Surplus turns to shortage awfully fast this year, as the Twins have discovered in their starting rotation, their bullpen, their infield and now, perhaps, their outfield.
Max Kepler latest Twins outfielder who could be looking at downtime
He left midway through Saturday's game with a quad issue his manager said he had been dealing with for a while.
May 29, 2022 at 12:26AM
One day after Gilberto Celestino tested positive for COVID-19, potentially sidelining him for a week, Max Kepler left Saturday's game in the fifth inning because of tightness in his right quad. The Twins sent their right fielder for a magnetic resonance imaging exam, "just to take a look," manager Rocco Baldelli said.
"It could go either way with Kep right now," Baldelli said of the possibility of putting him on the injured list, where four other outfielders have landed already this year. "It's something he's been playing through for a little while now."
The Twins have fielded their projected starting outfield of Alex Kirilloff, Byron Buxton and Kepler together only seven times in 47 games this season, and backups Kyle Garlick, Trevor Larnach and Celestino have gone on the injured list as well.
Coulombe back on IL
Danny Coulombe felt completely healed from his hip impingement just a few days after it happened, and the extra time off while he waited for his 15-day injured list status to expire seemed like overkill.
Then he took the mound.
The injury returned during his brief five-batter appearance on Friday, "probably worse this time," the lefthander said. Coulombe went back on the injured list Saturday, and it'll be longer than 15 days this time, he believes.
The Twins filled his spot, and that of Yennier Cano, who was optioned to St. Paul the night before, by adding lefthander Jovani Moran and righthander Juan Minaya from Class AAA St. Paul. Both pitched on Saturday, Minaya allowing two runs in 2⅓ innings, and Moran one hit, which allowed Minaya's runs to score, in 1⅔ innings.
"They're going to be in there. Our guys have to be ready," Baldelli said of the newcomers. "We are at this point of the season, when you're playing 18 games in 17 days, for a lot of reasons, they have to be ready to go. Any inning, any score."
Moran said his two-game stint in early May, in which he allowed only one hit, gives him confidence he can help more this time.
"I'm more comfortable. I was here before, so I know the guys, the teammates, great guys," the 25-year-old rookie said. "And I know how we play."
Etc.
- Among the unexpected stars of the Twins' 10-7 victory on Friday was bullpen catcher Anderson de la Rosa, who scrambled off the back-wall bench, raced to the fence between the bullpens, reached over and made a basket catch of Carlos Correa's 432-foot home run. "Someone said, 'that's gone,' and I saw it coming," said de la Rosa, a Venezuelan who played for more than a decade in the Brewers', Angels' and Royals' systems, before being hired by the Twins while he played in the Caribbean Series last spring. "I gave the ball back to Carlos after the game."
- Catcher Gary Sanchez felt ill under the 85-degree sunshine Saturday and left the game for pinch hitter Ryan Jeffers in the sixth inning. Baldelli said Sanchez is expected to be fine after receiving fluids.
- Tucked in the corner of Target Field's out-of-town scoreboard Saturday: Updates on the Real Madrid-Liverpool soccer game, the Champions League final, in France. The unusual display was at the request of Baldelli, a vocal Liverpool fan when he's not focused on baseball.
Robust competition is likely for righthander Roki Sasaki, whose agent suggests a “smaller, midmarket” team might be a good route to take, but the Los Angeles Dodgers are said to be the favorites to land him.
