One week into the season, the Twins have encountered a familiar problem.
"We are getting a little short on outfielders," manager Rocco Baldelli said.
That's because Max Kepler's minor knee injury, suffered while running to first base on Monday at Miami, will take more time than expected to heal, Baldelli said.
On Saturday, the Twins put Kepler on the injured list and called up Matt Wallner from Class AAA St. Paul. Wallner was 6-for-20 with a home run in five games for the Saints.
The Twins are already determined not to play Byron Buxton in the outfield until they are convinced his own surgically repaired knee is not endangered by playing defense, and Buxton's hot start to the season at the plate likely makes the Twins even less likely to risk it.
And on Friday, Joey Gallo, playing the outfield for the first time this season, left the game after five innings because of a condition the Twins described as "right-side soreness."
"He was dealing with some soreness a couple of days ago, but played with it," Baldelli said. "One thing we don't want to do is put him in a spot where he's going to miss a bunch of time, so we just made the decision during the game to say, 'Hey, we're not going to battle through it anymore. We're going to get some imaging done and we'll know more by tomorrow."
Fortunately, there's a simple short-term solution while the Twins evaluate their outfielders.
