SAN DIEGO – The contrast was unmistakable in the Twins clubhouse Saturday. Miguel Sano slumped on a couch in the middle of the room, his swollen left knee wrapped and elevated on a table, a frown on his normally ebullient face. About 20 feet away, Tim Beckham beamed, greeting teammates and talking animatedly about his excitement over returning to the major leagues.

"It's exciting. It's exciting," Beckham said. "It's been a couple of years since I've been in the major leagues, and it's been a long one."

Beckham, an infielder who was the overall No. 1 draft pick in 2008, was added to the Twins' 40-man roster on Saturday, then summoned to San Diego from Class AAA St. Paul, along with Saints outfielder Mark Contreras. When they arrived at Petco Park, they were immediately activated, and Sano and Max Kepler were placed on the 10-day injured list, Sano because of pain and swelling in his surgically repaired knee, Kepler because of his broken right pinkie toe.

"I feel sad. It was a lot of work and effort into trying to come back and play my game," said Sano, who went 0-for-6 with four strikeouts since returning to the Twins on Tuesday. "It's not easy for me. I gave it every chance."

Sano batted .348 with three homers in seven rehab games with the Saints, but the seventh game turned out to be disastrous. "I slid into second base and there was a feeling" in his knee, which had been operated on in May to repair the meniscus, Sano said. "I got soreness. I felt up-and-down the last couple of days, but I had more pain. This time, it got swollen."

The Twins have scheduled a magnetic resonance imaging test for Monday to gauge the extent of the damage. But the injury could require a new workout program in Florida, almost certainly will trigger another rehab assignment when he's healthy again — and, given his 5-for-60 (.083) season totals and $14 million team option for next year, could conceivably spell the end of Sano's eight-year career with the Twins.

"We're hopeful that he can get himself into a good spot, but we have a lot to figure out first," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We're still in July, so we have a ways to go. Could he find himself back out there? Absolutely."

Kepler's case is more straightforward. The Twins gave the outfielder a week to recover from the broken toe he suffered when hit by a Rony Garcia pitch in Detroit last Sunday, but Kepler is still hampered by the injury.

"We just had to make a call on whether he was going to be able to take the field and play. That window just kind of closed on us," Baldelli said. "He did some light jogging. He swung. He threw. But was he going to play right field tomorrow or Monday? It didn't seem likely."

Opportunity arises

Beckham's last major league game was three years next Thursday, with Seattle. But he made a positive impression with the Twins during spring training, then batted .413 with a 1.062 OPS in 33 games for the Saints, making him an intriguing addition to the Twins bench.

Still, he wasn't expecting the call he received late Friday night, as he slept in his St. Paul hotel room.

"They called [his cellphone] four, five times. I didn't hear them," Beckham said. "Then Toby Gardenhire called my room and woke me up. … I'm glad he did."

Beckham can play all four infield positions, Baldelli said, and likely will be in the lineup on Sunday.

"I knew for sure" that he would make it back to the majors, the 32-year-old Beckham said. "Never had a doubt. … It's makes it a little more sweet. You play a couple of years and you have a good career, and then a couple of injures set you back — it makes it sweeter when you get back and get healthy and playing good baseball."

Etc.

  • Alex Kirilloff was removed from Saturday's game after seven innings, his troublesome right wrist aching once more. "It's something that has been kind of building, and he couldn't swing any further," Baldelli said of Kirilloff, who had surgery on the wrist last summer and has received more than one cortisone shot this year to help control occasional pain. "This is just the reality he's dealing with. … We're going to evaluate him and see where he's at over the next couple of days."
  • The Twins have decided to start Dylan Bundy on regular rest Sunday, Baldelli said, but still might call up — or trade for, conceivably — another pitcher for Monday against Detroit. With another week until their next off day, and only three days off in August, they plan to resume using a five-man rotation, with Chris Archer likely pushed back to Tuesday.
  • To make room for Beckham on the 40-man roster, the Twins placed righthander Bailey Ober on the 60-day injured list. Ober hasn't pitched since suffering a groin injury on June 1.
  • Fearing that Kyle Garlick had injured his shoulder while trying to catch Manny Machado's fifth-inning home run Friday, the Twins also flew Saints utility man Elliot Soto to San Diego as well. But Garlick reported no lingering soreness, so Soto simply worked out and waited to return home with the team Sunday.