Twins' Brooks Lee will open season on injured list after back acts up

FORT MYERS, FLA. – Twins infielder Brooks Lee sounded disappointed that his back has acted up again, despite how often he works to prevent a recurrence of a problem that has dogged him before.

Lee said Sunday that he will open the season on the injured list as he recovers from lower back tightness. He hasn’t played in a spring training game since he was scratched from the lineup Thursday.

“Some days, I just wake up and it’s not in a good spot. That’s how it was [on Thursday] — woke up, didn’t feel right,” said the 24-year-old Lee, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2022 draft. “You don’t know the reason why, but it just flares up randomly.”

He felt a spasm, he said, and was in pain for a couple of days. “I still have some aches, but [it’s] a lot better,” Lee said. “Treatment started [Saturday]. … Hopefully in five or six days, I start testing [my] rotation and start doing a swing buildup. Last time, it took three months. Hopefully, this one is pretty short.”

The Twins will open the season this week with at least four players on the injured list: infielders Lee and Royce Lewis and righthanded relievers Brock Stewart and Michael Tonkin.

The worst day of Mickey Gasper’s spring camp with the Twins began with him leading off Sunday’s game with a long home run at JetBlue Park. It was not a harbinger of good things to come.

That’s because when the Boston Red Sox’s Trevor Story led off the second inning with a ground ball up the middle, Gasper, playing second base, raced over to try to make a play. But shortstop Brandon Winokur was already there, and the infielders collided and fell to the ground.

Gasper waved to the dugout that he was OK, but manager Rocco Baldelli and assistant athletic trainer Masa Abe came out to check anyway. They discovered that Gasper had been spiked during the collision, opening an ugly gash on his left ankle.

“It’s about as bad as cut as I’ve seen on the baseball field,” Baldelli said of Gasper’s wound, which required six stitches to close. “It was a pretty good laceration. Winokur is a mule.”

Gasper was removed from the game, which the Twins eventually won 9-3, and a groundskeeper’s cart was summoned between innings to take him for X-rays (they were negative) and to have him stitched up. Gasper eventually left the ballpark on crutches.

It was a rough way for camp to end for the 29-year-old former catcher, who has posted a .904 OPS this spring. Gasper was competing for a bench role on the Opening Day roster, a possibility that seemed within reach with Lee sidelined.

Now? Baldelli declined to speculate on whether Gasper’s injury would cost him that opportunity, or to confirm that he was a frontrunner for that role.

“We’ll see what his tolerance is and see how the situation evolves,” Baldelli said. “We’ll keep it clean and let it heal and see what he’s capable of this week.”

While the competition for bench spots became more muddled Sunday, the Twins’ intentions with their bullpen became more clear.

Righthander Scott Blewett was informed that he will not make the major league team, and Rule 5 draftee Eiberson Castellano got the same news. Combined with the decision to put Stewart on the IL, the Twins, who have yet to officially announce these moves, have only seven relievers for their eight-man bullpen.

That leaves the Twins with three options to fill out their ’pen until Stewart returns in a week or two. They can keep nonroster lefthander Anthony Misiewicz, who has five years of big league experience and a 2.57 ERA in only seven innings this spring. Or they can claim a pitcher off the waiver wire, should they find someone interesting among other teams' cuts. Or they could temporarily recall a pitcher they have already sent to the minors, like Randy Dobnak or Kody Funderburk.

The decision not to keep Castellano, though not confirmed by Baldelli, means the Twins must offer him back to Philadelphia once he clears waivers. They could also offer a different player in a trade, though a 23-year-old hard-throwing starter likely has plenty of value.

“Regardless of what happens to him at the end of camp, I foresee him having a good major league career,” Baldelli said of Castellano, who struck out 13 in 10⅔ innings of Grapefruit League play — but also walked 10, a reflection of his trouble throwing strikes. “He’s a very talented young man and has a very, very promising future. He’s capable of a lot.”

Not that it’s a surprise, given that he’s hitting .439 this spring with a 1.185 OPS, but first baseman Ty France has been informed that he will be on the Opening Day roster, thus guaranteeing his $1 million salary.