Energized Correa makes breakthrough: 'You might see me playing baseball again very soon'

MINNEAPOLIS -- The mood and energy inside the Twins’ clubhouse had gotten so flat on the road trip that manager Rocco Baldelli shut the doors and laid into his team after the conclusion of their lifeless sweep at the hands of the Royals on Sunday -- something that his players agreed was both welcome and needed.

And when they entered their home clubhouse at Target Field on Monday, they certainly found some energy.

That was the vibe from Carlos Correa after another great day of work, a quiet confidence that still brimmed with more intensity than had seemingly been present in the injured shortstop for nearly two months -- a clear flip of the switch that signaled that something had changed in his prolonged recovery from plantar fasciitis, with a rehab assignment seemingly coming soon.

“I think we're moving forward very soon,” Correa said. “It means you might see me playing baseball again very soon.”

It was about five days ago that Correa started an unspecified new treatment in the training room, he said, after a consultation with a doctor in Los Angeles. He didn’t want to offer any specifics, but he said his feet are feeling good enough to the point where he finally feels he can play, after having barely been able to walk without pain for most of his recovery.

He had sprinted three of his previous four days, Correa said on Monday, and had woken up on subsequent mornings immediately feeling that something was different, that the treatment was working. This, seemingly, was the breakthrough Correa had awaited since he went to the IL at the All-Star Break and hung in limbo as part of a seemingly never-ending wait-and-see period.

“We finally discovered a treatment that was very painful to the point it would bring tears to my eyes,” Correa said. “But it's working and we're crossing the line. We're already thinking about the future, and it's exciting.”

Correa said he still needed to touch base with the team, but he said he had an idea of a return timeline in his head, noting that, “we’ve come to the right time.”

With the Class A season in the Minor Leagues now complete, manager Rocco Baldelli said four pitchers from Cedar Rapids and Fort Myers -- Spencer Bengard, Jordan Carr, Cleiber Maldonado and Jack Noble -- were coming in to Target Field to pitch to Correa, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler and Manuel Margot to keep them seeing live pitching.

That could precede possible rehab assignments for Correa and Buxton, according to Baldelli, with the Twins staring at another important four-game series against the first-place Guardians set to start next Monday.

“I think the more pitches they see, the better prepared they’re going to be when the time comes,” Baldelli said. “There may be a rehab assignment following this, but getting them out there and seeing them out there and seeing them facing some real professional arms is a good step.”

Buxton has also been running for several days following his exit from a rehab game last Wednesday for Triple-A St. Paul with a flare-up of soreness in his ailing right hip and went out for fielding drills in center field for the first time on Monday, he said.

He said he felt “a little more than [he] wanted to feel” in that last game, but was back to the point of evaluating his condition on a day-by-day basis, even as he acknowledged that he probably wouldn’t be playing at 100 percent or even 90 percent pain-wise, but felt he could get to the point where he could fight through it.

“Where we are is one of those where I don't want to hurt us by coming back and having to do something different, you know what I mean?” Buxton said. “I just want to come back and be my normal self and just have him be comfortable putting me back in the lineup every day.”

With the Twins desperately trying to salvage their season from this downswing, Correa would provide a needed jolt.

“It's really tough watching from home when they're on the road,” Correa said. “It's been tough to see us lose games we should win. It's tough to see guys hang their heads and not be there to encourage them to let them know that it's normal to struggle, it's normal to lose a couple games here and there, but it's how you act and react to all those things that can make the team better.”