The Twins plan to use an extra starter in their rotation this week, beginning a stretch with 16 consecutive games before their next scheduled off day — but it won't be Kenta Maeda.
Maeda is scheduled to make another rehab start with Class AAA St. Paul on Friday. He pitched four scoreless innings in his latest outing Sunday, allowing three hits and zero walks with five strikeouts in 60 pitches.
"We want to make sure he's confidently throwing the ball and he holds up to the demands of a full outing and comes back fine before we bring him back," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "The last outing was good. It's about roughly two-thirds of a full outing. So, let's get the full outing out of the way."
Baldelli didn't have specifics on when the Twins will insert an extra starter, but the current plan is to use one at some point this week. Brent Headrick and Simeon Woods-Richardson are the two starters at St. Paul on the Twins' 40-man roster while Jordan Balazovic is being used as a long reliever.
Maeda averaged 90.4 mph with his fastball in his last rehab start, reaching 91.5 mph, a slight increase from his velocity before he went on the 15-day injured list with a right triceps strain.
"At the field, you know how it displays the velo, it said 93, so I'm trying to figure out which one is the actual one," Maeda joked through an interpreter. "The velo is coming back, so that's a good sign."
More than velocity, the focus for Maeda has been cleaning up his mechanics. He believes that was the root of his arm soreness. He was pleased with the command of his pitches Sunday and feels ready to return to the majors.
"Coming off a Tommy John rehab, I didn't expect myself to be 100% and perfectly pitching," said Maeda, who allowed 11 hits and 10 runs in three innings in his last MLB start. "Being placed on the IL for just over a month now, I'm just trying to take the positive out of being out of the game."
