Twins pitcher Kenta Maeda's MRI returns promising results

An MRI taken of Twins starting pitcher Kenta Maeda's right throwing arm found a muscle strain and some inflammation that both he and manager Rocco Baldelli called good news and unrelated to elbow surgery that caused him to miss the 2022 season.

He's still expected to miss his next start, although Baldelli said no decision had been made Thursday to put Maeda on the injured list.

Maeda left Wednesday's game against the Yankees after he allowed 10 runs in three innings and left citing discomfort in his throwing arm.

Maeda had the MRI taken but had not talked to the doctor yet about it when he talked to reporters before Thursday's home game against Kansas City.

"It seems like it's not anything severe going on, at least in the elbow structure," Maeda said in Japanese through his interpreter. "So that's good news."

He said the pain is "hard to pinpoint where exactly — it's more like the general area in the arm," he said rubbing his hand from the upper arm to his forearm.

"I think he's going to have some time down," Baldelli said. "I think that's fair to say and we're going to evaluate him again today to see how he woke up this morning and see how it looks. … When we left the ballpark [Wednesday] and sent him [to] get the testing, this was likely what we were hoping to see because we figured we would see something. We were hoping it was nothing worse than this, and that's what we got."

The Twins scheduled Tyler Mahle to throw Thursday's series opener against the Royals, Pablo López on Friday afternoon, Sonny Gray on Saturday and Joe Ryan on Sunday, although the weather forecast calls for rain.

Maeda said what he felt Wednesday was "similar soreness" to what caused him to miss a start in New York two weeks ago.

He said he has talked to several pitchers who had the same surgery as he had in 2021.

"They've told me it's within normal range to feel something like this after coming back from surgery," Maeda said. "If I had felt this without the Tommy John, it would be more concerning. Hearing from those guys who had had it — been there, done that — makes me feel better."

Winding up for a comeback

On Thursday, the Twins returned righthanded pitcher Josh Winder from a rehab assignment and reinstated him from the 15-day injured list. He pitched five games combined during his rehab at Class AAA St. Paul and Class A Fort Myers. They also optioned out Brent Headrick, who pitched in relief Wednesday.

Baldelli was asked how it will affect his rotation. Big righthander Bailey Ober is the most likely starter to step into the five-man rotation.

"It could — I'm not ready to announce anything on that right now," Baldelli said. "It's certainly possible we could shuffle our guys around and insert someone. Just when and how that's going to work, that's for the coming days."

Winder was already on the move Wednesday night when he got the call with Class AAA St. Paul on the road in Rochester, N.Y. He flew from there to Charlotte, then to MSP and arrived around 12:30 a.m.

"A lot better than getting up at 4 in the morning," he said. "I was very thankful they were able to get me here."

Winder pitched in 15 games for the Twins last season, starting 11 of them. He went 4-6 with a .470 ERA, but missed the first 25 games this season because of a right shoulder strain. He threw three innings last time out with the Saints.

Go-go Gallo

Joey Gallo entered Thursday's game with an .810 slugging percentage, best in baseball. He's tied for second in the AL in homers with seven despite missing 10 games injured.

"If anyone can do it, he can do it," Baldelli said. "I'm going to talk as little as possible about Joey Gallo. I'm fine if you guys write the bare minimum about Joey Gallo.

"Let's just let him keep going and doing his thing."

Etc.