Twins' Tyler Mahle isn't expected to go on injured list after early departure

It wasn't planned this way, Rocco Baldelli said, it's just the randomness of the baseball calendar. But the Twins next week will visit Houston, home of the team with the best record in the American League, a club that outscored the Twins 21-3 in a May sweep at Target Field, and won't use Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan or Tyler Mahle in the three games at Minute Maid Park.

That last name sounds ominous, since Mahle, acquired to stabilize the Twins' shaky rotation, was originally scheduled to start the series opener on Tuesday. But Baldelli and Mahle were actually upbeat about the righthander's status on Friday.

"I feel really good today. I could have went out and thrown. I lifted [weights] today and everything," said Mahle, who left Wednesday's start against the Royals because of shoulder fatigue in the third inning. "I feel pretty solid about where I'm at."

Mahle said he can't explain why his fastball was generally 4-5 miles per hour slower than normal, but it didn't feel like he was hurt. "It was just a weird day. I felt fine," Mahle said. "I wasn't scared of throwing hard. I was locating stuff." Even when he rotated his arm between pitches, he said, it was a sign of confusion, not discomfort.

"I saw my velo was down … so I was trying to wake something up in there," he said. "It didn't."

Still, the Twins want to ease Mahle back into action, just to be safe, Baldelli said. An MRI found no reason for concern, but "he's going to have a period of time — I'm not sure how many days — where he's not going to throw. He's not going to pick up a ball for a few days," the manager said, though he hinted that a 15-day stint on the injured list probably won't be necessary. "We're going to build him back up, as long as everything seems like it's in a good place."

So who might take Mahle's place on Tuesday? Baldelli said the Twins haven't made that decision, though he would prefer to keep rookie Cole Sands in the bullpen.

Mitch Garver looked around Target Field, his home ballpark for most of five seasons, and considered how important Minnesota remains to him.

"Debuted here, won [a Silver Slugger award] here, won divisions here. A lot of my life is associated with this place," the former Twins catcher said. "My son [Gamble] was born here [last July], my family kind of started here, we put our dog down at that house over there. There's a lot of stuff you have to consider."

That's why, though he hasn't played since July following surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his right forearm, he asked to come along on this Rangers road trip, which he said he realized might be emotional for him. He's wearing a bulky brace on his arm, but it comes off next week.

"It's a long recovery, but it's good now. I was in pain for two or three days, but then I got off the pain meds," said Garver, who hit a career-high 31 homers for the 2019 Twins. "I've been doing therapy since day two. I've been busy."

But he's not particularly surprised he's doing it in Texas. Knowing the Twins had both him and Ryan Jeffers on the roster entering spring training, Garver said he realized he might be traded, that "I might be able to bring back some pitching or somebody that the Twins need." So when the name "Thad Levine," the Twins general manager, popped up on his cell phone as he drove to a workout the day before he was to fly to Fort Myers for spring training, he knew what was coming before he even answered.

"I called my wife and said, 'It happened,' " Garver recalled. "It's a strange experience. It was different. Your first time being traded, you don't know what it's like."