St. Paul – It will be a while before Emmanuel Rodriguez returns to the outfield at CHS Field. On Tuesday, Minnesota Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll announced that Minnesota’s No. 4 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, had a UCL ligament tear in his left thumb and will require surgery.
“It had been diagnosed as a muscle strain,” Zoll said. “There was a lot of swelling in this thumb. As that swelling went down, he was still dealing with soreness in his joint. He went back for follow-up and additional imaging that shows a tear in his UCL ligament in his thumb, so he’s going to need surgery on that thumb.”
The tear is retroactive to his head-first slide into first base on May 1, when he exited the game with a thumb sprain. Emmanuel Rodriguez had played in 25 games before his injury and had a .247/.417/.506 slash line, six home runs, 18 RBI, 21.3% walk rate, and 28.7% strikeout rate over 108 plate appearances.
Rodriguez had been doing baseball activities shortly after the original strain. He was taking batting practice on May 3 and participating in outfield activities as recently as May 14. But the second opinion revealed a bigger issue, which led the team to opt for surgery.
“The change there was that, with all the swelling that he had in the thumb, the experts were not able to see into the joint there on the initial set of images,” said Zoll. “When he still had the pain persisting here, that hadn’t fully dissipated, that’s what led to the follow-up images and updated diagnosis.”
In the Saints clubhouse, it’s been a big loss for one of the best power-hitting teams in all of baseball. Rodriguez has always brought a valued liveliness to the clubhouse, marking the sixth consecutive season he’ll miss significant time due to an injury.
Furthermore, it looked like the Twins could call Rodriguez up to the majors if he were healthy when they sent Matt Wallner down on May 14. No matter how you look at it, losing Rodriguez due to thumb surgery is a big dent in Minnesota’s depth in their outfield for a good chunk of the season.
“He was disappointed because I think he felt like he was playing the best baseball he’d been playing in his career,” said Saints manager Brian Dinkelman on Rodriguez. “And being that close to the big leagues, you never know what might happen or when you might get that call.”
“Yeah, you obviously feel for the guy, and he’s dealt with injuries in the past, and it’s never great when you hear that news,” Saints hitting coach Shawn Schlechter said. “Especially when the guy’s having the year he’s having and off to a start he had, but he’s been there and done this before, to where he’s had to battle through that adversity.”
Emmanuel Rodriguez will undergo the same thumb surgery that teammate Alan Roden had last August and will meet with Dr. Thomas J. Graham in Philadelphia. While the Twins will not have an official timeline for how long Rodriguez’s recovery will take until after the surgery, the University of Washington Orthopedics and Sports Medicine lists recovery time at around three months.
The best-case scenario for Rodriguez’s return is mid to late August. But after the Twins get the results of his surgery back, they’ll have a clearer idea of how soon they can get him back.
“For him, it stinks,” said Dinkelman. “He was having a great year to start the season, and then that unfortunate play where he just slid into the bag trying to make something happen, hurts his hand, and now it’s a little worse than we expected, and going to miss some time. So it’s tough for the team, but even worse for him.”
