Sunday Morning Breakfast & Baseball: Twins Injury Timelines and Bullpen Woes

Jim Thome & Jason Repko - With Repko now playing in extended spring training and Thome just a few days, the Twins will have a couple of interesting decisions to make regarding position players in a week or two. Both of these guys will need to see a handful of games before rejoining the Major League team, although with Interleague Play on the horizon it sounds like Gardy will prefer to have Thome off the bench rather than Repko.

Normally having both of them on the roster wouldn't be a problem, assuming that A) Gardenhire would rather have Repko on the active roster rather than Ben Revere, and that B) the Twins would continue using 13 position players. But here's what Gardy has already said:

"But we're trying to decide with the Interleague thing coming up [next weekend] against Arizona what's right. But as I told him this morning, I'd still rather have Jim Thome off the bench pinch-hitting instead of one of our young kid options."

When he says him, I'm not sure whether he's referring to Repko, Thome or Bill Smith. Either way, the Twins roster is going to look a bit different by this time net week.

Joe Mauer & Tsuyoshi Nishioka - Both of these guys, unlike Thome and Repko, are still varying levels of multiple weeks away. If I had to guess I'd still say Mauer was two to three weeks and Nishioka closer to six, but take that with a grain of salt.

Both players continue workouts and an exact date for rehab stints in Fort Myers (Mauer) and Rochester (Nishioka) are still unknown.

Twins catchers have hit .138/.193/.169 this season. Twins second basemen have hit .170/.204/.241. Both lines are the worst in all of baseball.

Minnesota Bullpen - The fourth-worst ERA in baseball. An .832 opponent OPS which is by far the worst in baseball. A general inability to finish off hitters with a Major League worst 4.14 pitches per plate appearance.

Jose Mijares, Alex Burnett, Joe Nathan, Jeff Manship, Jim Hoey and Dusty Hughes have all posted ERAs over 5.00 this season, and of course four of those six are still on the Major League roster. Of course those are just the relief pitchers.

Tonight I'll be going into more depth onto the bullpen and what, if anything, can be done about it.

For now just enjoy your breakfast and think about how much better it is than the Twins.