Twins shortstop Kyle Farmer having surgery May 8 to remove wires in mouth

Kyle Farmer is scheduled to have surgery on May 8. He's hoping to be back in the Twins lineup on May 9.

Fast healer, eh?

"I feel great. I'm ready to play again," said Farmer, who was struck in the mouth by a Lucas Giolito fastball on April 12, knocking four front teeth to the back of his mouth. "I'm doing full baseball activities now. I've been hitting. I've been throwing. I'm going to go run the bases right now."

He's so ready, in fact, that he will begin a rehab assignment with Class AAA St. Paul on Tuesday, playing shortstop and designated hitter for the Saints for a week while the Twins are on the road. A few steps remain in his healing — notably oral surgery to remove the wires that are holding his teeth in place at the moment.

"It's like having braces all over again," Farmer said. "We'll get rid of that, and then they have to finish [four] root canals after that. But I expect to be good to go" when the Twins return to Target Field.

Oh, there's one other thing he needs to accomplish before being activated, Farmer acknowledged: Stand 90 feet away from a pitcher throwing baseballs in his direction, and not think about the damage it could do.

"I'm interested to see how the rehab goes," he said with a smile. "Might need a psychiatrist after it."

The Twins placed Kenta Maeda on the 15-day injured list with a right triceps strain on Saturday, making room for fellow righthander Bailey Ober on the roster — and in the rotation.

Ober, who gave up one run over 5⅔ innings in Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Royals upon arriving at Target Field, is in the rotation for at least the next two weeks, manager Rocco Baldelli confirmed, while Maeda heals.

Maeda left Wednesday's start after giving up 10 runs while retiring only nine Yankees in a 12-6 loss. A magnetic resonance imaging exam that day found the strain at the back of his pitching elbow, but head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta said the inflammation isn't related to the Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery that caused Maeda to miss all of 2022.

"We treat it just like a muscle strain," Paparesta said. "Until the symptoms go away, we won't have him pick up a baseball or do any plyometric activity. Three days, five days, seven days — we just have to play it day-by-day."

Meanwhile, Tyler Mahle was diagnosed with an impingement in the back of his pitching elbow, Paparesta said, and will take anti-inflammatories until the irritation subsides.

"We'll see how things go over the next 48 [or] 72 hours," Paparesta said. "Will that affect his next start? We'll have to wait and see."