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PHOENIX — Over one weekend in late May, the Twins lost Kendry Rojas and Bailey Ober to the injured list and designated Simeon Woods Richardson for assignment. Since that point, they’ve been running bullpen days every fifth game, trying to piece things together to fill a spot in the rotation.
That looked to end Sunday with the expected return of Mick Abel, who made two rehab outings with Triple-A St. Paul. But Abel’s setback means bullpen games will continue. Mike Paredes, who started Sunday, has gotten the bulk of work on those days, throwing anywhere from 50 to 65 pitches in his first four outings.
Tapping into the bullpen every fifth day requires a lot of planning, both in the days leading up to the game and the days beyond it. Those days, manager Derek Shelton, can be even more challenging than the bullpen game itself.
“In terms of managing the game, it’s fun because you’re matching up,” Shelton said. “In terms of the anxiety of what you’re going to have available the next day or the day going into it, that’s where it causes (questions of) like ‘What’s available?’ Because then you end up running into even if you’re doing a bullpen game, depending on who’s available, you run into some bad matchups that you had that have to put your players in that situation.”
The Twins did get one pitcher who can give them multiple innings back on Sunday in Rojas, designating Justin Lawrence for assignment to make room on the roster.
Rojas (triceps) made one rehab outing and is not fully built up to where he had been, but he does provide the Twins a power lefty out of the bullpen.
“The decision we had to make was like ‘Are we going to build him up to four innings and take two to three more appearances, or are we going to bring him back to the big leagues?’ ” Shelton said. “We decided to bring him back to the big leagues. Now in saying that, that doesn’t mean that we won’t maybe build him back up as he’s here. But that was kind of the tension point of which way we were going to go, and we decided just bringing him back was better for us.”
As for when Abel or Ober might return, that’s up in the air.
Ober on Saturday in Phoenix threw his first bullpen since injuring his elbow, and he was encouraged by how it went.
“It was the first time I was off the mound in almost 20 days, probably, so working through some stuff,” Ober said. “But the most important thing was my arm felt really good, so I’m happy about that.”
Abel is in the opposite position, now preparing to have more imaging taken on his right elbow/triceps area. After throwing a bullpen Friday, he said his arm felt more stiff as the day went on. He woke up and his arm still feeling stiff and swollen. It “shocks the system,” he said, especially after getting through a pair of rehab outings and feeling healthy.
“It’s emotional,” Abel said. “I’m really frustrated because it was right there, and I was about to cross the finish line.”
The Twins will host the back-to-back World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at Target Field this week. Zebby Matthews (3-4, 4.78 earned-run average) is set to start the series opener Monday night.
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That looked to end Sunday with the expected return of Mick Abel, who made two rehab outings with Triple-A St. Paul. But Abel’s setback means bullpen games will continue. Mike Paredes, who started Sunday, has gotten the bulk of work on those days, throwing anywhere from 50 to 65 pitches in his first four outings.
Tapping into the bullpen every fifth day requires a lot of planning, both in the days leading up to the game and the days beyond it. Those days, manager Derek Shelton, can be even more challenging than the bullpen game itself.
“In terms of managing the game, it’s fun because you’re matching up,” Shelton said. “In terms of the anxiety of what you’re going to have available the next day or the day going into it, that’s where it causes (questions of) like ‘What’s available?’ Because then you end up running into even if you’re doing a bullpen game, depending on who’s available, you run into some bad matchups that you had that have to put your players in that situation.”
The Twins did get one pitcher who can give them multiple innings back on Sunday in Rojas, designating Justin Lawrence for assignment to make room on the roster.
Rojas (triceps) made one rehab outing and is not fully built up to where he had been, but he does provide the Twins a power lefty out of the bullpen.
“The decision we had to make was like ‘Are we going to build him up to four innings and take two to three more appearances, or are we going to bring him back to the big leagues?’ ” Shelton said. “We decided to bring him back to the big leagues. Now in saying that, that doesn’t mean that we won’t maybe build him back up as he’s here. But that was kind of the tension point of which way we were going to go, and we decided just bringing him back was better for us.”
As for when Abel or Ober might return, that’s up in the air.
Ober on Saturday in Phoenix threw his first bullpen since injuring his elbow, and he was encouraged by how it went.
“It was the first time I was off the mound in almost 20 days, probably, so working through some stuff,” Ober said. “But the most important thing was my arm felt really good, so I’m happy about that.”
Abel is in the opposite position, now preparing to have more imaging taken on his right elbow/triceps area. After throwing a bullpen Friday, he said his arm felt more stiff as the day went on. He woke up and his arm still feeling stiff and swollen. It “shocks the system,” he said, especially after getting through a pair of rehab outings and feeling healthy.
“It’s emotional,” Abel said. “I’m really frustrated because it was right there, and I was about to cross the finish line.”
Briefly
The Twins will host the back-to-back World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at Target Field this week. Zebby Matthews (3-4, 4.78 earned-run average) is set to start the series opener Monday night.
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