Joe Nathan eager to get involved in spring training
There are many things that are going on in the current season. With a lot of speculation involving player transfers, baseball has been an exciting venue in the past 4 months.
The end of the winter break is almost near and that has some players trying their best to make their presence known in the squad.
The returning players from injury are more eager than the others and Minnesota Twins’ closer, Joe Nathan, is one of them. After being away from the game for ten months and missing the entire 2010 season due to an elbow injury, Nathan is looking strong for
the competition ahead.
The Twins have been actively pursuing bullpen additions over the past few months and it seems Joe’s need in the roster will be immense, once the regular season kicks off.
Manager, Ron Gardenhire, is all in for the player returning to duties but looking at how the situation is developing in the club, he doesn’t want Joe to push his return and risk another ligament injury.
Catcher Joe Mauer has already come out to advise the player on taking it easy and look for a return in April.
However, with surgery over and a good process in recovery, followed by no hindrances, Nathan believes he’s up for the challenge in spring training.
"There were times that I wanted to go a little faster, push a little harder, but I always had the right people around me to stop me from doing that", Nathan said. "And I'm grateful now that they did that. We've always had plenty of time. I know it's not
a lot of time when you look at how long it takes for a lot of people to come back from this, usually it's around that 16 months or so, but we worked hard. We're hoping that because I am a reliever that it won't take that long. We're hoping that come Spring
Training, I'm ready to go".
The player was able to invite Gardenhire to the cage for a display on his throwing. Though there were no serious concerns, the manager believes the coaching staff needs to tread with a decision cautiously.
"We'll always err on the cautious side", Gardenhire said. "We'll try to do that with Nathan. We'll sit down and have our talk. I know he wants to be full bore because he's worked really hard. We'll have our talk soon and make sure we do the right thing".
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