for a Desperate Franchise
01:36 - Early Career
04:57 - September Call Up
05:52 - Short Season Success
07:40 - 2021 Woes
10:20 - Trade Me Away
11:37 - What's Next?
#mariners #diamondbacks #dbacks #mlbbaseball #baseball #mlbhighlights #sports

[@IntentionalBalk]

QOTD: Who do you think will win Rookie of the Year this season?

[@Baseballify]

NL Shota Imanaga AL Mason Miller

[@dramatyst5661]

Cedanne Rafaela or wilyer abreu for AL

[@StannisBaratheonOTK]

AL Luis Gil NL Joey Ortiz

[@bigwerd916]

Masyn Winn

[@-Warcrime-]

NL Shota AL Gil

[@nyfinest017]

To be fair, some team medical staff are more worried about angering the managerial staff than making sure the players are receiving the proper medical attention. Lewis probably saw what happened to players in MLB or the NFL in terms of the medical departments and saw outside opinions concerning his knee. See what happened to Kelechi Osemele and the Jets.

[@mam362]

I think had he listened to the advice of the team docs he might still be an effective ballplayer. When teams make million dollar investments, they tend to want very good doctors to look after their players.

[@kaleiwahea]

Maaaan that Kelenic/Julio/Lewis outfield would been something if they all turned out to be what we (i think reasonably) hoped for.

[@cobrallama6236]

Paxton/Hultzen/Walker were supposed to be the future top half of the rotation too. Whoops. 😆

[@dinoanddummy]

Don’t forget about Taylor trammell

[@deakon071]

Dustin Ackley? Evan White?

[@graveyard63]

@@cobrallama6236 Paxton was great, just injuries unfortunately limited him, Walker has always been Mid, Hultzen, wtf happened.

[@kylen6430]

Literally 2 seconds after reading this comment, I get mlb app alert that Kelenic hit a 2 run HR for the Braves. Ouch

[@marzelsimmons8708]

Once he won rookie off the year I was so hyped we were posed to have a outfield of Kyle Lewis, Julio, and Kelenic Smh only 1 worked out so far

[@golfmaniac007]

Kyle Lewis had such a sweet swing for a righty….best looking right hand swinger IMO

[@highruiner8134]

Fantastic video

[@IntentionalBalk]

Thank you, I appreciate the support!

[@Zaron_Gaming]

i was there the day he got injured for the first time, the ACL injury, which haunted him his whole time, at the aquasox sitting 5 rows back from the field. I can still see the play in my mind.. that sucked. He had a shot though in arizona and couldn't make prove himself so that's on him.

[@peterf.229]

he was lazy , got injured and the dbacks dfa’d him . he was a waste but so was cooper humel

[@brohanfromrohan5771]

He and Kelenic are two that I really pulled for, and it's a shame they never panned out.

[@graveyard63]

Kelenic isnt doing too bad, just major attitude problem

[@suhugo9546]

Love the players, hate the Mariners management

[@shawnuel]

Like the management, hate the ownership.

[@1977TA]

Baseball is a physically demanding sport. Staying healthy for 1 home stand is a remarkable feat. Staying healthy the entire season each year is absolutely amazing. Kyle Lewis is yet another tragic tale of a promising player whose body betrayed him much too soon. Oh well I hope he didn't spend his signing bonus in one place.

[@jakesacquitne]

2020 Kyle Lewis looked like the second coming of Griffey at times. Truly flashes of greatness.

[@decktechsandspecs]

The N battle theme is so good for this video, love it!

[@IntentionalBalk]

Thanks! Black/White are my favorite games and I think it might be the best theme in all of the series

[@decktechsandspecs]

@@IntentionalBalk My favorites as well, although I'm partial to the Neo Team Plasma battle theme from B2W2!

[@IntentionalBalk]

I haven't picked music for the video coming out on Saturday, so keep an eye out to see if that one makes an appearance then 👀

[@Jazzma-pi7tv]

Great video and this stinks because him and his family are sooo nice hope for the best for him.

[@KeithSitty]

Agree, chatted with his mom before a game when he was down in Tacoma, and she was awesome to talk to (though somehow no one had told her that he had the same smile as her). When healthy he was fun to watch and played with joy on his face. He is one of those guys who the ball comes off his bat differently and can absolutely rake.

[@thatoneveryfunnychannel2482]

@@KeithSittyhe always looked so happy while playing which just makes this more sad 😓

[@KeithSitty]

@@thatoneveryfunnychannel2482 I google search every couple weeks to see if maybe someone gives him another shot. The amount of injuries he has suffered through will break anyone down (both physically and mentally). In Tacoma saw him hit an absolute moon shot, as I said there are guys out there where the ball just sounds different coming off their bat, and he is one of them. Thanked his mom for raising a great kid before the game as he was signing a ball and card for my nephew.

[@barrettbrandon-ngbaseballr3822]

Chris Shaw wasn’t a rookie of the year. But his expectations and fallout is something to research

[@IntraVortex]

Always wondered: What happened to Kyle Lewis? Now, I know a tad better. Would love to hear his side.

[@seizethecarp_]

I still remember being really bummed when he tore pretty much everything in his knee that first year. Ruined a potentially great career.

[@buddhull]

The kid’s knee is what ruined him. He just so happened to endure some freak acl injury in the minors and had to deal with it until he retired. Sucks.

[@suhugo9546]

I always wondered what happened to Lewis. Sad story, how do you go from Rookie of the year in your division to disappearing completely. Mariners management sucks. The coaching staff are puppets.

[@diggitydog412]

this was all about his knee. If you saw him play the last couple years of his career you could see the dude just was hampered by a knee that was never going to be right.

[@MrJking065]

MLB pitchers are going to adjust. You have to adjust with them. It is not the last a rookie will come up and be on fire. Than flame out.

[@jeffrey.a.hanson]

Jose Abreu, Lewis, Bauer, Mattingly…. That was simply too short of a year. (Yes, I know Bauer should be an MLB stud, but isn’t.)

[@henrywallacesghost5883]

It's called "baseball is hard".

[@marzelsimmons8708]

At first i was happy for him he didnt take that 27 million dollar contract that Evan white took but now i wish he would of. Its a sad story

[@kyland2394]

I thought he was gonna be the next Eric Davis

[@MyDustyCollectionMyDustyCollec]

Good video thanks but Mariners should of made it work with lewis

[@jaredjudnich]

He won that ROY award on the strength of really 1 good month. I was as excited as anyone about him coming up but he's just not a viable big leaguer. That BS Covid season skewed the perception, he would not have won the award in a regular full season.

[@dno718]

Shoulda been a race car driver with that name

[@RyanRegnier-tn3km]

Shota

[@Sneakycastro69]

I remember some clown trying to really convince me that Lewis was gonna be way better than Luis robert. 🤣

[@alfredohsauce]

This is ownership. We don’t have *baseball* guys. We have executives. Look at successful teams. Their ownership is stellar

[@gameboyn64]

Potential and false hope. Yep sounds like the mariners.

[@meric2363]

Wild to look at a player who tried to do his own rehab with outside doctors, had it fail multiple times because his knee was made of glass, had the team try to move him to corner outfield and DH and had him pitch ran for, and think "damn i cant believe he was mismanaged like that". Dude had glass knees, couldnt accept it, and got butthurt about it.

[@MultiBrian1986]

Good video! But Ill make it short. Its the Mariners, nothing they do pans out. They are a cursed franchise.

[@IntentionalBalk]

You're not wrong, living in Seattle it's painfully obvious there's a curse around TMobile Park

[@GeeEm1313]

Trading for Jay Buhner?

[@me-hang-lo8826]

Their curse is named John Stanton

[@MrXJetGhost]

There is no curse the owner just doesn’t care about winning.

[@GingerCulture]

As a Mariners fan, can confirm

[@bronsonbamnallen1633]

things often look exciting for us Mariners fans, to non Mariners fans. But us Mariners fans never get excited by anything anymore, because we know.

[@papersculptureslooklikesta2793]

Speak for yourself.

[@bronsonbamnallen1633]

@@papersculptureslooklikesta2793 I take it you are young. You will learn.

[@ianholmen888]

He no hit curveball

[@the7A7dude]

Dirty astros intentionally hit him

[@jameswoodard5025]

MLB rookie of the year is the kiss of death for a young player..look it up

[@GeeEm1313]

Uhh, what?

[@kylerey09]

Seager, Bellinger, Acuna, Ohtani, Alvarez, Williams, Judge. Plenty more if you look into it. Half the MVP awards over the last 10yrs were former R.O.Y winners.

[@michaelscott5861]

Ichiro alone proves you wrong

[@troyanderson7351]

Lewis is a drunk. If you wanted to hear the truth. Sorry 😞

[@DeidaraOfTheAkatsuki]

Lewis doesn’t want to adapt. I’ve talked to a few people who’ve worked with him. He doesn’t want to play. He refuses to listen and in a mean way, he’s lazy. You can blame it on injuries but he doesn’t want to get better.

[@willyonish2650]

Who’s your source?? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. You can’t seriously think people take you seriously without a credible source.

[@DeidaraOfTheAkatsuki]

⁠@@willyonish2650im not saying a source because its not public knowledge. It’s what I’ve heard being around people who have or had ties with him. And from what I’ve seen from him, it kind of matches up. They could be lying but they could not be.

[@julienyahara8662]

This is so painful to watch... 🥲

[@Juny5]

I agree. I still can’t believe we just gave Ketel Marte away 😢