Advertisement

Alex Kirilloff still looking for answers on wrist

betsy helfand, pioneer press
·5 min read

The repeated search for answers about his problematic right wrist is back on for Alex Kirilloff after being hampered yet again by wrist pain.

With the issue flaring up, Kirilloff was removed from Saturday’s game in San Diego. He did not play Sunday and was not in the starting lineup on Monday but came in as a replacement for Kyle Garlick, who left with rib inflammation, in the fifth inning. Before the game, he said he could play defense with no issues, but was feeling pain while swinging. Kirilloff did not have an at-bat Monday before being removed from the game.

The Twins tried to get ahead of this, getting him a second cortisone shot — he had one in April — during the all-star break. But that one “didn’t do what we thought and hoped it was going to do,” Kirilloff said.

“What we found just the last couple days is it’s just progressively kind of acting up again, and it just got to the point — two days ago — where I felt like I couldn’t swing without it being a problem,” said Kirilloff, 24. “It just makes it difficult to perform my duties and my job as a player and a teammate, so I had to come out of the game. We’re still kind of evaluating it now.”

That evaluation includes talking to team doctors and specialists to formulate a plan moving forward, Kirilloff said. He also underwent imaging on Monday. The first baseman/outfielder said he believes he will likely connect with Dr. Thomas Graham — by phone or face to face — sometime soon. Graham performed Kirilloff’s wrist surgery last season.

Kirilloff first hurt his wrist on a slide last May. The hope was that a season-ending surgery last year would have him healthy and ready for 2022. But just days into the season, he landed on the IL with wrist inflammation. He returned, after a rehab assignment, in early May.

It was clear at that point that he wasn’t the hitter the Twins know he could be and they sent him to Triple-A to learn how to manage and play through wrist discomfort. He spent a month there, destroying minor-league pitching before eventually returning on June 17.

But eventually, the pain started creeping back in, leading to the situation he finds himself in yet again.

“I just really want to get back to the way I was before the injury,” he said. “I understand there are steps to take to do that, and it’s not always easy to get back to that point. So, it’s frustrating, but I’m just going to keep taking it one day at a time.”

INJURY NOTES

Miguel Sanó, who landed on the injured list this weekend just days after returning, had magnetic resonance imaging taken Monday morning but had not received the results from that when he spoke to the media in the afternoon.

Sanó missed nearly three months after tearing the meniscus in his left knee and rehabbing from a subsequent surgery. He tweaked his knee again at the very end of his rehab assignment and has been spending his recent days getting treatment.

“It’s hard for me because I spent a lot of time … and I tried to stay focused and work and try to come back and help my team for the playoffs,” he said. “It’s a tough moment for me and my family. I hope it’s nothing bad.”

Catcher Ryan Jeffers was also in the clubhouse before the game, about to leave to get the cast on his right arm removed. Jeffers had surgery on a fractured thumb over the all-star break.

The next step, he believes, is getting a splint put on. He hopes to begin working out in the coming days. Post-op, the instructions were to not sweat for fear of infection. In the meantime, he’s eagerly awaiting the birth of his first child; his wife, Lexie, is 39 weeks pregnant.

“Obviously, I want to be out there on the field, but you’ve got to look at the positives and being able to spend some more time with her and spend some more time with my baby daughter when she’s born is going to help me get through some of these weeks when it’s slow and it’s tedious,” Jeffers said.

BROOKS LEE VISITS

Brooks Lee was an 11-year-old when Carlos Correa was drafted first overall by the Houston Astros in 2012, but he remembers watching the event on television.

“It was just awesome to see where he’s come,” he said. “Hopefully I can be at that level.”

Monday, Lee had a chance to meet Correa as the switch-hitting shortstop took a trip up to Target Field just a few days after officially signing a deal with the Twins. The Twins drafted Lee, 21, with the eighth overall pick in the draft.

The past couple of weeks, Lee said, have been “a fantasy.”

“I was down in Fort Myers last week and ever since I’ve been there, it’s felt like home, really,” he said. “It’s been amazing. Hopefully I’m going out and playing baseball soon.”

BRIEFLY

The Twins added Aaron Sánchez to the 40-man roster and called him up. Sánchez started Monday against the Tigers. To make room on the roster, reliever Yennier Cano was optioned. Catcher José Godoy was designated for assignment. … Mark Contreras, optioned on Tuesday night, was recalled on Monday when Gilberto Celestino went on the paternity list. Gio Urshela, whose wife gave birth to a baby girl, returned from the paternity list on Monday. … Catcher Gary Sánchez launched his $30,000 “Swing for the Fences” scholarship program, which will benefit three young students in underrepresented communities in Minnesota. The three winners will each receive $10,000 to pursue their educational goals. “The organization welcomed me with open arms and has treated me really well, the coaches, and everybody here in Minneapolis,” Sánchez said. “I think it’s a great opportunity to do it because I’m going to be helping children and that’s really important to me.”

Related Articles