MINNEAPOLIS -- He hasn’t put on a Twins uniform since early August, but Christian Vázquez hasn’t given up on this season.
Vázquez has missed five weeks with an infection in his left shoulder, but told reporters on Friday that he hopes to return to the lineup in time for the team’s final road trip, which begins on Sept. 23 in Texas.
“They pay me for this, to play,” Vázquez said. “I don’t want to finish the season on the IL. It’s boring.”
Vázquez suffered a cut on his elbow that got infected, and the infection spread to his shoulder. The doctors caught it in time to avoid long-term damage to the joint, but he quickly realized it wasn’t the typical wear-and-tear type of pain that ballplayers experience every season.
“If I have pain, I have pain. I can tolerate it,” Vázquez said. “If I say something, it’s serious. I can play with pain. I tell [trainer Nick Paparesta], ‘Hey, my shoulder hurts a lot. I cannot move it.’ He knows when I say something, it’s real. We did the MRI and they found liquid in my shoulder.”
Antibiotics and rest helped Vázquez while recuperating at his Miami home, though it doesn’t sound like he had a lot of downtime.
“My kids make me take a lot of time. They were doing a lot of sports, baseball, jiu jitsu, swimming pools,” he said, “so I was the Uber around.”
Now, the hope is that Vázquez will be able to join Triple-A St. Paul for a brief rehab stint next week to sharpen his skills before facing Major League pitching again. But regardless of how it turns out, he did learn something about living in Miami in August.
“I’ve never been there at that time,” Vázquez said. “It was hot. Very hot.”
Topa down, Lawreyson up
Reliever Justin Topa was already dealing with a flare-up of his chronic knee problems when he felt a twinge in his side while playing catch earlier this week. The unlikely prospect of him recovering quickly from the two injuries led the Twins to put Topa on the 15-day IL with a strained left oblique.
The move is retroactive to Sept. 9, but given the Twins’ preference to give recovering players plenty of time to ramp up after time on the shelf, Topa isn’t likely to see the mound again this season.
The Twins acquired Topa from the Mariners in January 2024 via the Jorge Polanco trade. Multiple injuries -- many of them linked to Topa's balky knee -- limited him to just three Major League appearances last season, all in late September.
However, this year, Topa has been one of the team’s most reliable relief arms, especially since five of his bullpen mates were traded away at the Trade Deadline six weeks ago. In 15 appearances since Aug. 1, Topa has pitched to a 3.31 ERA and has four saves in six opportunities.
To fill his spot on the 28-man active roster, the Twins selected the contract of RHP Cody Laweryson from Triple-A St. Paul. Laweryson has been in the Twins system since 2019, when the team drafted him in the 14th round out of the University of Maine. He reached Triple-A for the first time in 2023 but spent the next season back with Double-A Wichita.
This year, the 27-year-old has split time between Wichita and St. Paul, posting a 2.86 ERA with 14 walks and 45 strikeouts in 44.0 innings pitched, all out of the bullpen. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said he expects to use Laweryson as a short reliever, pitching one to two innings per appearance, which suits Laweryson just fine.
“I like to attack guys with my best stuff. I’m really intentional with everything I do,” Laweryson said. “I won’t shy away from anyone, to be honest.”