CLEVELAND -- The Twins placed Pat Neshek on the 15-day disabled list today with inflammation in his right middle finger and promoted catcher Wilson Ramos from Class AAA Rochester.
With Joe Mauer out with a deep bone bruise in his left heel, Ramos will start at catcher today, as the Twins look to win this series at Progressive Field.
It rained overnight, but it's partly sunny now, and the forecast looks favorable to play ball.
Update: Asked on his weekly radio show (KSTP AM-1500) if Mauer's injury was more of a week-to-week thing than a day-to-day thing, Gardenhire said yes. Asked later, in his pregame session with the team's beat writers, if Mauer might be a DL situation, Gardenhire said, "No, not at all. It's a situation where if you try to get him out there too quick, then this thing will never heal. We just don't want that to be the case. You've got to give this a couple extra days here, so that's why we brought in another catcher."
Gardenhire said Mauer tried putting on his spikes early in Saturday's game, "and he just can't walk."
Update: Gardenhire said the reason he didn't meet with the media after Saturday's game was, "I couldn't make any announcements because there was a lot of confusion on what's going to happen [with Neshek]. I had a lot of conversations."
The Twins told Neshek they planned to option him to Class AAA Rochester, and he asked to go on the DL.
"I was able to pitch, but I was hurting," Neshek said. "And you have that right, if you're feeling hurt, to ask to be placed on the DL. It could have went either way, and I just felt like that was the option I thought would work best for me."
