Interesting, disappointing twist (also happened with Ryan and Larnach) -
Kirilloff vows to 'do a better job of communicating' after IL hiccup
MINNEAPOLIS -- The primary reason behind the Twins’ confusion regarding Alex Kirilloff’s deep underperformance this season had been that they’d never seen him hit this poorly, at any level, unless he was injured -- and they’d maintained all along that they thought he was finally healthy. It...
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MINNEAPOLIS -- The primary reason behind the Twins’ confusion regarding
Alex Kirilloff’s deep underperformance this season had been that they’d never seen him hit this poorly, at any level, unless he was injured -- and they’d maintained all along that they thought he was finally healthy.
It turns out that he was, in fact, injured.
Though Kirilloff had been
optioned down to Triple-A St. Paul last Thursday to address those struggles, the Twins instead rescinded the option and placed him on the Major League 10-day injured list for what is currently deemed an unspecified back issue. Kirilloff will seek a second opinion and determine next steps from a back specialist.
“The communication on that, if that was something that was worsening and he was unable to play, does need to be better and something he needs to be able to bring up and say,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He had the opportunity to do it. Hopefully, we can do that better next time.”
Kirilloff had been undergoing some treatment for back soreness this season, but that alone didn’t raise any significant alarm, Baldelli said, even after an MRI on May 26. Many -- if not most -- players in a big league clubhouse play through dings over the course of a 162-game season that don’t rise to the level of an injury that would necessitate an IL stint.
But this back issue worsened, Kirilloff said, since he first started feeling it in earnest roughly a month ago, and he and Baldelli agreed that the Twins hadn’t necessarily been made aware of that. Kirilloff said he’s now feeling soreness and pain in his lower back, coupled with related nerve issues that have started running down his leg.
He had the chance to bring it up to Baldelli when he was brought to the office for that conversation regarding the option down to Triple-A but did not, and perhaps attributed that in part to his surprise at being optioned at the time, though he ultimately took responsibility for the lack of communication.
“When we talked, we talked about hitting, and that's kind of where my focus was and how I was going to fix that,” Kirilloff said. “Just got lost in communication at the time. I'll just learn from it and do a better job moving forward.”
