Terry Ryan’s usual media availability was met with added fanfare as he was slated to give an update on closer Glen Perkins’ condition. Unsurprisingly, the update was not a positive one, as the closer will miss the rest of the season with surgery to repair “left labral abnormalities.”
Famed surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache will perform the surgery in the next week or so, with the hope that Perkins will be available in time to prepare for the 2017 season. Ryan said he expected that Perkins would be able to begin his usual throwing program at some point this winter, but wouldn’t or couldn’t nail down a specific date.
Ryan declined to name others in the organization who previously had labrum surgery — “There’ve been quite a few, actually,” Ryan said — but recently as far as MLB concerned, the following players had similar procedures: Jurickson Profar, Avisail Garcia, Adam LaRoche and Darren O’Day.
Reporters will have access to Perkins for follow-up comments on Friday, but for now, here’s the gist of what Ryan had to say about his closer’s injury, and other topics that cropped up in an unusually long (16 minutes) media session.
- Ryan said he suspects the injury dates back to the spring, but not before that. “It crept up here in the last 10 days when he tried to extend out,” Ryan said. “We’re hoping this will take of it and get him ready for Spring Training 2017. It’s just been ongoing; this is just a piece to the start of this thing back in April is what it is.”
- Ryan said the Twins preferred non-surgical options first before this: “Our doctors certainly were aware of this. He went out for a second or third opinion — whatever you want to call it — and it was verified. We tried to rehab him, and it didn’t work so we got the additional opinion because some of our other physicians also looked at him. I think everybody was of the same opinion; we were hoping to rehab but it didn’t work. Now surgically we should get this taken care of and hopefully everything will go well and we can get him ready for spring training.”
- Ryan said the rotator cuff will be looked at while the surgery is being performed to see if any repair is needed there as well.
- The hope was that Perkins wouldn’t miss the rest of the season, Ryan said. “I was hoping not,” Ryan said. “I don’t know if anything can surprise you in the world of sports. But, your hopes are that rehab will take care of it. That’s why we went through the two months of rehab. Didn’t work. You always want to avoid surgery if you can.”
- Perkins will have the final word, but Ryan said he couldn’t pinpoint a single play or instance where the issue took place: “Ask Glen that, but I think it was just over time,” Ryan said.
- Ryan somewhat downplayed Perkins age as an impedance to his recovery: “I’m not saying it wouldn’t be easier for a 20-year-old to recover,” Ryan said. “But as long as he does his rehab and his work and so forth and is diligent on the rehab calendar, he should be OK.”
- Perkins is doing OK with the potential gravity of the situation, Ryan said: “He’s a pretty smart guy,” Ryan said. “He knows the severity and his age and his career and all that. He’s aware of that. He’s very well informed on what’s going on with his shoulder.”
Ryan also addressed the Danny Santana situation. Reports out of Rochester suggested that Santana left Thursday’s game early and was told by manager Mike Quade that he was headed back to Minnesota after a three-game rehab stint, but Ryan wasn’t as quick to join in on the fun.
- Ryan praised Santana’s work at Rochester, where he played right and center field as well as a bit of shortstop later in Thursday’s game. “He did a nice job today,” Ryan said. “We’ll see here in the very near future.” Ryan said Santana left Thursday’s game “just because,” due in part to the team being ahead by a large margin and not wanting any sort of fluke injury to happen in the interim.
- Ryan said he suspects the Twins will use Santana all over when he comes back, including all over the outfield and across the infield as well. “It’s a matter of need,” Ryan said. “As in who needs a rest or who might be struggling.”
Ryan maintained that the Twins would stay within the organization in the wake of losing Perkins, though that wasn’t necessarily a surprise due to where the team is in the standings and the resultant need to add bullpen help at that point. He pointed out that the bullpen has been striking out more batters of late — 9.0 K/9 as a group ranks 11th in MLB this year; 6.9 K/9 as a group ranked last in 2015 — and singled out Ryan Pressly and Michael Tonkin as instrumental in that aspect.
