Paul Molitor rests some lefties; Ervin Santana wants to start throwing on sidelines

Twins manager Paul Molitor did not take the home opener in consideration when writing out his lineup. Not with lefthander James Paxton on the mound for Seattle. Joe Mauer and Max Kepler are the lucky lefties who get to face Paxton. Molitor explained that he's going to rotate his lefty hitters against lefty pitchers.

Robbie Grossman, who batted cleanup a few times last season when Molitor was low on options, is back there today. Ryan LaMarre gets his first Twins start, which should thrill a certain family in Edina. And Mitch Garver makes his second start.

"This one was difficult to construct," Molitor admitted.

Mariners

Dee Gordon, CF
Jean Segura, SS
Robinson Cano, 2B
Mitch Haniger, RF
Kyle Seager, 3B
Daniel Vogelbach, DH
Ryon Healy, 1B
Ichiro Suzuki, LF
David Freitas, C

James Paxton, LHP

Twins

Kyle Gibson, RHP

Fernando Rodney said the coldest game he's played in was in the World Series when his Tigers faced the Cardinals. Game time temperature for Game 5 was 42 degrees.

He's facing a little colder weather today when the Twins play host to Seattle in their home opener, but it's no big deal to him.

"There's nothing you can do about it," said Rodney, who was sweating from a pre-game workout.

And that will be the only mention of the weather here.

There's still an outside chance that Santana can return before the 12 week window closes. He's headed to New York next week for a checkup - and the Twins hope he also will cleared to start a throwing program.