Bad, meet worse.
One day after placing leadoff hitter Luis Arraez on the concussion injured list and taking a deflating loss thanks to another bullpen meltdown, the Twins got more bad news: Top prospect Alex Kirilloff, who’d recovered from a slow start to hit four homers and three doubles with 11 RBIs in his last seven games, was placed on the injured list Wednesday with a sprained right wrist.
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And then, just for good measure, they lost another frustrating game, falling 3-1 to the Rangers for their 15th loss in 21 games since starting 5-2. It was another punchless effort against left-handed pitching for an increasingly right-handed-heavy lineup that once crushed southpaws. But this season the Twins have scored three runs or fewer in nine of 11 games facing lefty starters, going 3-8.
There’s no official timetable yet for Kirilloff’s expected return beyond the fact that he must miss a minimum of 10 days. In fact, no one seems certain when exactly he got hurt, although he reported feeling pain after sliding into second base on a double Monday. He remained in the game, however, and hit another double four innings later.
So this was the play on which Alex Kirilloff injured his right wrist. Didn't really appear out of the ordinary and he not only stayed in this game but hit another double.
Baseball injuries are weird. pic.twitter.com/Qx7OrS0ecJ— Tom Froemming (@TFTwins) May 5, 2021
Kirilloff was examined Wednesday by a wrist specialist. He’ll travel with the Twins on the road to Detroit after Thursday’s series finale against the Rangers and then drive to Dayton, Ohio, to be examined by another specialist. That could signal the Twins remain worried the injury is more than a sprain, but manager Rocco Baldelli said he’s remaining “on the optimistic side.”
“He was already asking when we think he can try to swing a bat,” Baldelli said. “Normally when a guy’s in pain that’s not one of the first questions you’re going to hear from someone on the way in, so that’s a good sign I would say.”
Kirilloff’s call-up on April 23 jump-started the Twins’ slumping lineup, adding a much-needed left-handed power bat to the middle of the order behind right-handed sluggers Josh Donaldson, Byron Buxton and Nelson Cruz. His impact was undeniable, as the 23-year-old rookie smoked extra-base hits from foul line to foul line, showing Twins fans why the hype was real.
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Now he’s out until at least mid-May and Arraez’s return timetable is uncertain, leaving Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, Jake Cave, Ben Rortvedt and Nick Gordon as the Twins’ only left-handed hitters. Rortvedt and Gordon are light-hitting rookies getting their first tastes of the majors as backups, while the other three have combined to hit just .229/.298/.367 since the beginning of last season.
As of Monday afternoon, the Twins were planning to take their time activating Miguel Sanó from the IL despite his strained hamstring feeling strong enough to return, believing he needed more work behind the scenes to regain his timing at the plate before jumping back into the lineup. Two days and two injuries to key hitters later, Sanó was starting at first base Wednesday night.
“Miggy is ready to go,” Baldelli said. “He’s been on the field for several days doing baseball activities at really full speed, so I think it’s the right time for him and we’re going to look for big things out of him. He has high expectations for himself. We know what he’s capable of and I think he’s ready to hit the field.”
Despite that talk of “big things” from the 27-year-old slugger, Baldelli batting Sanó eighth in the lineup against a left-handed pitcher, much lower than he’s used to, certainly paints a picture of expectations being held in check for now. Sanó was upbeat before the game, discussing how much work he put in with Twins coaches on his swing and saying his right hamstring “feels good.”
Sanó went 1-for-3 with a line-drive single to left field and a walk in his first game action since April 20, and saved at least one run with a nice play at first base. He also tested the hamstring by tagging from second base and advancing safely on a routine fly ball to right field.
¡WOW! 😳 ¡Miguel Sanó! 💪 pic.twitter.com/kZJE4TMC0e
— MLB Dominicana (@MLBDominicana) May 6, 2021
“I think it was a good return for him,” Baldelli said. “Get his feet under him a little bit, see some pitching, hit a ball good, and battled at the plate.”
Whatever the reason, and however much the Arraez and Kirilloff injuries sped up his return timeline, the Twins are now counting on Sanó again and hoping in-season swing tinkering can get him back on track like it did in 2019. That season he spent the first six weeks on the IL and hit .195 in his first 31 games back, but then hit .271/.376/.618 with 25 homers in his final 74 games.
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Sanó has hit just .186 in 68 games since then, including going 5-for-45 (.111) with 20 strikeouts before the recent IL stint, but the Twins believe they can tap into the 2019-level impact slugging again. They also don’t have many other options right now. Sanó has been a below-average player three of the past four seasons, but he has the second-highest slugging percentage in Twins history.
Thorpe spot starts as rotation gets shuffled
Wanting to give Michael Pineda some extra time to recover from a minor wrist injury suffered on a comebacker Friday, the Twins pushed back his next start to Thursday. That created an opening in the rotation Wednesday and Lewis Thorpe was called up from Triple-A to make the spot start versus the Rangers, swapping places with reliever Brandon Waddell.
Thorpe tossed five innings of three-run ball, pitching about as effectively as he did in a good spot start against the Angels on April 16, but the left-hander has yet to rediscover the fastball velocity that initially went missing last spring. He averaged just 89.8 mph on 43 fastballs, comparable to last season’s 89.7 mph. Two years ago, his fastball averaged 91.2 mph and it was higher in the minors.
He threw harder in spring training, which Thorpe and the Twins attributed to an intense offseason workout routine and a renewed focus on mental health. It hasn’t carried into the regular season, and he also failed to generate a swinging strike on 37 off-speed pitches Wednesday, another potential red flag. However, it’s hard to argue with the results so far, and he’s thrown 69 percent strikes.
“In spring training, I was feeling really good, velocity was up,” Thorpe said. “I think I’m going through a little ‘dead-arm’ phase right now. I’ve just got to get past this little phase that I’m in right now. As long as I’m still throwing the ball over the plate, I’m happy. The velo is going to come throughout the season. It’s just not there right now. I can build off that and get stronger as it goes on.”
Matt Shoemaker is lined up to start Friday in Detroit and the Michigan native is 5-1 with a 0.79 ERA in seven career matchups against his hometown team, including six innings of one-run ball on April 4, also in Detroit. Shoemaker is 0-3 with 20 runs allowed in 17 innings since then, so he needs a strong outing to avoid questions about Thorpe or Randy Dobnak possibly taking his spot.
Shoemaker will be followed in the Twins’ rotation by José Berríos on Saturday and Kenta Maeda on Sunday.
(Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn / Minnesota Twins / Getty Images)