Minnesota Twins general manager Terry Ryan touched on a number of subjects in his media availability before Thursday’s game, including the health of a long-time scout in the organization, draft strategy and a few injury updates — including one on Kyle Gibson, who was scratched from his start with back stiffness.

• As of 6:30 p.m. Ryan hadn’t received the results of Miguel Sano’s MRI on his injured hamstring, but he suspected he’d have them rather quickly after consulting with a team physician.
• Closer Glen Perkins will throw a bullpen on Saturday — his first since going down in early April — and Ryan suspects he’ll need more than one before the team can send him on a rehab assignment. “We’re going bullpen by bullpen right now,” Ryan said. “It’s been a while. He’s been out for quite a while. We’ll take it a bullpen at a time and decide his future. I’d think he’d have to throw more than one bullpen.”
• Outfielder Darin Mastroianni is not doing baseball activities yet as he recovers from an oblique injury. “Not yet,” Ryan said. “I did talk to the trainers about him. He’s feeling better than he has.”
• Ryan termed Gibson’s back issue as a short-term thing, a bout of stiffness that cropped up following his last rehab start. “I just saw him pitch in Fort Myers and he was fairly sharp,” Ryan said. “Unfortunately he had some back stiffness when he got done with it in the next day or two. We’re treating this as a short-term thing: I don’t think it’s anything major. I would anticipate — everything being equal — here tomorrow or the next day that we’re going to consider sending him out for one more. Probably Rochester. I want to make sure he’s ready and right and so forth. I think everything should be OK where he can go out and get one more in. We’ll boost him up pitch limit-wise to somewhere around that 90 mark.”
• Ryan was asked about what the starting pitchers need to do to turn things around, and unsurprisingly, he drove home the point on fastball command. “Ordinarily it’s command and control. Every one of those guys has stuff enough to be a starting pitcher. But you watch them, and if they’re not locating there’s going to be problems. If they can’t get their supplementary pitches over that’s going to be problematic. But if you’re looking for something specific, it’s usually fastball command. Most pitchers throw somewhere between 55-70 percent fastballs. If you can’t locate those, that’s probably going to be an issue.”
• Long-time Twins scout Larry Corrigan was released from a Little Rock, Ark. hospital on Thursday roughly a month after suffering a stroke. “Corrigan got let out of that hospital day down in Little Rock today,” Ryan said. “He’s OK; he’s better. He’s going to have to go through rehab. He’ll go back home to Illinois. He’ll have to work on his right side, and kind of regroup on writing and eating and so forth with his right hand. He’s fine. He still has a bit of a speech thing. The longer he talks, the more you can tell he might have had a stroke. Today I talked to him and it was the best I heard him talk. So he’ll be back doing some rehab.” Corrigan worked with the Twins from 1987-2007 and then rejoined the organization in 2013 after working as a special assignment scout with the Los Angeles Angels and a stint in a similar position with the Pittsburgh Pirates before that.
• With the draft coming up a week from Thursday (June 9 on MLB Network), Ryan answered a handful of questions regarding his involvement level in the selection process. “I haven’t seen many (of the draft-eligible guys in person) but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what’s going on,” Ryan said. “A few of our guys are already up piecing things together. Now the rest of them will arrive tomorrow. We’ve got four of the top 92 or 93 picks; that’s quite a few in the top 100 for sure. So we’re very anxious to get through that process. Tying up medicals, psychologicals and signability and all that.”
• The Twins are picking later than they have in recent seasons, with the No. 15 pick in the first round after four straight years with top-10 selections. “It’s different,” Ryan said. “In the past four years or so we kind of knew who we were probably going to get. Last year it was a matter of picking out six guys and you know you’ll get one. You can’t do that at 15. I think our people are pretty aware we’re going to get a certain guy. They’ve got that draft board pretty well maneuvered right now.”
• Ryan was quizzed by a local scribe on whether the team ever drafts for need, and the GM flatly replied that the team will always, always go with the best player available on their board. “We don’t factor need,” Ryan said. “No factor. Need changes so much year to year. There are years where you have enough guys in the outfield. All the sudden it changes. You make a couple moves or have a couple disappointments and all the sudden you have a need. You take the best guy and hopefully it’s the thing that makes the most sense. We’ll do that; we always have and always will. You start drafting in amateur baseball for need and you’re asking for trouble. Even if it’s a college kid, it doesn’t matter.”  

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne covers the Minnesota Twins for Zone Coverage and is also the site's senior editor. He hosts the Midwest Swing podcast for the site as well. He and his wife Amanda live in the outer Twin Cities suburbs with their daughter, Harper.

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