WASHINGTON — The Twins’ offense is getting closer to having one of its most important pieces back.

On Monday, Royce Lewis ran the bases for the first time since straining his quadriceps on Opening Day. He’ll continue running throughout the week and once the Twins return home, they’ll have a much better sense for his timeline to return.

“Friday will be a big tell for us, because we’re going to do a lot of stuff with him where we’re going to try to put him in as (many) game-scenario situations as we can,” head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta said.

Lewis has been participating in other baseball activities — taking ground balls, hitting both on the field and in the cage — and last week, Paparesta said the third baseman did well both with his change-in-direction running and ramping up his sprinting.

Should all go well this week, Paparesta said they are “heading in the right direction of a rehab assignment.”

It’s been a frustrating for Lewis, who has described this rehab as the most mentally challenging of his career. It’s been more challenging, he’s said, than even the much lengthier rehab processes he had after surgery to repair his anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, in large part because of the uncertainty of the return timetable and because of how good he’s felt lately.

“A lot of it is just spending time with him and listening to him and letting him be who he is, which is always very positive, always very good, which are all good signs but we have to go by the science a little bit on that and explain that to him,” Paparesta said. “Ultimately you just get to a relationship where Royce comes in every day and tells us he’s good and we’re excited to hear that and that’s good but he knows there’s things that we need and I think it’s just a good give and take.”

Stewart progressing

Reliever Brock Stewart, out with right shoulder tendinitis, is also progressing towards his return, though he has yet to start throwing a baseball.

Paparesta said Stewart has thrown with plyometric balls and expected him to do a few more days of that before moving to the next step in his rehab process.

“That’s more or less just him mimicking his throwing motion motion and getting into his mechanics of what he needs,” Paparesta said. “He’s heading on the right path at this point.”

Twins make change atop lineup

Manuel Margot found his name penciled in atop the Twins’ lineup on Tuesday for the first time since mid-April. The reason for the change, which came against the left-hander Patrick Corbin, was two-fold, manager Rocco Baldelli said.

One, Baldelli cited the quality of Margot’s at-bats of late, noting that it looked like the outfielder was “finding some timing and doing a good job.”

The other was to move Ryan Jeffers and Carlos Correa, who were second and third in the lineup on Tuesday, down a spot, putting them in a position to drive in runs.

“Those guys have been at the top with lefties for a while now, in one version or another,” Baldelli said. “They’ve had good at-bats. They’ve done good work.”

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