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Royce Lewis showed incredible promise when he finally got the call to join an injury-ravaged Minnesota Twins squad this spring. He played so well there was an almost universal demand to bring him back from Triple-A St. Paul when he got sent down, regardless of what position he would play.
The result: the outcry worked, Lewis was recalled, and the shortstop immediately ran into a wall and partially tore his ACL while playing center field.
With that in mind, Twins outfield prospect Alex Kirilloff is tearing up Triple-A pitching after a year and change of battling a wrist injury. Supporters are wondering when he’ll return to the bigs and in what manner he’ll smoothly transition to the IL the rest of the season.
“I think it’ll be something weird,” said Trev Homan, a season ticket holder from Burnsville. “Remember when Marty Cordova got sunburned in the tanning booth? Something like that. The escalator he’s on stops moving suddenly, he falls and breaks three ribs. He gets scurvy or some disease that only pirates used to get."
Others say the wrist will flare up again.
“I just assume he’ll step into the box for his first at-bat back with Minnesota and a fastball is gonna run up on him and hit him square in the wrist,” said Dan Hayes, who writes about the Twins and Target Field neighborhood bar culture for The Athletic. “Feels inevitable. That or he slices a tendon on Aaron (Gleeman, fellow Athletic writer)’s neck fan.”
Kirilloff’s oncoming setback is also providing valuable teaching moments for local families.
“My son Cale came home crying from a playdate yesterday,” said Kristin Prager, a Minneapolis-based accountant and lifelong Minnesotan. “I asked him what was wrong, and he said that an older kid was making fun of him for being excited about Alex Kirilloff coming back. I told Cale that sometimes bullies have a point. Don’t be excited. Let your soul wither and die. Optimism is your enemy. Misery is your birthright as a Minnesotan. Expect nothing and then expect it to get worse.
“He’s only 8, but he understood. He put down his Gatorade and asked if he could have some black coffee, no cream, no sugar. I could almost see some bags starting to form beneath his eyes. My little man is growing up.”
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