Minnesota Twins: Sam Dyson, Byron Buxton and Michael Pineda all sent to injured list
The Minnesota Twins had a steady march to the injured list throughout the weekend as three players will be out for at least 10 days.
After being healthy for the first couple of months, the Minnesota Twins have been snakebitten by injuries in the past couple of weeks. While the Twins were able to get back C.J. Cron from a thumb injury over the weekend, they couldn’t find the same luck elsewhere as Sam Dyson, Michael Pineda and Byron Buxton were all sent to the 10-day injured list.
The biggest blow out of these injuries may come from Buxton as he’ll make his third trip to the injured list this season. After just coming back from a concussion, Buxton suffered a left shoulder subluxation, which occurred from slamming into the wall to attempt to make a catch against the Miami Marlins on Thursday afternoon.
While the 25-year old has enjoyed a breakout season at the plate, Buxton hasn’t been able to stay healthy recently. The Twins’ splits without Buxton in the lineup are massive and the comments from manager Rocco Baldelli seem to suggest that this could be a multi-week absence as they’ll wait two weeks just to evaluate his progress.
Dyson’s injury may be a head-scratcher for Twins fans as he was just acquired for three minor leaguers at the trade deadline. Since arriving in Minnesota, Dyson has gotten rocked on the mound allowing six earned runs in 2/3 of an inning. One would assume that this right bicep tendinitis might be the reason for the 31-year old’s struggles, but the Twins bullpen will need him back to his old self as soon as possible no matter what the reason.
The move to put Pineda on the injured list was more of a surprise. Pineda had been cruising over the past 10 starts (2.95 ERA in 58 innings) and had just come off one of his strongest outings of the season against the Marlins on Thursday afternoon. The Twins have exercised caution with Pineda this season as he already had a trip to the injured list back in May, so hopefully, this will just be another chance for him to get some rest.
The timing of these injuries isn’t good as the Twins will host the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves and the Cleveland Indians this week. Hopefully, all three players can recover quickly and help Minnesota hang on to their lead in the American League Central.