Twins Hire Nick Paparesta as New Head Athletic Trainer

I wonder how he is with the three-two flu? ?

Well, at least they are trying something. Now if they can just quit acquiring already-injured pitchers.

Well he's certainly got experience and seems like a good pick up. Whether the head athletic trainer has a noticable causal influence on injures? I'm less convinced, but at this point every bit helps with the legion of IL veterans we've got on this team.

48 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

So, we don't want Rodon or deGrom or Scherzer... Or Verlander, or Kershaw, or Tyler Anderson... No Eovaldi. 

There's a difference between "already injured" and "previously injured," no?

I often wondered if the issue with the Twins was treating injuries or was it in how players were physically prepared during ST to handle the regular season.  Or...both? 

It speaks volumes to how bad it has been that Seth has to write an article on a new head trainer.  Seems like exactly the kind of guy they should want.  

59 minutes ago, PDX Twin said:

There's a difference between "already injured" and "previously injured," no?

How exactly do you as a fan "know" when a pitcher has recovered from an injury?

Good get! A's were 9th best in the league looking at fewest days lost to injuries last year and 2nd in 2021.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/injured-list/2022/cumulative-team/

Hopefully this Trainer is better at diagnosing injuries or creating a plan to get them back to speed in a timely fashion. Not saying Salazar wasn't good at it, but it seemed as if his training staff was just throwing darts at a board and hoping something stuck that was remotely close to what was injured. Then when it wasn't that, they went back to throwing darts. Also, this guy may have a better insight as to how they help Buck stay on the field and not just the batters box.

It seems like he's good at what he does. Hopes he has influence to turn down a trade if a pitcher isn't sound  or intervene if a player is hurting & needs time off or put on the IL (Buxton, Polanco, Arraez) or establish a routine & schedule for a pitcher to optimize his production w/o getting hurt.

Any idea what a head trainer for an MLB team makes?

I think now that they have hired him, they should just preemptively fire him now, save everyone the headache.

13 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

So, we don't want Rodon or deGrom or Scherzer... Or Verlander, or Kershaw, or Tyler Anderson... No Eovaldi. 

Great comment, Seth.  I think this is a difficult topic as the wisdom of acquiring players with some injury history depends a lot on the facts of each case.  IMHO, I think there is a difference between pitchers with an extensive history of delivering quality innings but who have had TJ but recovered (Verlander), or who have maybe only had one season with injury problems, and pitchers who have frequent injury issues in multiple years, or who have injuries during the year you trade for them (Mahle), especially if they have been on the injury list multiple times for the same injury during the year of the trade.  In the latter cases, I would be cautious about trading for them, or signing them to a long term free agent contract.  But these days, with TJ being so common, if a team stays totally away from pitchers who have had TJ, it eliminates a huge segment of the market.  I think Rodon is an interesting case for the Twins as he is coming off a great year, but has a fairly high level of risk if you sign him to a 5 year deal.  For teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, and some others, if they were to sign Rodon and he has TJ, and is out for a year or two, it is less of an issue as they have payroll space to add others.  But for the Twins, if they sign Rodon and he has to have TJ next summer, they would not be in a financial postion (at least given the philosophy of the ownership on budgets) to acquire another costly arm to replace him for two years.  Unfortunately, the Twins must make fewer mistakes and have fewer injuries than the wealthy teams if they want to compete, as this year clearly showed.  

57 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

It seems like he's good at what he does. Hopes he has influence to turn down a trade if a pitcher isn't sound  or intervene if a player is hurting & needs time off or put on the IL (Buxton, Polanco, Arraez) or establish a routine & schedule for a pitcher to optimize his production w/o getting hurt.

Yes , every voice should be heard and proper care to whether the player should play or not  ... 

According to Google, the average MLB Athletic trainer makes about $62K per year.  In comparision, the average NBA Floor Sweeper makes an average of $80K.

I hope the F.O. doesn't try to save money with this hire and they overpay for a position that has been unable to keep us healthy for multiple years recently.

36 minutes ago, farmerguychris said:

According to Google, the average MLB Athletic trainer makes about $62K per year.  In comparision, the average NBA Floor Sweeper makes an average of $80K.

I hope the F.O. doesn't try to save money with this hire and they overpay for a position that has been unable to keep us healthy for multiple years recently.

 

Don't MLB teams have several trainers?  If so, the average would be for all.  This guy is the head trainer.  Don't know, but expect their salary would be higher.  Speaking of money, if he is this good why did Oakland let him go?  Did the Twins offer him mega bucks?  

Will Rocco be giving him scheduled days off too.... if so, we should coordinate them with Buxton's scheduled off days

There seems to be some finger pointing going on.  I'm mildly surprised few have mentioned the Twins offensive  down hill slide since the Miami Marlins hired James Rowson away from the Twins.