6/11: Terry Ryan on Hughes, Meyer, Perkins Injuries; Chargois' Awful Travel Day

Instead of trying to sort through all of the medical stuff related to Phil Hughes’ recent injury, Minnesota Twins general manager instead turned to his director of medical services, Dr. John A. Steubs.

“I’ll wait for Dr. Steubs to come in here,” he said, referring to the team cafeteria where the GM meets with the media before every home game that he’s in town for, “before I get too carried away with it.”

Dr. Steubs corrected an earlier report that Hughes’ left knee injury was a “compaction” fracture. It was an impaction fracture, meaning that Hughes’ femur was cracked and severely swollen as a result of the impact of a baseball hit approximately 106 miles per hour at it in a relief appearance on Friday.

Keep in mind that Paul Molitor, who used the term “compaction” this morning, is the team manager, not a doctor.

This is more than a serious bruise, safe to say, and Hughes could be out for the rest of the season. Ryan, however, believes he could come back in August or September, as Ricky Nolasco did last year, if he’s healthy.

“He’s gonna be out for quite a length of time, but he’ll still have season left,” said Ryan. “I would think that everything equal here, and he’s healthy and we get him to the point where he can compete up here, I wouldn’t want to rush anything. And I certainly don’t want him to be able to be competitive.”

Hughes is on crutches. The injury does not require surgery. He will not wear a cast.

Alex Meyer on his way back

Meyer wasn’t mentioned in pregame, but the No. 23 overall selection in the 2011, who arrived in a trade that sent Denard Span to the Washington Nationals, is expected to return from injury soon.

“We’re gonna end up ramping him back up in the near future,” Ryan said of Meyer, who has shoulder inflammation, “but he’ll be down there for a while, just for rest.”

Asked when the near future is, Ryan said: “Well, he’s gonna rest, and then we’ll have the ability to get him back going again. I’m not sure exactly the timeframe, but we’re gonna let him rest for a while.”

He has been throwing the entire time he’s been out, even though he hasn’t played.

“We thought we were close, then he didn’t feel right,” said Ryan. “And then we backed off, and then we started again. We thought we were close, it didn’t go well, so now we’re just gonna let him rehab without throwing, and then we’ll ramp him back up.”

Asked if Meyer, who owns a 14.21 career ERA in 6.1 innings pitched, showed signs of injury in his last outing, Ryan said no.

“In fact, I thought he threw the ball well there. I thought he was pretty good there,” Ryan said of Meyer, who threw 64 pitches in 2.2 innings. “His stuff looked good and was crisp, and his velocity was there, and his breaking ball power was there. I don’t think that has anything to do with much here.”

Perkins will get second opinion

“I don’t know if I’ve got any level of concern that’s above and beyond what I felt yesterday,” said Ryan. “I would like to wait on the evaluation from the next physician to make sure that it’s not anything serious.

“I don’t think this is a major setback.”

Chargois’ brutal travel day

We’ve all had them. Ryan was initially going to put Chargois on a 4:45 pm flight from Rochester, N.Y. to MSP, but decided to book him for 7:00 am instead just to be safe.

“We couldn’t even get him here on time,” says Ryan after breaking down all the injuries. “And no fault of anybody’s. 7:00 am, I gotta get him on a plane, and he didn’t make it here until 10:00 pm.”

The flights from Rochester are non-stop, so it’s not an issue of the affiliate being in the wrong place. Chargois twice boarded a plane, only to have to get off of it once he got seated.

“Non-stop flight. You’d think we could get him here for a 7:00 pm game?,” he said. “It’s just one of those things, and you guys have all traveled, we all know how it is — some days you have those days.”

The Twins had a relatively injury-free Spring Training, and nobody saw this coming — this level of losing, plus all the injuries. Asked if that was just the calm before the storm, Ryan demurred.

“I suppose you could look at it that way,” he said, “but I choose not to.”

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