Twins' Jorge López embraces chance to 'get my mind fresh' while on injured list

Jorge López was brilliant in April, appearing in 13 games without allowing an earned run. But things have come apart for him ever since — and not just on the mound.

He's allowed 16 runs in 15 innings since that scoreless start to the season, and after each rough outing, after the three blown saves and a couple of losses, he found he couldn't control his emotions.

"I'd start kicking stuff, punching stuff, getting mad real quick," López said in the Twins' clubhouse Wednesday. "That took me a little bit out of the game, and you become frustrated every day. Even if you try to be a new guy the next day, it kind of gets the snowball going."

Finally, the Twins stepped in, he said. The day after allowing three runs in two innings against the Tigers last Thursday, team officials approached the reliever about the need for a mental-health break.

"You don't recognize it until it happens," said López, who was placed on the 15-day injured list for mental-health reasons. "It's something I really appreciate, to recognize it and work through that. You work as much as you can to get your body [right], but at the same time, you've got to do your mind. That's what I'm trying to do every day, get my mind fresh and start clean."

López is speaking with a psychologist regularly during his stay on the IL, while also maintaining his readiness to pitch upon his return. He's in the clubhouse each day, to remain close with his teammates.

"It's been pretty fantastic that he's been able to be here with us and spend some time, work on some of the things non-baseball-related, and also get on the field," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "It's not easy to state out loud the things you're struggling with. … I'm really so happy for him that he's taking this as a challenge. He looked at himself and said, 'I need some help, and I need some support.'"

He's pitched in Buffalo, St. Paul and Louisville over the past three weeks, so maybe it's fitting that Kenta Maeda's journey back to the majors will conclude roughly in the middle of those three stops on Friday: In Detroit, against the Tigers.

"I was on the [injured list] for longer than I expected," Maeda said of the seven weeks he has missed while recovering from a triceps injury. "Each game [of his four rehab starts] was progress. Every start I felt better and better, so it was a long time, but I feel ready."

Maeda, who missed the 2022 season after undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery, opened 2023 with a pair of reasonably encouraging starts, though both were losses. But after being hit in the ankle by a line drive in Fenway Park and a disastrous three-inning (and 10-run) start against the Yankees a week later, he was placed on the injured list.

Most encouraging for the Twins, Maeda — who allowed only three runs over 13⅓ rehab innings — says he believes he has largely recovered his fastball velocity, which averaged 91.6 miles per hour in his first season with the Twins, but sat at only 89.3 mph in April.

"The velo's been pretty good," said Baldelli, who expects no pitch-count restrictions on the righthander in Detroit. "He's got everything he needs, arsenal-wise."

Jorge Polanco did a drill on Wednesday to practice catching short-hop grounders. But he did it while kneeling on the grass, no movement required from his sore left hamstring.

It's an acknowledgment that, while he is improving, the Twins second baseman won't be back for another week or two.

"This time, I just need to make sure I'm ready to go," said Polanco, who injured the same hamstring, but in a different spot, in mid-May. "I'm 100 percent healed, which I was the last time, but it just came back. They're going to take a little more time now and wait for me to get stronger."