Gary Sánchez avoids IL for now; Twins make three roster moves

Betsy Helfand, Pioneer Press
·3 min read

Rocco Baldelli first got word just minutes before Friday night’s game that Gary Sánchez wouldn’t be able to go after the catcher felt something in his abdomen while playing catch before the game.

What he felt is what the Twins are dubbing “abdomen tightness,” which is not expected to be serious at this time. The Twins sent Sánchez for magnetic resonance imaging during Friday game, which came back showing “minimal signal,” Baldelli said.

The Twins are planning on giving him some rest — and time — but Baldelli said Sánchez arrived Saturday reporting some improvement. The club has not placed him on the injured list at this point, but did add another catcher, José Godoy, whom they designated for assignment shortly before the season started, to the 40-man (and 28-man) roster on Saturday.

To make room on the active roster, the Twins placed Jhon Romero on the injured list with biceps tendinitis. Romero said he initially thought it was something he could pitch through, but the Twins have instead decided to shut him down briefly. The reliever said he believed he’d probably be feeling 100 percent in about a week.

With Romero going to the injured list and the Twins calling up a catcher, they are now at 14 pitchers and 14 catchers, down from the 16 pitchers they began the year with. Baldelli said he believed that roster composition will work out fine for the time being with an off day coming up on Monday and Josh Winder available out of the bullpen after resetting from his 5 1/3-inning outing last weekend in Boston.

Also, notably, in order to add Godoy to the 40-man roster, the Twins transferred reliever Jorge Alcala to the 60-day injured list, meaning he will be out at least into June. Alcala was placed on the injured list on April 12 (retroactive to April 11) with right elbow inflammation. He had started to throw when the Twins were in Boston but after feeling continued discomfort, the Twins shut him down.

The decision to move him to the 60-day injured list, Baldelli said, was not indicative of a further injury but rather that was how long they believed it was going to take anyways to fully shut him down, let him heal and then ramp him back up from level zero.

“It almost feels more like that traditional soreness in there and general tightness, but there’s not a lot to point to as far as anything that looks like it’s going to be surgical,” Baldelli said.

The Twins plan to send Alcala down to their complex in Fort Myers, Fla., where he will remain as he rehabs and works his way back.

In the meantime, they’ll have to continue to navigate in their bullpen without a reliever who looked poised to take on a bigger role.

“He’s an important bullpen piece for us. He’s a guy that’s been changing and getting better and learning some new things and tricks,” Baldelli said. “The adjustment he made against left-handed hitters last year and the change in some of his usage and some of his stuff has actually improved. It’s been fun to watch him get this point in his career. This is probably a blip in everything he’s going to do but you have to get past it and this is part of the game.”

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