Twins finally get some positive injury news about two key players

For Minnesota Twins fans the first few weeks of the season have felt like an entire year’s worth of stress.

The Twins have been absolutely hammered by bad luck, losing as many as seven key players less than 11 games into the year. Royce Lewis was lost on Opening Day and Friday’s first series against the Tigers saw Carlos Correa hit the IL with a mild right intercostal strain.

Those two injuries were separated by just 15 days, which highlights how brutal the first stretch of the season has been for Minnesota.

All of the injuries woes began before the season even started. Four relievers were placed on the IL in the final days of Spring Training. Anthony DeSclafani needed season-ending elbow surgery while Jhoan Duran, Caleb Thielbar, and Justin Topa all started the season injured and unable to pitch.

Depth has been tested early on in the season, but it might be that the Twins are finally starting to emerge on the other side of it all.

Twins get positive injury updates on Jhoan Duran and Max Kepler

On Monday the Twins announced that Duran would be throwing a bullpen session this week with the potential for him to face live batters soon. It’s a massive step in the right direction for Duran, who could be back with the team at exactly the right time.

The good news didn’t stop there.

Max Kepler also seems to be working his way back. He’s been on the IL for the last week and is expected to run bases at Target Field in the next few days. Kepler fouled a pitch off his knee on Opening Day but was able to both finish his at-bat and then return to the lineup a few days later before needing to be shut down.

He’s likely not going to factor into things into things until next week, but the fact that he seems to be on the right track is phenomenal news.

None of this news is siesmic, but at this point the Twins will take anything remotely positive and run with it. Injuries have not only battered the MLB roster but have knocked things off track in the minors as well.

Brooks Lee and Trevor Larnach both started the season injured and are only just now starting to work their way back. Both would have been prime candidates to get called up had they not run into some bad injury luck of their own. Even Walker Jenkins was bitten by the injury bug, needing to leave his first start of the year for the Mighty Mussels after coming up limping after making a catch at the wall.

We still have a long way to go before the Twins are whole, as Lewis is out for at least another month and Correa’s timeline is up in the air. Fans as desparate for good news, though, and it seems that it’s finally starting to trickle in.

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