MN Twins in TROUBLE!

Joe Nathan has a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow- which almost always requires Tommy John surgery and at least a year of rehab. Most pitchers get back close to normal 2 years after the surgery. Joe is 35.
Another option is to strengthen the elbow for a few weeks and see if that can help. Almost never does.
This is terrible news for a Twins team that seems to have all the pieces in place to make a long run…
Here’s hoping the 2 weeks of strengthening the elbow somehow works and he can go for the year….

Yea it don’t look good. Time to start looking for other players that are available.

Our rotation and bats should help. We will be so far ahead by the 7 & 8 that we won’t need a closer.

They were talking on the news last night about the possibility of Rausch being the closer if needed.

Depending on the day Lirano doesn’t have a 1 inning arm. Let Neshek do the job.

Rausch has the most experience- I think 26 saves–not very many.
Liriano–I don’t think he has the make up between the ears to handle that role if he has any setbacks.
Neshek- He is coming back from his own Tommy John surgery and we have no idea how his arm is going to handle the entire year.
I think if they go in house they will go Guerrier. As long as he is not over worked he has been solid the last two years.
I also think they will start looking elsewhere. They will make a trade early if the right deal comes along. During the season, if the in house guys have any issues and they are in the race- they will make a trade then.
They are never a team to jump at the first sign of problems.

Agreed on Neshek! Have we heard anything about how far back to ‘normal’ he is?

Everything I have heard is he’s near normal now. 2 inning so far in training 1 hit 2 K’s and he says he’s feeling good. Co- worker just got back from Fort Myers and said he looked great. We’ll see.

I know we don’t know what his arm will do this year yet, but at this point we don’t know what anyone will do. but we do know Neshek has the stones to walk in with a guy or two on base and handle it, which to me means more than anything. This is going to be a year of second guessing the closer anyways unless some one just steps in and handles it.