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After welcoming second son, Carlos Correa returns to the Twins to ready for season

betsy helfand, pioneer press
·3 min read

Carlos Correa worked out every day he was in Houston. He hit in the batting cage, too, doing his best to stick to his routine. Well, except for one key part: sleeping.

The shortstop, who welcomed his second son, Kenzo, last week with his wife, Daniella, hasn’t gotten much rest over the past few days. But that’s OK.

“I was getting maybe two hours of sleep,” he said. “The baby’s waking up and then the other one would wake up so then I would take care of one, I would take care of the other, but it was fun. I enjoyed every second of it.”

Correa returned to camp Tuesday morning ahead of the Twins’ 2-2 tie against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Hammond Stadium, ready to get back to work. He expects to play on Friday and then again on Sunday as he ramps back up.

While Correa has now returned to camp, he’s not expecting to play for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, should it advance to the next round. And though Puerto Rico is set for a critical matchup in Miami on Wednesday against the Dominican Republic, he’s not planning on making the road trip across the state, either.

“If I’m not going to go there to play, it’s going to be hard to sit in the stands and not want to put on a uniform,” he said.

Instead, he’ll watch from afar, serving as the team’s No. 1 cheerleader,as he has for each of Puerto Rico’s other WBC games. After growing close to him during camp, Correa was especially excited to watch José De León throw 5 2/3 perfect innings on Monday.

“Every time they score, I’m loud like an MMA fight,” he said.

Ober stellar in start

Bailey Ober is doing all that he can to try to make the Twins’ decisions as difficult as possible.

Over the weekend, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey admitted that the idea of a six-man rotation is something the Twins are more amenable to than they had been. It’s still not their plan, but Ober is trying to force the issue.

Another scoreless, hitless effort on Tuesday only helped his cause. Ober threw three innings on Tuesday and is now up to six hitless innings this spring. The one batter he did allow to reach base on Tuesday was promptly picked off.

“I’m trying to do everything I can to try to force their hand and see what can happen,” Ober said. “Hopefully I’m in there at the end of spring. That’s kind of my goal. Just try to do everything I can to make the team.”

Briefly

The Twins have an off day on Wednesday before returning to action on Thursday afternoon against the Rays. … Josh Winder, who was slowed by offseason shoulder soreness, threw live to his teammates on a backfield for the first time on Tuesday. … The Twins also played a split-squad game against the Rays on Tuesday, losing in St. Petersburg 7-4. Randy Dobnak started that game, giving up one unearned run in three innings pitched.

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