Twins’ Carlos Correa details concussion, bouts of dizziness as he returns to lineup

Eight days after Carlos Correa collided with Byron Buxton on a shallow fly ball in Baltimore, Correa was back in the Twins lineup.

Correa was activated from the seven-day concussion injured list Friday before the Twins’ series opener against the Kansas City Royals at Target Field, and he contributed a home run to a 3-1 victory. Buxton remains under Major League Baseball’s concussion protocols, though he ramped up his level of activities Friday and did some running.

“The first couple of days, it was definitely weird because it was the first [concussion] I’ve ever had,” Correa said. “But I started feeling better the fourth, fifth day and here we are.”

Correa, speaking to reporters for the first time since his collision with Buxton, said the sun played a factor in how they went after Cedric Mullins’ fly ball to center field.

“It was cloudy for the first two innings, and that half-inning, the sun decided to come out,” Correa said. “The ball was right in the sun for me, so I was angling on the side, and then when I went to make my move to get into the sun and catch it, that’s when [Buxton] called me off.

“I moved out of the way, and it happened that he caught it and he moved the same way. It’s unfortunate. You don’t want it to happen, but a play like that happens very rarely, where we both are going after that ball. It was just one of those where it was a perfect storm and everything lined up for us to collide.”

Correa heard Buxton call for the ball, so he tried to slide to his right. When Buxton secured the catch, he moved in the same direction. Buxton’s head hit Correa’s shoulder and the back of Correa’s head. Correa believes his brain injury was caused by the whiplash he sustained on the play.

The Twins placed Correa on the concussion list the next day after Correa attempted to do pregame drills at the ballpark.

“Dizziness, headaches, foggy,” Correa said about his symptoms, which lasted for two or three days. “My thoughts were slow. It was definitely very different from where I usually am.”

Correa also singled ahead of Ty France’s walkoff homer Friday and finished 2-for-4. With Correa’s return at shortstop, the Twins plan to use Willi Castro more often in the outfield, particularly until Buxton and Matt Wallner return to the team. Brooks Lee, who started at shortstop in Correa’s absence, was in the lineup at second base Friday.

“Everyone is excited to have [Correa] back,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Both sides of the ball, we’re going to get better. You just never know when you deal with any sort of head injury and the recovery, you really do have to play it slow and play it day by day. We got to a really good point, and he feels great, so it was very clear the time was now that we could activate him.”

Ryan Jeffers, batting leadoff against a lefty starting pitcher Friday, started four of the previous five games as the club’s designated hitter.

It was partly out of necessity, with several key members of the lineup out with injuries, but it’s an acknowledgment of how well he’s been hitting.

In 16 games this month, Jeffers is batting .293 with two homers, eight RBI and a .379 on-base percentage through 66 plate appearances. He went 1-for-4 Friday.

“He’s really confident in his approach, and he’s carrying his plan into the game right now,” Baldelli said. “You can actually see it. You know what he’s trying to do before the game, then the game starts and it’s like, ‘Oh, there it is.’ You’re literally watching him execute at-bats just very, very well, and when he gets his pitch that he’s looking for, he’s hammering it.”

Jeffers has yet to hit for as much power as in previous years, but he’s on track to post a career-high walk rate and a career-low strikeout rate.