When the Twins sent longtime infielder Jorge Polanco to Seattle for four players in January, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said it was a deal made for the future.

Two of the players were prospects, outfielder Gabriel Garcia and pitcher Darren Bowen, and two were veterans the Twins were hoping would help Minnesota defend its American League Central title this season.

Garcia, 20, and Bowen, 23, are playing productive innings with high-A Cedar Rapids right now, but the veterans — right-handers Justin Topa and Anthony DeSclafani — have yet to pitch an inning for the Twins, who started Wednesday’s game against the Mariners at Target Field two games behind first-place Cleveland in the Central.

DeSclafani, a starter, had surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his right arm on March 30, ending his season before it started. Topa, the guy the Twins really hoped would find a permanent spot in the bullpen, doesn’t appear as close to returning from tendinitis in his left knee as he did last week.

Topa, who made a pair of two-inning appearances with Class AAA St. Paul last weekend, threw a bullpen session on Wednesday at Target Field. Asked if it went well, the right-hander said, “Not really.”

The issue is pain in his left, planting knee.

“I’m still feeling some stuff, feeling it out. Trying to lock in and see what we can get some feedback on,” Topa said. “It was progressing … then (I) felt it again on this last one. We’re just taking it day by day and seeing what the next step is.”

Topa had a nice season for the Mariners last season, going 5-4 with a 2.61 earned-run average. He pitched 75 innings and struck out 61 against 18 walks. The Twins could use another dependable right-hander in the bullpen right now. After a solid inning from Cole Sands, Jay Jackson and Jorge Alcala surrendered a combined seven earned runs on six hits and three walks in Tuesday night’s 10-6 loss to Seattle.

Veteran Brock Stewart, the Twins’ best right-handed reliever outside of Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax when he was healthy — 0.65 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 27⅔ innings — is on injured reserve with shoulder inflammation and not throwing.

On Wednesday morning, the Twins sent Alcala, who threw 48 pitches in two innings Tuesday, back to Class AAA St. Paul and called up veteran right-hander Josh Staumont, a free-agent addition coming off surgery to repair thoracic outlet syndrome last summer.

“Josh has explosive stuff. That’s what he’s been known for, that’s what we’ve seen from him for a long time in KC, that’s what he’s got now,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

From 2019-21 in Kansas City, Staumont had a 2.93 ERA with 124 strikeouts in 110⅔ major league innings before being bothered by TOS, compression of nerves and blood vessels that causes pain in the neck and shoulder and numbness in fingers. In his last 57⅔ innings with the Royals (2022-23), his ERA ballooned to 6.09.

Before surgery, Staumot said, he couldn’t raise his right arm above his head.

But Staumont, 30, made eight appearances in St. Paul this spring and struck out 16 in 10⅔ innings before joining the Twins.

“I’ve been feeling really good,” he said. “A lot of baseball is just kind of getting the routine of recovery and stuff like that kind of situated, just understanding what you need — especially after the anatomical change. You’re going to have adaptations, and that’s pretty much what the time was for.”

The Twins are asking Staumont to be ready to pitch more than one inning, something he’s not accustomed to, but something he says he’s ready for.

“He’s been throwing the ball good, so we’re bringing him in when he’s in a good spot,” Baldelli said. “And he’s pitching well. He feels good about himself. I think he can help us right now.”

Topa, meanwhile, is waiting for the results of a second magnetic imaging exam on his left knee. He said he pitched last season in Seattle with pain in the knee but “not to this extent.” Already on injured reserve (left patella tendinitis) since spring training, he’s unsure about when he could finally be activated.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We’re exhausting some different avenues here, so hopefully in the next day or two, we’ll get some clarity and see what happens.”

A Minnesota state senator will have to get guidance from Republican leadership on how to “appropriately” email his colleagues after distributing graphic videos of gender transition surgery to fellow senators last year.

After that coaching, Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe,  will have an ethics complaint against him dismissed, per an agreement reached Wednesday by the two Republican and two Democratic-Farmer-Labor members of the Senate Subcommittee on Ethics.

“Even though we can do something and have no ill intent it can still have profound impact on an individual,” said ethics committee Chair Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis.

Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, filed a complaint against Gruenhagen in 2023 after the senator sent an email to all his Senate colleagues containing a link to what he called “graphic and disturbing” videos of gender transition surgery.

Sen. Glenn H. Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Senate)

“Attached are videos documenting mutilating transgender surgeries on minor children,” read the email, which contained a link to Google video search results for transition surgeries.

In her complaint, Maye Quade said Gruenhagen’s distribution of the video links, which contained visuals of genitals in a surgical setting, “egregiously violated norms of Senate behavior.”

At a Tuesday hearing on the complaint, Gruenhagen said the email was in relation to a DFL-backed bill protecting minors’ access transgender medicine.

Maye Quade said it was inappropriate to share the content regardless of the context and argued the videos did not have a direct relation to the bill. Further, his sharing of the link demonstrated insensitivity toward LGBTQ people, she said.

Members of the ethics committee tabled the complaint Tuesday night after two hours of debate so they could move on to an ethics complaint relating to state Sen. Nicole Mitchell, a Woodbury DFLer accused of felony burglary.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Sen. Andrew Mathews, R-Princeton, said the agreement does not address whether Gruenhagen had actually violated Senate ethics rules, but he was happy with the outcome.

“It is a good thing to get this resolved, give the path forward to have this dismissed and not have this hanging over the work that the ethics committee needs to do,” he said.

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A Watertown, Minn., man convicted of fatally shooting another motorist in St. Paul does not have a right to a third trial, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The question before the state’s highest court was whether Anthony Trifiletti’s constitutional rights were violated because a judge determined a witness was unavailable to testify at Trifiletti’s second trial in April 2021 because of exposure to COVID.

Douglas Cornelius Lewis (Courtesy of Valerie Lewis)

Douglas Cornelius Lewis, 39, and Trifiletti, now 28, didn’t know each other before a fender-bender in May 2020. The men exited their vehicles and argued in the area of U.S. 61 and Burns Avenue.

Trifiletti went back to his vehicle, returned with a handgun and shot Lewis four times, according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office. Trifiletti, who had a permit to carry a gun, testified that he thought Lewis was going to shoot him, so he shot first. Police found no weapons on Lewis’ body or in his vehicle.

Trifiletti argued during his first trial he did not intend to kill Lewis and that he was acting in self-defense. After a jury reported they were deadlocked, Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan Jr. declared a mistrial in March 2021.

In the second trial, the only eyewitness to the shooting reported she’d been in close contact with her sister, who later tested positive for COVID. Gilligan said the witness should not come to the courthouse and allowed a transcript of her prior testimony to be read during the trial.

Jurors found Trifiletti not guilty of second-degree intentional murder, but guilty of second-degree felony murder and second-degree manslaughter.  At the June 2021 sentencing, Gilligan denied a departure motion, noting that while Trifiletti was scared, he was never in danger, and had a duty to retreat, according to court documents. Trifiletti was sentenced to 12½ years in prison; prosecutors had asked for 15 years.

Trifiletti filed an appeal and the appellate court took up the matter in September 2022, concluding his constitutional right was violated because his attorney couldn’t cross-examine the witness.

Transcript ‘harmless’

In a 41-page opinion published Wednesday, the justices agreed with the appellate court that Gilligan erred in determining the witness was not available to testify because of COVID exposure. The witness could have appeared in person on April 16, Associate Justice Paul Thissen wrote in the decision, noting a Ramsey County public health doctor told the court as much.

Anthony James Trifiletti (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Corrections)

The justices then turned to the question whether Trifiletti was entitled to a new trial. They concluded the 15-page transcript of sworn testimony from the first trial, which was subject to cross-examination, was “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt” and reversed the appellate court’s decision.

Associate Justice Karl Procaccini recused himself, while G. Barry Anderson dissented, writing he concluded that “the record does not sufficiently support the claim by the State that the jury’s decision was ‘surely unattributable’ to the error.”

Anders Erickson, Trifiletti’s attorney, did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.

In a statement, Ramsey County attorney’s office spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein said, “We are grateful for the Supreme Court’s decision on this matter as it upholds the jury’s verdict in this case and recognizes the special challenges that were faced by the judge, prosecutor, defense and witnesses during the pandemic. Through the adversarial process and this appeal, it is assuring to know that the measures taken to ensure the safety of those involved in the trial during this difficult time did not deprive the defendant of a fair trial.”

Lewis lived in St. Paul. His sister has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Trifiletti.

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Hold your nose, St. Paul. Horace the giant corpse flower is about to bloom — his first grand reveal since arriving at Como Park Zoo and Conservatory in 2019 — and he’ll be making his pungent debut in person and on live stream.

What makes a corpse flower’s bloom special? The smell is best described by its name. Corpse flowers can grow leaf structures up to 15 feet tall and hail from the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. They are best known for their stink, which is in full effect on the rare occasion they unfurl their massive floral structure.

The flowers bloom for just two or three days once every year or two, at best, and sometimes just once a decade.

A corpse flower in bloom at the California Academy of Sciences’ Osher Rainforest in San Francisco, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. In St. Paul, Horace the giant corpse flower is about to bloom at Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

You can sniff Horace’s fetid odor at the Como Exhibit Gallery daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., or tune into the live stream and watch others brave Horace’s stink, and get more information, at comozooconservatory.org/horace.

The plant’s livestream feed can currently be viewed on YouTube.

While at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory, visitors also can take in the summer flower show, which opened May 3 featuring cherry red and pink annuals, and this weekend’s Mother’s Day Bonsai show, which runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and is hosted by the Minnesota Bonsai Society.

Horace takes his name from landscape architect Horace Cleveland, who designed much of the Twin Cities’ urban park systems. Fewer than 1,000 individual corpse flowers remain in the wild.

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