Twins' Luis Arraez says he's hurt, not sitting out to keep Aaron Judge from batting title

CHICAGO – Luis Arraez was not in the Twins lineup for a second consecutive game Monday, sitting because of a left hamstring injury that has bothered him for months.

Normally, that wouldn't be such a controversial issue for a team already out of playoff contention with the season days from ending. But considering he entered the day four points ahead of the Yankees' Aaron Judge for the AL batting title, baseball fans are ranging from raising eyebrows to being outright irate about the hot topic.

Arraez wants to make it clear, though, this is not some nefarious ploy to bar Judge — with his AL-leading 61 homers and 130 RBI — from a rare Triple Crown.

"I want to win the batting title fighting," Arraez said.

Arraez is at .315 — at .31549, just barely below rounding up to .316 — and will stay there even if he doesn't play any part of the Twins' remaining two games. Judge, still trying for his 62nd home run to break the AL record he currently shares with Roger Maris, is at .311 after going 1-for-4 on Monday at Texas.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said he is not shutting Arraez down for the season and is hoping the All-Star can still play against the White Sox, even as a pinch hitter or designated hitter instead of in the infield.

"It's something he's had to play through. It's been very visible," Baldelli said. "For the people that have seen him play live, you see it almost every game where he's having trouble with certain aspects of his swing and distributing his weight and getting to certain pitches that he would normally get to pretty easily. Getting to first base on some balls that he puts in play."

Baldelli said that if Arraez wasn't in the mix for the batting title, the decision to sit him earlier this season might have been easier to make. But Arraez had a setback Saturday in Detroit when he clearly struggled while running the bases.

"This is baseball history. This is a batting title race. These things are important to all of us. Very important to Luis as well and every other player involved. I know that," Baldelli said. "But if our guy, who is a gamer, and who takes the field every day for us can't swing without hopping on one leg and can't run to first base or score on a base hit, then I think it's hard to put him out there."

Arraez started playing at first base this season, and he mentioned that as a contributing factor, since it involves is a lot of stretching to catch the ball while keeping his foot on the bag. He said even with stretching and treatment, his hamstring is still tight and painful. And he hasn't enjoyed having to run at 60% capacity in recent games just to stay in the lineup.

"Everybody knows I'm competing to win the batting title. Everybody knows I want to play every day. I work hard in my offseason for that," Arraez said. "But 100 percent, I don't feel good [Monday]. If I wake up good [Tuesday], I'll tell Rocco I'll go play.

"I want to play. I want to finish my season strong."

For anyone who happened to be on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago on Sunday evening, they might have seen a pack of dinosaurs and unicorns running a mile through throngs of tourists.

These extinct or mythical creatures were actually Twins rookie players and staff partaking in an annual tradition — absent the past two seasons because of the pandemic — of light hazing the veterans concoct. Pitchers Sonny Gray, Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy took the lead, procuring the various costumes, including some rush orders with a whopping 16 needing the inflatable getups.

The T-rex and unicorn outfits were larger but only had a small window to see the person's face. The smaller raptors had the rookies' upper halves fully exposed, since the outfit was meant to look as if they were riding the creature. Some, like outfielder Gilberto Celestino, had trouble with the fans that kept the regalia blown up and thus looked headless and saggy.

As for the race, some took it more seriously than others. Jose Miranda and Jhoan Duran, for example, decided to just walk, even though it extended their time playing dress-up, which started as soon as the Sunday afternoon game at Detroit had ended.

Outfielder Mark Contreras and pitchers Joe Ryan and Griffin Jax were the opposite, vying for the undisclosed monetary prize.

"We were like, 'Dang, they're going to beat us back!" Bundy said. "There wasn't even that much traffic. They were just running hard."

Contreras said he was drafting Ryan, who apparently was on marathon pace. Despite all that "tail whacking," as Contreras put it, Jax still passed them. Eventually to reach the team hotel, everyone had to cross the street. Ryan took a wrong turn, and Contreras risked jaywalking despite oncoming traffic.

Jax actually reached third base coach Tommy Watkins at the finish line first, but his costume wasn't fully inflated, so he had a heartbreaking disqualification.

There was drama, embarrassment and "a load of fun," at least for Contreras and the rest of the team laughing from the team bus.

"It was a sprint. I went to the hotel room and was like, 'I've got to shower.' I was exhausted," Contreras said. "… I was just lying in bed, like, 'Yo, my legs hurt.'"

Trevor Megill entered Sunday's game in Detroit but didn't even make it past the warmup pitches before exiting because of an oblique strain. So the Twins put the reliever on the IL and called up fellow righthander Aaron Sanchez. Kyle Garlick went on the 60-day IL with his wrist injury to make room on the 40-man roster for Sanchez.