His strained right calf finally healed, third baseman Josh Donaldson is set to return to the Twins lineup as early as Wednesday.
Donaldson has missed 27 games because of the injury, which falls in line with similar injuries in the past. A left calf strain in 2018 with Toronto knocked him out of all of June, July and nearly all of August. And he missed more than a month because of a right calf strain in 2017.
He as been working out and playing in intrasquad games at CHS Field in recent days to as close to game ready as possible. That included facing Michael Pineda, who returned from his PED-related suspension on Tuesday, a few times.
"Josh is doing great," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "I would expect to see him in a matter of a day I would say, or two. But we're gonna continue to just keep an eye on him. We generally, as we know, don't get too far ahead of ourselves and make announcements early. But he's doing great, moving around very well, swinging the bat well.
Donaldson was hitting only .182 at the time of the injury, but he pounded 37 home runs and drove in 94 runs last season for Atlanta, so his bat is sorely needed in an offense that has fallen well off the pace of the 2019 BombaSquad that hit an MLB-record 307 home runs.
This season, the Twins are 22nd in baseball with a .401 slugging percentage. Against lefthanded pitchers, it's .348. Opponents have noticed and will schedule lefthanders against them going forward. So it's vital for the Twins to get righthanded hitters such as Donaldson and Byron Buxton, the latter returning to action Tuesday, in the lineup.
Donaldson's needed, even if he has to knock off some rust.
"Anytime he's not hitting an extra-base hit or a homer or a screaming liner somewhere, he always gets upset at himself," Baldelli said. "But he put some really good swings on the ball. I would expect to see him out on the field very soon. It shouldn't be very long."
