By Mike Berardino

Pioneer Press

FORT MYERS, Fla. —Royce Lewis likes to keep things simple.

He eats the same Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal upon rising each day at 6:15 a.m. in the Twins’ academy, where the 18-year-old Twins shortstop prospect shares a dorm room with fellow new draftee Ricky De La Torre.

Lewis visits the trainer’s room each morning after his second breakfast, usually an omelette, for stretching that keeps his body and his throwing arm healthy amid the grind of his first Gulf Coast League summer.

He keeps his $6.725 million signing bonus in a trust fund, living off the standard $250 monthly stipend minor-leaguers get at this stage of their careers. His most significant purchase upon signing was a protective shin guard, and even that came at his parents’ expense.

Why, the young man from Orange County, Calif., still doesn’t have his driver’s license after needing four tries just secure his learner’s permit back home. His younger sister is going to beat him to that milestone, he readily admits.

“I’m bad at taking tests,” Lewis said with a laugh. “I’ll tell you that right now.”

So, when it comes to identifying the most awkward part of this transition to a professional lifestyle, Lewis doesn’t hesitate. That would be opening the first social media accounts of his young life on Instagram and Snapchat. The marketing folks at Boras Corp. explained the benefits to him shortly after the Twins made him the first overall pick six weeks ago out of JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano.

“It’s kind of weird, to be honest,” Lewis said. “I don’t love it at all. I handle it myself, but I do get advice for it because I still don’t know what I’m doing on there.”

His parents, William and Cindy, have Twitter accounts just to keep track of their famous son’s press coverage, but Royce himself has never dabbled in Twitter or Facebook.

“He just never got it —never,” William Lewis said last month. “Some people just focus better doing their own thing and not hearing it, reading it, seeing it, watching it or whatever. It can be detrimental. You don’t want to hear all the extra, tertiary voices around you. Doing it this way helps him focus.”

Lewis keeps his posts to a minimum. Away from home for the first time, he uses the new accounts primarily to stay in touch with his friends and extended family back home.

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