St. Paul – To the naked eye, Matt Wallner looked as ready as he could be to return to the majors during his first rehab game with the Saints Thursday night.
The Minnesota Twins’ slugging right fielder went 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI in his first game since April 15, when he exited early due to pulling his left hamstring, a first in his pro career.
Despite some setbacks due to Mother Nature early this week, with some base running drills, Minnesota’s head trainer Nick Paparesta hoped Wallner could complete. He felt as good as he could for his first game in over a month.
“Yeah, I mean as good as you can be,” Wallner said after St. Paul’s first game on Thursday. “You never get true game reps unless you’re playing in a game. So you definitely need to take these games and take them seriously to kind of feel like you’re in game mode. But yeah, I feel like I’m as good as I probably can be right now.”
It’s never been an unusual sight to see Wallner crush Triple-A pitching. Even without the extra drills ahead of his rehab, Wallner’s hamstring didn’t cause any issues on Thursday. And the home runs helped to show that his strength had returned to his back leg.
“It’s a good sign, but definitely a little more fatigued than I normally would be, which I think is fair,” said Wallner. “I feel completely fine.”
Saints manager Toby Gardenhire agreed with his right fielder’s evaluation and passed his eye tests.
“I mean, he hit two homers, that’s a pretty good start,” said Gardenhire. “He looks good, we had him on the bases yesterday, and then he threw to bases today, fly balls, he looks good.”
Wallner’s second homer was the more impressive of the two in terms of exit velocity. The first one went out to right-center field at only 95.7 MPH. The second one was a no-doubter just from the sound, but tagging out of the park at 112.4 MPH to straight away center.
“I was just trying to see the middle of the field and catch it up front, and was able to do that a couple of times,” said Wallner. “Hopefully, a little more consistency, and we’ll keep building.”
The Saints have four games left to play over the next three days, with another doubleheader on Saturday. He will alternate between the DH spot and right field for the remainder of St. Paul’s homestand. If he keeps playing well for his next three games, he could return to the Twins as early as Monday for their trip to Tampa.
However, the Twins could still take their time with Wallner’s return, having him stick a few more games out in Triple-A and waiting to activate him when their road trip heads west to Seattle.
Either way, he should be entertaining Saints fans for the next few games to come, and they can expect a few more home runs to come with it.
