Twins notes: De Vries getting start; Mauer works out at Target Field

Cole De Vries on Sunday will make the start he was supposed to make back in April.

"No kidding," said De Vries, a former Gophers pitcher.

It's been a challenging year for De Vries, who earned a spot in the rotation out of spring training by posting a 0.53 ERA over 17 innings. But he came down with forearm soreness during his final outing of camp and missed a month.

His troubles didn't end there. When he did come back, his arm didn't feel right, but he tried to fight his way through it. After a July 2 start at Class AAA Rochester, he took a cortisone shot in his elbow for inflammation and missed another month.

He returned to the mound and worked his way back to Rochester for one start on Aug. 29, throwing seven shutout innings. He was called up after that.

"I finally feel like I'm back to 100 percent," he said. "It only took five months, but what are you going to do?"

After working out for three days at home, Twins catcher Joe Mauer moved his concussion recovery back to Target Field on Thursday.

"Mauer had a decent day at our stadium and went through some cardio work," Twins General Manager Terry Ryan said. "So some positive news on that. Slowly but surely he's getting better, and today was one of the better days. He'll be back at the stadium [Friday]."

Thursday marked one month since he suffered a concussion after being hit in the facemask with a foul ball. Then he had a setback last week.

Gardenhire was asked to compare rookie catcher Josmil Pinto to former Twins catching prospect Wilson Ramos, who played a few games in the majors before being traded to Washington for Matt Capps in 2010.

"One guy was built to be a catcher [Ramos] and the other guy turned into a catcher," Gardenhire said. "Both are strong young men with a big heart and big desire. You definitely see that in both those guys."

In 71 games with Washington, Ramos is batting .278 and has tied a career high with 15 home runs and set a career high with 55 RBI. Pinto has a way to go, but has made a good impression at the plate in his first 13 games, batting .356 with two homers and seven RBI.

• Oakland slugger Yoenis Cespedes was out of the starting lineup Thursday a day after taking a cortisone shot in his right shoulder to treat some tendinitis. He could return to action Friday.