DETROIT – Brent Rooker's diving catch at the left field warning track Monday made a lot of highlight shows. But it came with a price.
"He landed kind of heavy. It looked like a pretty good hit," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "It took him a second to get up. Ultimately, he said he was OK, [but] the onset [of soreness] could be a day or two after."
Rooker was scheduled to be in the lineup on Wednesday, but his neck was so sore, he was scratched from both the game and, due to the shortage of rested arms in the bullpen, the active roster too by being put on the 10-day injured list.
"We had a few guys we wanted to stay away from," to protect against overuse, Baldelli said, so he wanted another reliever in case Kenta Maeda's start was a short one. They chose lefthander Brandon Waddell, who allowed only one run and two hits in his final 7⅔ innings of spring training, and placed Rooker on the 10-day injured list to make room.
Maeda lasted six innings, so Waddell wasn't needed. It's not clear yet whether the Twins will stick with a nine-man bullpen for now; they could summon another outfielder, Alex Kirilloff or Trevor Larnach, from the alternate site in St. Paul, or simply wait for Josh Donaldson to return.
Waddell was not on the 40-man roster, so the Twins cleared space for him by moving minor league righthander Edwar Colina (elbow irritation) to the 60-day injured list, sidelining him until June.
Colome works OT
The bullpen workload — six pitchers totaling eight innings in the first two games at Detroit — factored into another unexpected move by Baldelli, too. The manager had never asked anyone but Taylor Rogers to preserve a narrow lead in both the eighth and ninth innings, and the most recent time was in August 2019.
But when he called for Alexander Colome to take over for Hansel Robles at the start of the eighth inning, it was with a two-inning save in mind.