Twins have several injury concerns amid winning streak

The Twins are baseball’s hottest team, as Friday’s 5-2 win over the Red Sox extended Minnesota’s winning streak to 11 games.  A victory Saturday would tie the fourth-longest streak in Twins/Senators franchise history — a 17-game streak in 1912 is the organization’s overall longest winning streak, while the Twins’ 15-game streak in 1991 is their longest stretch of consecutive wins since moving to Minnesota in 1961.

While the magic of the Rally Sausage has seemingly made the Twins unstoppable, plenty of injury concerns remain, including a pair of new players joining the injured list on Friday.  In addition to Byron Buxton being sidelined with right knee inflammation, the Twins also placed right-hander Brock Stewart on the 15-day IL due to tendinitis in his throwing shoulder.  Stewart’s placement is retroactive to May 2, and left-hander Kody Funderburk was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

Sending Stewart to the IL was a bit of a precautionary measure, as manager Rocco Baldelli told Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and other reporters.  Stewart’s shoulder has been bothering him for a week, and “this is us really trying to get ahead of something and not trying to let it get down the road where he’s missing a significant period of time,” Baldelli said.  “He’s still throwing the ball really well….But it doesn’t feel the way it needs to feel right now.”

It is understandable that the Twins would be careful given Stewart’s checkered injury history.  He missed all of 2021 recovering from Tommy John surgery, threw only 14 minor league innings in 2022 after returning from rehab and then missed three months of the 2023 season with elbow soreness.

After posting a 6.05 ERA over 105 2/3 MLB innings with the Dodgers and Blue Jays from 2016-19 and then not getting any big league action in the next three seasons, Stewart’s limited work with the Twins has been outstanding.  The righty posted an 0.65 ERA and 35.8% strikeout rate over 27 2/3 innings for Minnesota last season, and had an 0.68 ERA and a 32.7% K% in his first 13 1/3 frames in 2024.  Although an unsustainably high 99.5% strand rate and an uninspiring 10.6% walk rate are red flags, the 32-year-old Stewart has looked like an entirely different pitcher during his time in Minnesota, and a big bullpen weapon if he can stay healthy.

Stewart’s performance helped the Twins’ bullpen not miss a beat when Jhoan Duran and Caleb Thielbar started the season on the IL, but now that both pitchers are back in action, the relief corps will take another hit due to Stewart’s own absence.  Justin Topa has also yet to pitch in 2024 due to right knee tendinitis, and although Topa has made three Triple-A outings, chief baseball officer Derek Falvey told Helfand and company that Topa will “take a little more time with the rehab assignment” before activation.

“[Topa] hasn’t felt at 100 percent yet.  He hasn’t felt like he’s really where he needs to be, but he’s progressing well,” Falvey said.  “We don’t want to rush that.  We want to make sure he’s back and feeling good and feeling like he can execute the pitches he wants to execute.”

In other injury news, Royce Lewis updated reporters on the status of his recovery from the quad strain that has kept him out of the Twins’ lineup since he left partway through the club’s first game of the season, via The Athletic’s Dan Hayes.  Tests have revealed that the strain is healing at a usual pace, and Lewis has been able to increase his baseball activities to include some running and fielding work, as well as 80 swings in the batting cage.

As Hayes notes, the initial expectation was that it would take Lewis roughly eight weeks to return to action, but no timeline was ever fully established due to the uncertain nature of quad injuries in general, and the severity of Lewis’ strain.  While it would seem as though Lewis is making solid progress, he admitted to some frustration over “the mental challenge” of trying to work through the rehab process without having a target date in place.

“I’ve just got to keep continuing to wait,” Lewis said.  “The hardest thing is not having a timeline….When you have no idea and you feel so good, it’s the most challenging rehab I’ve ever had.”

Jose Miranda and Kyle Farmer have gotten the bulk of playing time at third base with Lewis out, and Willi Castro has also seen some action at the hot corner, but he had to step into regular shortstop duty when Carlos Correa was on the IL.  Miranda has hit well, while Farmer has struggled badly at the plate, and with Correa back and Castro now able to chip in more frequently at third base, the Twins should hopefully be able to make do at the position until Lewis is able to return.