Hughes will start Monday for Twins, but more moves loom

Phil Hughes delivered the news Twins manager Paul Molitor was hoping for: he's good to go for his next scheduled start Monday. But before that, the Twins go for another win against the White Sox tonight.

May 1, 2015 at 10:55PM
Minnesota Twins pitcher Phil Hughes throws against the Detroit Tigers in the first inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 29, 2015, in Minneapolis.
Minnesota Twins pitcher Phil Hughes throws against the Detroit Tigers in the first inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 29, 2015, in Minneapolis. (Associated Press - Ap/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Paul Molitor was standing on the Target Field grass this afternoon when Phil Hughes walked past, having just thrown his normal between-starts bullpen session. Hughes stopped and delivered the news Molitor was hoping for.

"Yep, I aired it out, tried not to think about it, and I'm good to go," the manager quoted Hughes as telling him. "I'm going to trust in that."

Hughes' status was in doubt because he had to be removed from his start Wednesday after five innings due to tightness in his left hip. But the stiffness seems to have faded, and the jumbled Twins' rotation won't have to be shaken up again. Hughes will start Monday as scheduled against the A's, Molitor said.

That saves the Twins from having to make a transaction, but it's still a busy weekend for that pitching staff. Earlier Friday, the Twins placed righthander Tim Stauffer on the disabled list with a strained intercostal muscle in his rib cage and recalled Ryan Pressly from Class AAA Rochester. And two more moves will be made on Saturday, when starter Ricky Nolasco and reliever Brian Duensing are restored to the roster from the disabled list.

The moves "are separate," Molitor said. "With Casey [Fien] going down [on Wednesday] and Timmy [Stauffer] needing to get well, we needed right-handed help. With [Michael] Tonkin and Pressly, we've kind of interchanged those parts."

In other words, expect a lefthander — probably Caleb Thielbar — to be sent back to Rochester when Duensing is activated. As for Nolasco's roster spot, the manager wasn't ready to say who might go. Could Pressly or Tonkin's stint last just a couple of days? Would the Twins move Tommy Milone down in order to keep him stretched out as a starter? Would they expand the bullpen to eight pitchers, or might another pitcher be cut?

"We'll get through the night and see how we're looking," Molitor said.

The Twins' manager was in a particularly good mood today, in part because of the trophies that were on display next to his desk: Floyd of Rosedale and the Little Brown Jug, won by the Minnesota Gophers football team, with victories over Iowa and Michigan, last fall and delivered to Target Field for tonight's Minnesota Day ceremonies.

"I have a tremendous amount of allegiance to the university, [for] the opportunity they presented to me a long time ago," said Molitor, who attended Minnesota from 1974-77. "I getting out there for the basketball games, football games every now and then. But to have the jug and the pig here in the office today, it's a pretty good thing."

Here are the lineups for tonight's game:

WHITE SOX

Johnson 2B

Ramirez SS

Cabrera LF

Abreu 1B

LaRoche DH

Garcia RF

Gillaspie 3B

Flowers C

Shuck CF

Quintana LHP

TWINS

Dozier 2B

Hunter RF

Mauer 1B

Plouffe 3B

Suzuki C

Escobar LF

Vargas DH

Robinson CF

Santana SS

Gibson RHP

about the writer

about the writer

Phil Miller

Reporter

Phil Miller has covered the Twins for the Minnesota Star Tribune since 2013. Previously, he covered the University of Minnesota football team, and from 2007-09, he covered the Twins for the Pioneer Press.

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