Twins’ Carlos Correa is ‘heading in the right direction’ after a concussion

Carlos Correa completed a workout before Wednesday’s doubleheader, including some running in the Target Field outfield. It’s a good indication that the Twins shortstop is recovering well from the concussion that has sidelined him since last Thursday.

“The concussion-type symptoms he was having — those are basically all completely gone,” including headaches, blurred vision, drowsiness and fatigue, Twins head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta said. “So, we’re kind of heading in the right direction.”

Correa took batting practice in the indoor cage, fielded some ground balls and is within a day or two of beginning MLB’s process of reinstatement, which includes a neurological “impact test” that evaluates cognitive abilities and eye movements, among other factors. The results are compared to baseline tests taken before the players reach the major leagues.

Correa and Byron Buxton are both on MLB’s seven-day concussion list after they collided in the outfield in Baltimore while chasing Cedric Mullins’ shallow fly ball. Correa seemed more affected by the impact initially, but Buxton’s history of concussions has slowed his recovery.

“Byron is a little bit behind Carlos,” Paparesta said. “Any time you’ve had a previous concussion, you’re a little bit more susceptible to another, or to worse symptoms.”

Buxton is also susceptible to migraine headaches, which makes identifying symptoms more difficult.

“You can get a little cloudiness — ‘Do I have a migraine, or do I have a headache from my concussion?’ “ Paparesta said. “So, there was a little bit of just trying to figure that out. Be smart about making sure we weren’t pushing him to the [injured list] if it was just his migraine. And we determined it was symptoms from his concussion, so it was best to place him on the IL.”

Still, Buxton is beginning to take batting practice, too, while being evaluated daily.

“The process is to implement more things, get the heart rate up, get them doing more things,” Paparesta said. “Seeing baseballs coming at them.”

Matt Wallner was to have been back in the leadoff spot Wednesday, albeit at CHS Field in St. Paul. That game was postponed, but it’s a promising first step toward being atop the Twins’ lineup soon. The Saints resume play on Thursday.

Wallner had been due to be designated hitter for the Saints in their game against Norfolk, so Day 1 of his rehab assignment will proceed as he returns from a left hamstring strain he suffered April 15.

“We have him lined up to play there through the weekend, and then we’ll assess how he’s doing,” Paparesta said. “Then [we’ll] make a decision for maybe some more [at-bats] with St. Paul when they go to Omaha.”

Left unsaid is the possibility that Wallner could accompany the Twins when they leave on a three-city road trip after Sunday’s game. A lot has to happen before the Twins would consider that, the trainer emphasized, with protecting Wallner’s health the emphasis.

“We have a pretty good history about how we go about doing these rehab guys with guys that have been down for a period of time, meaning four weeks or more,” Paparesta said. “We definitely like to see them play in back-to-back games. We like to see them play in back-to-back nine-inning games if we can.”

In other injury updates, Paparesta said:

⋅ The team takes X-rays of Luke Keaschall‘s fractured right arm each week, and “he is showing some calcification, which is exactly what we’re looking for. We don’t have any bridging of that yet to show that the bones have healed and that we’re ready to start any true baseball stuff. He is doing some off-hand, top-hand work in the batting cage, but that’s about it right now.”

⋅ The Twins “hope it’s going to be a short stay [on the injured list] for Danny Coulombe, but we want to be smart about both the short-term and long-term,” Paparesta said. The lefthanded reliever is out with a left forearm extensor strain and hasn’t begun throwing again.

The Twins didn’t play Tuesday because of a daylong rain, but that doesn’t mean they had the day off. Manager Rocco Baldelli asked each player to come to Target Field anyway.

“We told our players to make sure they got in here, got their workouts in, got in the training room and got their stuff done,” Baldelli said. “Get in the [batting] cages, get their meetings done. We weren’t going to keep everybody home, because there were some things to knock out here.”

Thursday is a scheduled off day, however, and the players are not required to return to the ballpark.

Wednesday’s St. Paul Saints game against Norfolk at CHS Field was postponed because of wet weather. The game will be made up in a doubleheader on Saturday. Tuesday’s game had also been postponed, and the teams will play another doubleheader on Thursday. It was the 13th time this season that rain disrupted the schedule.