Danny Valencia likely out until at least Friday

MINNEAPOLIS -- Third baseman Danny Valencia won't likely return to the Twins' lineup until at least Friday, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.
Valencia's tight right hamstring has been feeling better, but it's still not good enough for the Twins to take the chance of putting him back out on the field. So Matt Tolbert got the start at third base for a fourth consecutive day in place of Valencia.

"He says he can hit," Gardenhire said of Valencia. "We know that. But after you hit, you've got to do something. You've got to run and we're not quite there yet. He wants to play. He's dying [to play]."

Gardenhire said his best guess is that Valencia will be back on Friday. But he's going to listen to the training staff and the team's strength coach in order to make sure that Valencia doesn't try to come back too quickly from this and risk further injury.

"I don't want this to turn into something where he goes out there and pops it and we're done for the year," Gardenhire said. "Because he could be, and I don't want to get into that. So we're going to give him the days we need here."



(mlb.com)