Twins have used 60 players, 37 pitchers and had 12 rookie debuts, all team records

CLEVELAND — If not for Sandy Leon's reach, Ronny Henriquez's first pitch as an official major leaguer would have flown to the backstop. But that's understandable — he's new.

Just like so many of his teammates.

Henriquez became the 60th player to take the field for the Twins this season, the 37th man to pitch for them, and the 12th rookie to make his major league debut in 2022 — all of them franchise records for a single season.

And while Rocco Baldelli joked that "I'm a social guy — I don't mind having all these guys around," the Twins manager also conceded the constant turnover and the ceaseless injuries have been difficult to navigate this season.

"We've had a lot of injuries and uncertainty at different points of our season. Is that just another challenge along the way? Of course it is," Baldelli said. "But it doesn't necessarily mean it's something you can't overcome, or [you can't] find ways to win with different combinations of players. That's our job. That's literally our job, to find ways to succeed regardless of whether it's the same cast of names and skill sets, or if you've got to do it differently every single day."

It's been the latter this year. Baldelli has used 138 lineups in 147 games, and 13 starting pitchers. Six of the nine hitters in his Opening Day lineup are currently on the injured list, as are another 13 of their teammates. So using 60 players was inevitable and unavoidable, he said.

"It has been tough. It is hard when you don't have your players that you know you're going to need to rely on for a lot," Baldelli said. "I would also say you can't play an entire Major League Baseball season looking for guys that are not currently there. You have to focus on winning. I mean, with everything that's gone on, we're still competing. We're not where we wanted to be at this moment, but we've done it without what you would consider anything close to the lineup that you expected."

Even his "healthy" players aren't really, Baldelli noted, though that's not unusual for September. But with so many absences, he said he senses players' reluctance to add themselves to that list.

"Can you play or can you not play becomes the question a lot of the time. That becomes a mentality," Baldelli said. "The guys on the field right now who are playing regularly that are very beat up, there would probably be points earlier in the season where they might not be playing. If it were the middle of June, we'd have to get them off their feet because they wouldn't last."

One player who has mostly remained healthy this season is shortstop Carlos Correa, who sat out 24 games this year, most of them after fouling a ball off his hand in May. Part of the reason for his relative health, Correa said, is his attempts to avoid unnecessary situations that could get him injured.

That's why he hasn't attempted to steal a base since 2019 — "It's too easy to injure your hands when you're sliding into a base," Correa said — and it's why he didn't try to score when the ball easily beat him to home plate last Tuesday against the Royals. Correa simply ran out of the baseline, past Royals catcher Salvador Perez, and straight to the dugout, accepting the out without a play.

"I was out by a mile. Creating a collision with Salvy could only end badly for me," Correa explained. "He's a big boy, and there wasn't anything I could do."

That sort of risk-reward calculation is the result of a handful of injuries earlier in his career, Correa said.

"Young me might have tried to find a way to get in there, tried to find a way to avoid a tag or knock the ball loose," Correa said. "Older me? Live to fight another day. I can't help the team from the injured list."

Baldelli said he understood the calculation, and is confident it only comes into play in such extreme situations.

"If he has a chance to be safe, he's going to try to be safe. On that particular play, [Royals center fielder Drew Waters] made a hell of a throw," the manager said. "I don't see any upside to a completely unnecessary collision for a shortstop. But something tells me if he had a chance to be safe, he would have done something different."