FORT MYERS, Fla. — Twins athletic trainer Nick Paparesta ran through a list of injuries in the hours before Sunday’s exhibition against the Boston Red Sox. There were no position players for him to give updates on because the group had stayed relatively healthy this spring.
That changed quickly.
In an all-too-familiar scene for the Twins, Royce Lewis pulled up while trying to beat out a groundball in the second inning of the Twins’ 6-5 loss at Hammond Stadium and had to leave the game early.
Lewis started limping halfway through his run and grabbed at his left hamstring as he reached the base. After a visit from Paparesta and manager Rocco Baldelli, he walked off the field alongside the two.
The injury is a hamstring strain, the team announced. He is set for imaging tests on Monday, after which the Twins will know much more about his status moving forward.
“We still have a lot to learn,” Baldelli said. “Let’s play it slow, wait and see, get some imaging done, as we always do in these situations, and see where we’re sitting at that point. We’ll know more in a few days. We’ll know a lot by actually how he’s moving around and what he’s capable of doing in the coming weeks.”
The injury imperils Lewis’ status for Opening Day, which is set for March 27 in St. Louis, and is another disappointing setback for the third baseman who has been sidelined by injuries throughout his career.
After two anterior cruciate ligament tears that came with year-long rehabs, Lewis has been plagued by a number of soft tissue injuries in recent years. A strained quadriceps suffered running the bases on Opening Day last year kept him out for two months. Later in the year, he strained his adductor and missed most of July.
Lewis has been limited to just 140 major league games over the past two seasons because of injuries.
“It’s emotional and, of course, disappointing,” Baldelli said. “There’s no way around that fact. In this game, you have to be able to deal with adversity. You have to be able to deal with the challenges. Not everyone deals with the same difficulties. Royce knows that.”
As for Paparesta’s updates earlier in the day, Michael Tonkin will begin the season on the injured list, Brock Stewart’s status is up in the air, and the decision on Justin Topa is likely to be a baseball decision, not a medical one.
Tonkin, dealing with a shoulder strain, will remain in Florida when the team heads north as he continues to ramp back up, the injury necessitating a stint on the 15-day injured list. Paparesta said Tonkin underwent manual-muscle and range-of-motion testing on Sunday. The next steps would be getting him started with plyometric exercises before he resumes throwing.
Paparesta said Stewart suffered a hamstring strain in Saturday night’s game. He was checked out by a doctor on Sunday, which Paparesta said went well. They will assess him daily, but Paparesta said there is no concern that he needs imaging testing at this time.
Stewart described it as feeling a pull in his leg on Saturday but seemed upbeat after the injury occurred.
“I think promisingly we have to keep our eyes open to the end goal here, which isn’t just the start of the season,” Paparesta said. “It’s the whole season, and we’ll just see how he responds over the next 48 hours.”
Topa, a veteran reliever who experienced shoulder tightness earlier in camp, is expected to pitch in Monday’s game after appearing in a minor league outing on Friday. He missed nearly all of last season because of elbow and knee injuries.
Paparesta also said Matt Canterino, who could have been a bullpen option for the Twins this season, underwent a right shoulder labrum repair a few days ago with Dr. Keith Meister in Texas. The recovery process for that surgery is usually a full year, though it could take longer given that Canterino is a high-velocity pitcher, Paparesta said.
It’s another setback for Canterino, who has not pitched in a regular-season game since 2022. Regarded as one of the more exciting arms in the organization at one point, Canterino underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022, missed all of 2023 rehabbing, then suffered a shoulder injury last spring training that forced him out of action all season.
“(He’s) frustrated, upset, disappointed, appreciative of Dr. Meister’s candidness in regards to what he has and what’s going on and why,” Paparesta said. “He just sees it as another challenge ahead of him, and I think it’s something that he’ll take head-on like he has everything else.”
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