Twins’ Carlos Correa says plantar fasciitis treatment has brought pain but also gains

Carlos Correa’s treatment for plantar fasciitis “would bring tears to my eyes,” he said Monday, and yeah, after two months without him in the lineup, Twins fans know how he feels.

But this is a good thing, Correa said Monday.

“I’m actually doing great,” the Twins shortstop said. “We finally discovered a treatment that was very painful to the point it would bring tears to my eyes. But it’s working.”

In fact, after sprinting at Target Field without a setback for three of the past four days, he said, “you might see me playing baseball again very soon.”

Discouraged by persistent pain in his right foot — “I couldn’t even walk without pain,” he said — Correa traveled to Los Angeles while the Twins were out of town to see another doctor with a new treatment that he would describe only in general terms.

“No needles, just treatment in the training room. It’s painful because it’s right in that area [of his heel], but it’s working. It’s been working wonders,” Correa said. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I’m very encouraged about the way I’ve been feeling the last few days.”

The Twins are adding four new pitchers this week, two lefthanders and two righthanders, but you will have to arrive at Target Field early if you want to see them pitch.

They’re minor leaguers, each of them having spent 2024 in Class A, and their assignment is a difficult one: Try to get Correa, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler and Manuel Margot out, over and over.

“They need swings. Before they do anything else, we need them to see some pitching,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of the Twins’ injured position players. “There’s only so much you can do in the [batting] cage. There’s only so much you can do without getting a live arm out there.”

Those live arms belong to righthanders Spencer Bengard and Jack Noble and lefthanders Jordan Carr and Cleiber Maldonado, the first three from High-A Cedar Rapids and Maldonado from Class A Fort Myers.

“We would only be bringing these guys if we thought it was needed. It’s the right time,” Baldelli said. It’s too early to know whether facing live pitching might allow the injured players to bypass a rehab stint, the manager said.

Sounds good to Buxton, out because of a hip injury. He’s willing to play with pain if he believes he can help the team.

“We’re at that point in the season where you’re not going to be at 100 percent. Probably won’t be 90 percent,” said Buxton, who took fly balls in the outfield Monday after running full speed each of the two previous days. “You get to a point where you can fight through it and get through it. You want to get out there and play.”

Especially after the pain flared up again during his rehab appearance with the Class AAA Saints on Wednesday.

That was “a little more than I wanted to feel, let’s just say that,” Buxton said. “Didn’t feel good.”

* Catcher Christian Vázquez was put on the paternity list Monday, with his wife about to deliver the couple’s second child, and Vázquez’s fourth. Jair Camargo was called up from St. Paul to replace him.