The Twins have delayed their decision over their backup catcher for at least three days, opting to carry three catchers until early next week.
Joe Mauer was activated from the disabled list on Friday, but rather than sending Jose Morales to Class AAA Rochester or placing Mike Redmond on the disabled list, the Twins chose to send reliever Juan Morillo outright to Rochester. That leaves the Twins with an 11-man bullpen for a few days, but given the uncertainty over Mauer's 2009 debut and Redmond's sore shoulder, general manager Bill Smith decided to take a calculated risk and keep all three for now.
"We just need to see how everyone is feeling in a couple of days," Smith said. "We don't know how Joe will feel. So we're just going to be cautious."
Jesse Crain appears likely to return on Monday or Tuesday, and manager Ron Gardenhire said the Twins' bullpen will be restored to 12 pitchers then. That gives the team a couple more days to make sure Mauer is up to fulltime catching, and evaluate whether Redmond needs another week or two to recover.
TWINS 7, ROYALS 5: Joe Mauer's first swing of the 2009 season landed in the left field seats, and the All-Star catcher celebrated his own personal Opening Night by going 2-for-3 with a walk. Justin Morneau hammered a fifth-inning pitch more than 400 feet to break a 5-5 tie, and the Twins' bullpen pitched four shutout innings to preserve the team's third straight win.
