The Twins talked up their rotation depth all spring, feeling confident in options such as David Festa and Zebby Matthews lined up in Triple-A, ready to fill in behind their starting five.

Now, they’re getting a chance to see that depth.

Friday was a day the Twins had targeted for a Festa start with the team mired in the middle of a stretch of 12 games in 12 days. And it seems as if the Twins could get a look at Matthews in the coming days, too. Festa was officially added to the roster on Friday when the Twins placed their ace Pablo López on the injured list with a hamstring strain.

The move allows them to push all of their starters back a day for some extra rest. Simeon Woods Richardson, for example, is coming off a start in which he threw a career-high 107 pitches.

“Early on every season, when we look at the schedule, we will look at possible things that we could do,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And then the season has to unfold, and you see just where everyone sits, what the pitchers are doing, what their workloads are and things like that.

“It was seemingly a good time to get David in there. You have to line it up. You’ve got to line it up at Triple-A. You’ve got to make sure you have it but we had it ready to go.”

With Festa pitching in Friday’s game against the Tigers, the most likely option for López’s spot would be inserting Matthews in for a start or two. Matthews last pitched Tuesday for the Saints, the same day as López’s start in Kansas City. His turn in the rotation is coming up on Monday.

Matthews looked particularly impressive in spring and at the beginning of the Triple-A season, showing off an increase in his velocity. Like Festa, Matthews made his MLB debut last season after rising quickly through the Twins’ minor league system. He posted a 6.69 earned-run average in nine starts after joining the rotation late last year.

López, who landed on the injured list for the first time as a Twin, is hopeful that his stay on the IL will be kept to a minimum. He was long tossing pregame at Target Field on Friday to keep his arm active.

New threads

The Twins debuted their latest City Connect look on Friday, pairing white pants with yellow and blue piping down the leg. It’s the first time they’ve worn white pants with their lake-themed City Connects. Previously, the Twins have worn blue tops with blue pants, which drew mixed reviews when it was unveiled last year.

Briefly

Byron Buxton returned to the Twins’ lineup on Friday after missing the previous two games. He had left the team briefly because of a personal matter. … Utility man Austin Martin, who departed Thursday’s Triple-A game early, was placed on the injured list with a hamstring strain, eliminating a potential depth option for the time being. Martin was off to a strong start to the season, hitting .419 with a .978 OPS.

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A group calling for South St. Paul City Council member Pamela Bakken to step down said it filed paperwork Friday morning asking for her official recall after a child in her care was exposed to methamphetamine.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services suspended the in-home day care license held by Bakken, citing an “imminent risk of harm” to the children in her care after officials began investigating a child who reportedly had swallowed an unknown substance.

South St. Paul City Council member Pam Bakken. (Courtesy of the City of South St. Paul)

On March 4, officials determined Bakken was responsible for the neglect.

“Dakota County determined that you were responsible for maltreatment of a minor by neglect. Specifically, Dakota County determined that you are responsible for neglect because a child in your child care program was exposed to methamphetamine,” the Department of Health said.

Molly Smith, chair of the Committee to Recall Bakken, said the city council should have asked for Bakken’s resignation during the investigation into what happened to the child.

“The facts stand – and they are simple: a 3-year-old boy ingested meth while in Council Member Bakken’s care at her in-home daycare, the State found Pam responsible for the situation, and yet she – and others – have remained silent,” Smith said in a statement announcing the petition. “What’s just as concerning is that Pam Bakken broke the oath she swore when elected – to uphold the laws and regulations of our great State – by willfully disregarding what she was required to do. No person – but especially not elected officials – are above the law.”

The temporary license suspension, issued Dec. 9, follows the recommendation of Dakota County Community Services, which is handling the investigation. It reads: “You are prohibited from providing family child care. You are also prohibited from operating as a legally unlicensed child care provider at this time.”

Bakken, according to her campaign materials, has run an in-home day care for 20 years and raised six children in South St. Paul. She was elected to the council in 2020 and again last November, coming in third in a close race to elect three candidates from a field of four. Her business was licensed for up to 14 children, including up to 10 under school age and up to four infants and toddlers.

South St. Paul City Clerk Deanna Werner confirmed that the paperwork had been certified Friday morning and that the petition was back in the hands of the group.

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The group then has 30 days to gather the required number of signatures, which in this case is based on 25 percent of the last voter turnout, she said. That means by May 12, the group will need to have at least 2,763 signatures that have been verified by the city clerk for the next step, which is to put the recall on a ballot for a special election, she said.

“Special elections cost money – something that will be a burden on the City financially,” Smith said in her announcement. “But, that’s the only avenue for recourse the citizens have been given. I truly wish members of Council would speak up for what’s right and join the community in calling for Bakken’s resignation – and I wish Pam would simply step down.”

The Pioneer Press reached out to Bakken by phone and email and had not received a reply as of Friday evening.

Just off St. Paul’s Rice Street, the glass door entrance to the new North End Community Center is no accident of design. Treated glass rings the exterior of the $30.8 million, multi-level facility, allowing a clear line of sight from within the building out to Rice Street and surrounding amenities like the Rice Street Library, which sits just across the street.

The tired old baseball diamond at Rice Street and Lawson Avenue no longer exists, and neither does the weathered teen room that once lived half-hidden inside the Wellstone Elementary School down the path behind it. Instead, the gleaming new facility at 154 Lawson Ave. W. — a glassy, art-infused tribute to neighborhood residents of all ages — now holds the street corner, directly in front of a new playground and artificial turf, multi-purpose sports field.

Some 25,000 square feet of athletic and community space carries a number of state-of-the-art touches, from bird-safe glass imbued with a ceramic frit that reduces solar heat gain, to an indoor gymnasium lined for at least six different sports, including futsal, pickleball to the Thai sport of katow, or indoor volleyball.

A grand opening celebration for what’s being hailed as one of the city’s largest and most modern rec centers is scheduled for Saturday morning.

“We try to think of this as a community campus — the elementary school, the rec center and the library,” said Chris Stark, an architect and project manager for St. Paul Parks and Recreation, which worked with Snow Kreilich Architects on the facility’s design.

Mural running all three levels

Passersby may assume they’re looking at two buildings, but the facility is technically a single continuous structure bisected by an outdoor patio, which is protected by a gate decorated with faces from the community. Elsewhere throughout the structure, a mural running all three levels features painted faces of additional community members, a project led by Twin Cities artist Peyton Scott Russell.

One building houses the more social aspects of the community center, including meeting rooms, the Parks and Rec system’s largest commercial-grade kitchen and an upstairs teen room, which is decorated with wall art designed by St. Paul teens. In glass-enclosed meeting rooms, glue-laminated timber beams and cross-laminated wood paneling is intended to evoke natural elements. Community surveys identified the kitchen, which can be leased, as a priority for a neighborhood with a growing refugee and immigrant population and some entrepreneurial zeal.

The second building houses a gym ringed by more than 30 large, electric drapes that can be adjusted to allow in more light, allowing clear views of the outdoors from four sides.

Installing the three-level building took roughly six years of planning and a year of construction, with a wide variety of funding partners, ranging from the state and federal government to the National Football League, which put $250,000 toward the artificial turf field. Some of the priciest elements aren’t visible to the public, including a geothermal heating system and an array of underground tubing with the capacity to collect up to 1 million gallons of storm water, “almost like a bathtub,” Stark said.

Those tubes, each four or five feet in diameter, are situated below the playing field and designed to collect up to 14 inches of rain within 48 hours, or two back-to-back century storms, from the surrounding 70-acre area, making them a benefit for the entire neighborhood.

A bright spot

In addition to the library, the new building sits directly across from two new businesses — the year-old Golden Palace grocery and deli and a new coin-operated laundry, Wow Wash, which is approaching its own grand opening. For the North End, that mixture of public and private sector investment doesn’t happen everyday — a bright spot in the eyes of residents pining for a win.

“I’m so excited to see the grand opening,” said Nyan Lin, a Realtor who opened the Golden Palace with family.

A few finishing touches are yet to come.

The playground is days away from completion, and some greenery has yet to be installed directly behind the building. A solar array will be installed on top of the gym building when the weather warms.

Within Wellstone Elementary, the two-room rec center that was once attached to the gym has been given back to the school district.

If you go:

WHAT: Grand opening of the new North End Community Center, a $30.8 million facility

WHERE: 154 Lawson Ave. W., Rice Street and Lawson Avenue

WHEN: Saturday, 12 to 2 p.m.

SPEAKERS PLANNED: St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, St. Paul Parks and Recreation Director Andy Rodriguez, and other elected officials

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By AAMER MADHANI and MATTHEW LEE

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is betting that a beleaguered Iran is so vulnerable following a tumultuous 18 months in the Middle East that it might finally be ready to abandon its nuclear program.

The renewed push to solve one of the most delicate foreign policy issues facing the White House and the Mideast will begin in earnest Saturday when Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gather in Oman.

Trump says he prefers a diplomatic solution, even as he warns that Iran will face “great danger” if talks don’t go well. But Iran’s nuclear advances since Trump scrapped an Obama-era agreement during his first term make finding a pathway to a deal difficult, and experts warn that the prospects of U.S. military action on Iranian nuclear facilities appear higher than they have been in years.

“His ultimate goal and the ultimate objective is to ensure that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Friday.

“But he’s made it very clear to the Iranians, and his national security team will as well, that all options are on the table and Iran has a choice to make. You can agree to President Trump’s demand or there will be all hell to pay,” she added.

The moment is certainly fraught, but the White House is seeing hopeful signs that the timing might be right. The push comes as Iran has faced a series of enormous setbacks that has ostensibly left Tehran in a weaker negotiating position.

Iran’s recent challenges

The military capabilities of Iranian-backed proxy forces Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been dramatically degraded by Israeli forces. U.S. airstrikes, meanwhile, targeting Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have hit oil refineries, airports and missile sites.

Israel also carried out strikes against Iran in October that damaged facilities linked to Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. And in December, Iran saw Syrian leader Bashar Assad — Tehran’s closest Mideast ally — ousted after more than two decades in power.

The leaders of the Islamic Republic also face domestic pressure as years of international sanctions have choked the economy. The U.S. Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions earlier this week targeting five entities and an individual that American officials say play key roles in Iran’s nuclear program.

“All eyes are on Oman by Iranians following this very closely and potentially hoping that this would impact the state of the economy,” said Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, a Washington-based think tank.

But it remains to be seen if the U.S. can entice Iran with a big enough carrot for it to make concessions to meet Trump’s demands that any potential deal go further in ensuring Tehran doesn’t develop nuclear weapons than the agreement forged during Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran could only maintain a small stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67%. Today, it has enough to build multiple nuclear weapons if it chooses and has some material enriched up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels.

It’s not clear if talks will be face to face

At the meeting Saturday in Oman’s capital city of Muscat, Iran will be represented by Araghchi and the United States by Witkoff. It’s unclear if the two will speak directly.

Trump has said the two sides will have “direct” negotiations. But Iranian officials have insisted that the plan is for “indirect talks,” meaning an intermediary from Oman would shuttle messages between Witkoff’s and Araghchi’s teams holed up in different rooms.

Either way, the decision for the two sides to talk — announced by Trump in the Oval Office this week alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — came as a bit of a surprise.

Trump has been calling for direct talks, while threatening “consequences” for Iran if it doesn’t move to get a deal done.

Iran, meanwhile, has given mixed signals about the utility of the talks, arguing that engaging would be useless under the shadow of threats.

After Trump recently sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader, 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for direct negotiations, Tehran rejected the entreaty while leaving open the possibility of indirect negotiations.

President Masoud Pezeshkian again pledged this week that Iran’s “not after a nuclear bomb” and even suggested Tehran could be open to the prospect of direct American investment in the Islamic Republic if the countries can reach a deal.

That was a departure from Iran’s stance after its 2015 nuclear deal, in which Tehran sought to buy American airplanes but in effect barred U.S. companies from coming into the country.

How much room is there for negotiation?

National security adviser Mike Waltz has said Trump wants the “full dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program, adding, “That’s enrichment, that is weaponization, and that is its strategic missile program.”

But Trump left greater space for negotiations: “ The only thing that they can’t have is a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters as he met with his Cabinet secretaries Wednesday.

Witkoff also has signaled that the administration could be amenable to a deal that is less than full nuclear disarmament.

“Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponization of your nuclear capability,” Witkoff said in a Wall Street Journal interview published Friday.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu, who met with Trump on Monday, said he would welcome a diplomatic agreement along the lines of Libya’s deal with the international community in 2003. The Israeli leader is known for his hawkish views on Iran and in the past has urged Washington to take military action against Iran.

The Libya deal saw late dictator Moammar Gadhafi give up all of his clandestine nuclear program. Iran has insisted its program, acknowledged to the International Atomic Energy Agency, should continue.

But Trump has notably not embraced Netanyahu’s push for the Libya model, said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, another Washington-based think tank.

“If it’s narrow, if it’s focused on the nuclear program, if the goal of the U.S. is to prevent a nuclear weapon, then there is a likelihood for success,” Parsi said. “And it’s under those circumstances that I suspect that you will see talks, perhaps in rather short order, be elevated.”

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Muscat, Oman, contributed to this report.