Let's start with the disclaimer.

"I've always been very, very grateful and thankful that I've had [Pirates manager Derek Shelton] next to me in different roles," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of his former bench coach and mentor. "We've enjoyed a lot of baseball together and a lot of good times together."

And like a lot of close relationships, theirs includes plenty of practical jokes. Which is why, upon hearing that Shelton fell out of a fishing boat on Lake Minnetonka on Thursday, Baldelli's life gained a new purpose.

"Shelty apparently purified himself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka," Baldelli said, a reference to Prince's 1984 movie "Purple Rain." "We're going to find the video and we'll enjoy the video."

Not a chance, Shelton said, though he acknowledged that he had "embraced the culture of Lake Minnetonka — accidentally" during Thursday's fishing trip while trying to grab something that fell out of the boat.

"You know who will never get that video? Rocco Baldelli," Shelton vowed before the close friends' first game against each other's team since 2021. "He heard about it, but he will never get the video, because if that video was there, it would be on the scoreboard right now. So he will not get the video."

Embarrass a friend? Well, it's happened before, particularly when the Pirates and Twins play during spring training. Shelton especially enjoyed tweaking Baldelli about his status as "two-time Most Handsome Manager" in 2019 and 2020, as judged annually by baseball blogger Craig Calcaterra. The Pirates congratulated the Twins manager on their scoreboard one spring, and Shelton even wore a T-shirt with Baldelli's face on it.

Baldelli, however, said he had no plans to arrange for any airtime for a Shelton splash video. Probably.

"I don't know yet," he said. "I try to put the childish stuff aside, but time will tell."

Shelton laughed uproariously when Baldelli's words were conveyed to him.

"He's the biggest child in Major League Baseball! Put that on the record. I'll go back and tell him that," Shelton said. "He's that much of a child that he didn't bring it up to every beat writer in Minnesota? Yeah. I have a hard time believing that. I mean, he's going to have twins, so at some point, he's going to have to grow up, right?"

As for the handsome-manager taunts? Shelton claimed innocence. With a smirk.

"If you win Most Handsome Manager in back-to-back years, being one of his closest friends, you'd think I want to acknowledge that," he said. "I'm proud that he's won those awards. … He didn't win it last year. I don't know if he finished top five."

Ryan starts for Saints

Joe Ryan, on the injured list since Aug. 3 with a strained left groin, struck out the side in the first inning of his first rehab start for the Class AAA St. Paul Saints on Friday.

Ryan threw 71 pitches, though only 38 strikes, and gave up a solo home run to Dom Nuñez in four innings against the Indianapolis Indians. Ryan struck out seven overall and didn't give up another hit, walking two.

Brent Headrick couldn't hold a four-run lead, but Austin Martin hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning to help the Saints win 8-5.

Indianapolis is playing at CHS Field at the same time parent club Pittsburgh is at Target Field. That will happen again later this month when Cleveland visits the Twins and Columbus visits the Saints.

Etc.

• Twins pitchers Bailey Ober and Sonny Gray spent Thursday's off day at Vikings training camp, touring the "unreal, it's so nice" training facility, as Ober put it, and watching practice. Ober was invited by Vikings center Garrett Bradbury; they were friends at Charlotte Christian High School, though Ober never played football. "I was really skinny in high school," he said. "His family is in town, so I hung out with them." Gray, a quarterback at Smyrna (Tenn.) High, knows some staff members from the Tennessee Titans, who were practicing with the Vikings. So did the visit change anyone's rooting interest? "I'm a Panthers fan," the North Carolinian declared.

• Catcher Ryan Jeffers was scratched from Friday's lineup after reporting soreness in his back, Baldelli said. He could have played through the minor pain, the manager said, but the Twins prefer to take no chances with a catcher's health.