Story by
Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Twins reliever Cole Sands set for season-ending surgery
- Story byPioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
- Twins reliever Cole Sands set for season-ending surgery
After nearly three months filled with multiple rehab assignments, multiple setbacks and a very brief return to the major leagues, the Twins announced Thursday that reliever Cole Sands needs season-ending elbow surgery.
Sands will undergo a procedure on Tuesday with team director of medical high performance Dr. Chris Camp performing the scope on his right elbow. He will also receive a platelet-rich plasma injection at the same time.
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"It's been, obviously, a long battle this year with it and so, yeah, kind of get some answers and hopefully, obviously, just clean it all up and can come into next year ready to go and not have to worry about any of it," Sands said.
Sands first landed on the injured list on May 2 with a strain in his forearm. A second MRI revealed that the strain had been healing and a month after being placed on the injured list, Sands went out for his first rehab assignment. It was shut down after one scoreless appearance with Triple-A St. Paul.
"We felt pretty good being aggressive on it, but the wild part was obviously some symptoms were still coming up," he said. "I think that's where we kind of came to the conclusion it's probably something somewhere else."
In talking to Dr. Camp on Tuesday, Sands said they now feel it is bone-related and he said the plan is to remove "some of the loose bodies (and) bone spurs."
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Sands went back out on second rehab assignment earlier this month. He pitched in six minor league games, both for the Saints and for the team's Florida Complex League affiliate, before being activated from the injured list ahead of Sunday's game.
His major league return didn't go well. He recorded one out, gave up five runs and, most importantly, didn't feel right.
"It was affecting mechanics, command, velocity and all those things," Sands said. "It was very tough to pitch through. So, yeah, there were days where there would be some hope and then there would be some days where it was like 'This is unbearable.' We could never figure out the consistency of what it was."
He described the rehab process as having good days and bad days. Often, it would be one good day followed by two or three bad days and he said he was "trying to be a little more aggressive to try and come back."
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Ultimately, the Twins decided on surgical intervention.
He said both the scope and PRP injection are around a six-to-eight-week recovery process if done separately. Doing them at the same time, he said, should let him go into the offseason "pretty much normal."
"Let the PRP do its thing and go into the offseason ready to go," Sands said.
Briefly
The Twins will send Zebby Matthews , Connor Prielipp and Taj Bradley to the mound in their upcoming series against Seattle , their last three games before Monday's trade deadline. … David Festa underwent successful surgery with Dr. Camp on Wednesday. Festa had an arthroscopic procedure to address a shoulder impingement as well as a pec release to address symptoms of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome symptoms.
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