Twins’ Justin Morneau Placed On Disabled List
The Minnesota Twins have been slumping and were hoping the All-Star break would bring them out of their funk. However, the Twins will start the second half of the season, facing more obstacles with a concussed Justin Morneau being placed on the disabled list.
The slugging first baseman is vital in the Twins hopes of recovering to catch the Chicago White Sox, who headed into the All-Star break on a roll.
The good news is that Morneau claims he’s starting to feel better: "It's a lot better than it was, especially the last few days," Morneau said before the game. "Woke up this morning feeling pretty good. We did 25 minutes on the elliptical and felt pretty good. But as the day has gone on, the plan was to try and come in and hit today. We decided not to do that with what we did this morning. Just not feeling that great."
However, a concussion is not something to take lightly and the Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is not going to rush Morneau back into the lineup: "He's still feeling the effects, and we're not going to take any chances."
We can’t forget that Morneau has a history with concussions and following the workout, he claimed to be a little “foggy."
Morneau suffered the concussion over a week ago after accidentally getting kneed in the head by Toronto Blue Jays’ second baseman John McDonald as Morneau was attempting to break up a double play.
"It's not registering right, and just walking around when that's not right and trying to hit a 90 mph fastball makes it a little difficult," Morneau said. "Just err on the side of caution with this and see what the plan is. Hopefully it keeps getting better. The good sign is that it keeps getting better every day."
Michael Cuddyer has been hitting cleanup in Morneau’s place. Morneau even skipped the All-Star Game in order to get more rest. Morneau finished the first half of the season with the third-best batting average in the league at .345 to go with 18 home runs and 56 RBIs. He has been playing excellent defence as well. The Twins have only won 15 games since the beginning of June and will need their Canadian slugger back if they want to get back on track.
What’s important for Morneau though, is getting healthy before he comes back.
"I think we've been handling it the right way and being pretty cautious with it. Hopefully when it's time to come off we'll be 100 percent ready to go, without any questions of what happens if I dive or what happens if I go in to break up a double play. You don't want that while you're playing. You just want to go out there and play and not have those thoughts and be able to be aggressive and do the things you need to do," he said.
Last season, the Twins made it to the postseason for the first time in three seasons after a late-season turnaround saw them steal the AL Central right from the Detroit Tigers. They’ll need Morneau back to pull off something similar this season.
Morneau also spent time on the DL in 2005 because of a concussion and throughout his youth, he has sustained head injuries playing hockey and basketball.
Once Morneau is healthy enough to play, he will likely wear a new Rawlings helmet which offers more protection than the standard helmet.
"I don't think [the new helmet] would have really made a difference in this case," Morneau said. "You never really know, but for safety sake, I guess we'll try and use that new helmet."
The Twins are surely hoping for Morneau's quick recovery so that, once again, he can make an impact on the playing field.
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