Promotion to Twins gives Gilberto Celestino the opportunity he wanted

KANSAS CITY, MO. – In the grand Twins playbook, whether it exists physically somewhere in Rocco Baldelli's office or just metaphorically in the staff's collective mind, Gilberto Celestino as the starting center fielder fell somewhere in the Plan E range.

But not to the man himself. Celestino knew even early this past offseason the goal was to be in the big leagues in 2021. On the second day of his major league career, Celestino said Thursday he has already realized he feels "ready for this level."

"Being promoted from Double-A to Triple-A, I was really excited. I thought to myself, 'Well, I don't know how soon it's going to be or how long it's going to take, but this is my chance to prove that I belong here,' " Celestino said. "And then out of the blue, I got the call to the big leagues. And it's like, 'Whoa, this is really fast.' I know the circumstances are because of everything that's happening, but still, I was given a chance, and I'm here, and I'm going to try to take advantage of it."

With Byron Buxton, Jake Cave, Max Kepler and Rob Refsnyder all injured, and Kyle Garlick more of an emergency center fielder than a starter, Celestino made the quick rise to anchor the outfield. And while it's been a whirlwind couple of days, he was able to tamp down some of his anxiety when he first walked into the Twins clubhouse Thursday by just breathing.

He had many welcoming faces from fellow Dominican players, including Jorge Alcala, whom he played with in the Houston Astros organization before they both came to the Twins in the July 2018 trade for Ryan Pressly.

The 22-year-old also knows some of the younger players, such as Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach, who can be his corner outfielders.

"He's a great teammate, very competitive," Larnach said. "He'll battle at the plate. He does a lot of things right. And he's a nice guy to have on your left or your right if you're in the outfield because he covers a lot of ground. He's just, he's a gamer."

"I play a lot of PlayStation," he said with a laugh.

Lefthander Caleb Thielbar became the 10th Twins player to grace the injured list. He was placed on the IL after suffering a groin strain in Wednesday night's 6-3 loss at Baltimore.

Righthander Shaun Anderson came up from Class AAA St. Paul for Thursday's game.

"With a groin injury like what Caleb is dealing with, really just the timetable that we're talking about here was just going to put us in a spot where we had to get another reliever going and have here and be available. So it just made sense," Baldelli said. "… I don't consider it a long-term issue, but it's a muscle strain, and something that's not going to allow him to pitch right now."

In 21 innings, Thielbar has a 4.29 ERA with 31 strikeouts. Anderson is in his third stint with the Twins. He has given up five earned runs in five innings with six strikeouts and spent some time on the IL because of a quad strain.

• Baldelli said Buxton is working on "the last 10 percent" of his recovery, which focuses mainly on conditioning from running the bases.