The Minnesota Twins need to shut several players down for the season

Mitch Garver

Garver had been putting together an impressive season, prompting many to consider him an option for the next long term catcher of the Minnesota Twins. Unfortunately, Garver came across a speed bump on September 12th-

Head injuries are a scary thing, so the Twins did well to remove him even after early tests suggested he had not sustained a concussion. Yet, the unpredictable nature of head injuries and concussions showed its ugly face again, after recent news that Garver has a concussion after all. The minute that news broke, the Twins should have shut Garver down for the season. Yet-

“At least until this weekend”? Why, Twins? Why would you give Mitch even the smallest suggestion of an opportunity to return this year? Have we already forgotten how head injuries derailed the careers of two Minnesota Twins greats Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer? With less than 2 weeks left in the season, there is absolutely nothing to gain from allowing Garver to return to action. Even if tomorrow Garver is suddenly symptom-free and appears ready to go, there is no reason at all for him to see any more playing time this year. He’s already shown he has a lot of promise. We have Willians Astudillo and Chris Gimenez who are more than capable of handling the catching responsibilities for less than 15 more games. There is absolutely nothing to gain by not shutting him down, and so much to lose.

It remains to be seen if Garver will get any more time this year or not, but the fact that they haven’t officially shut him down upon learning of his concussion is frightening and confusing.

Tyler Austin

Austin has seen diminished playing time in September due to a lingering sore back. Nothing too serious, but certainly something you don’t want to push too quickly in a lost season. However, on Sunday Austin was involved in a scary play that saw him flip head over heels over a railing and into a concrete area next to the field-

Quite the catch, but something you absolutely do not want to see from one of your players at this point in the year, given the situation the Minnesota Twins are in with nothing on the line. That goes double when the play involves someone that had already been dealing with soreness. Perhaps hindsight helps out in this case, but should Austin really have been playing at this point?

Again, there’s no reason to rush anything. Similar to the Eddie Rosario incident, there are only downsides to letting a player return too soon this year, and in both cases we saw exactly what we didn’t want to see. This play may look worse than it was in actuality, as Austin only missed Monday’s game before returning to the lineup Tuesday. But you have to wonder, with barely over a week left in the season, is this really the right decision? Maybe he’ll turn out to be just fine and play out the rest of the season no problem. His 2-4 night with 3 RBIs in his return is a good way to start. But maybe he’ll suffer another injury and leave us wondering what in the world he was doing back out on the field.

Miguel Sano

Sano has had a season full of ups and downs, right from the very start. He was recalled from the minors on July 28th, and while his performance since then has left a bit to be desired, at least he was finally back with the team and looking healthy. Until-

Incredibly, Sano escaped the situation with only a bruise despite looking like something much, much worse. He did, however, miss two weeks before returning to the lineup on September 18th, so it must have been quite the bruise. This is a slightly different situation than that of Rosario, Garver, or Austin, since Sano has been out for 2 full weeks while he heals up. He may truly be ready to go and we shouldn’t be worried about his health at this point. But maybe the Minnesota Twins are allowing him to return before he’s 100% like they did with Rosario. If that’s the case, again- Twins, why? We’ve been over this already, but the Twins don’t seem to get it yet. There’s just over a week left in the season, we have absolutely nothing on the line, there’s not much left for Sano to gain from playing at this point (he continues to be lost at the plate, going 0-4 with 4 strikeouts in his return, dropping his season batting average under .200), and it’s already been a trying season for him. All I can do is cross my fingers and hope he really is ready to play and won’t re-aggravate anything before the season ends.

In summary, the Twins have looked quite foolish lately with some of their decisions to allow their injured players to play. There’s simply no reason to risk anything at this point. Rosario, Garver, Austin, and Sano are all guys that will play a big role with this team for the next few seasons, and while perhaps there isn’t any big risk of injuries that could threaten their health for 2019 and beyond, there’s simply no point in taking the chance of letting any of them suffer even another minor injury before 2018 concludes. We’ve already seen it happen with Rosario- I hope not to see it happen to anyone else.

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Again, this all comes after the Twins claiming that Buxton was not recalled in part due to his lingering wrist injury, while downplaying the service time aspect of the ordeal. Minnesota Twins, listen up here- The entire world saw right through these claims. We know. You didn’t break any rules, and it is what it is. But we know. If you’re going to pretend like you’re so concerned about Buxton potentially re-injuring himself, then why did Rosario play in several games after suffering an injury, clearly nowhere near 100% health, before aggravating the injury further? Why have you not gone ahead and shut down Mitch Garver for the year after learning he is concussed? Why has Tyler Austin been playing through back soreness and continues to play after a scary flip over a wall? And why are we risking Miguel Sano re-injuring himself with less than a week and a half left in the year?

All of this is simply not smart and does not look good. There’s absolutely nothing to gain from allowing these 4 players to play more this year, and the Twins are only making a bigger embarrassment of themselves with the Byron Buxton situation. All we can do is hope that the last several days of the season come and go without any more injuries. There’s no reason we should have to be concerned about this, yet here we are.

UPDATE

Mike Berardino reports that both Rosario and Garver have been sent back to Minnesota, stating both of their seasons are likely over-