Ervin Santana injury update: Twins starter still not cleared to throw

The Minnesota Twins are doing fine without him, but Ervin Santana will be out longer than originally expected.

For the better part of the past two seasons, one very bad and one very good for the team, Ervin Santana has been the best starting pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. But he never pitched during spring training this year after surgery on the middle finger of his pitching hand, with a 10-12 week timetable to return.

Approaching the nine-week mark since the surgery, Santana would ideally begin to throw more soon with an eye on a possible return in late-April. But according to Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Santana has not yet been cleared to throw without limitation and may go for a follow-up exam on his surgically-repaired finger.

The Twins moved quickly to fortify their starting rotation after Santana had surgery, acquiring Jake Odorizzi from the Tampa Bay Rays in mid-February. A later move to sign Lance Lynn was one of the pitching bargains in a slow-developing free agent market, leaving aside his clunky season debut earlier this week. So the Twins will be fine while Santana remains out, with better starting pitching depth then they’ve had in some time and some possible options in the high levels of their minor league system if it comes to that.

As for when Santana may be able to throw, and start to make real progress toward a return, Twins manager Paul Molitor was cautious with his words before Thursday’s home opener.

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At this point, a mid or late-May return seems most likely for Santana. Any further lack of progress, or an ill-timed setback once he is able to fully ramp up his throwing, could push that to June 1 really easily. It seemed like a fairly minor “debridement” procedure at the time, to remove a calcium deposit. But with no news about him for a couple weeks until Thursday, it’s not a big surprise Santana will be out longer than originally expected.