Morneau Resumes Baseball Activities

Twins first baseman Justin Morneau has finally resumed baseball activities.  According to Twins GM Bill Smith, he's expected to report to Spring Training along with the other position players on February 22nd.

"He's doing well," Smith said Friday. "He has begun baseball activity — hitting, fielding, throwing — and continues to work out and make good progress, so we look forward to seeing him in Fort Myers."

Morneau was putting together an MVP quality season when he took a knee to the head on July 7th.  The ensuing concussion robbed him of the rest of the season.  Since then, it's been a painstakingly slow process to get him back to the point to where he was able to resume physical activity without spiraling back into concussive symptoms. 

Considering the multitude of setbacks he's had over the past several months, it's unknown if Morneau will be ready for Opening Day on April 1st.  As a result, the Twins are taking a very conservative "day to day" approach with the ultimate goal of getting him back onto the field.   Despite their approach, the Twins are moving forward with the expectation he's in the Opening Day starting lineup.  Still, they're not expecting miracles.

If there are setbacks along the way, the Twins have some options for how they can handle the situation.  In all likelihood, the Twins would use the defensive alignment they used in the second half of last season with Cuddyer moving from RF to 1B, Kubel moving from DH to RF, and Thome taking over regular DH duties.  While this is by no means an ideal situation (especially defensively), it's still a better option than most teams would have under the same circumstances.

Morneau Hasn't Resumed Baseball Activities

While Justin Morneau has started working out, he's yet to resume baseball activities.

The Twins are still optimistic that Morneau will be ready for Opening Day, but Smith continues to call his rehab "a work in progress." "We have pledged patience, and we only want him to go when he's ready," said Smith. "If that's March 1, April 1 or July 1, that's what it will be. We only want him to go through this one time. We don't want this to become a roller coaster."

Concussions are funny.  Some people recover within days, while others take months.  For Morneau, it's been months.  We're still two weeks out from Spring Training officially starting, so there's no reason to panic just yet.  Still, I hope he comes back soon.  The Twins are a much better team with him in the lineup and on the field.

Morneau to Resume Baseball Activities in February

According to Twins GM Bill Smith, first baseman Justin Morneau  has started working out, and should be ready to swing a bat by February 1st.

"Well he called the other day and I had a great talk with him.  I hadn’t talked with him in probably a month and he told me that he has had a real good week of workouts.  He said he pushed it, I think he said - this was Monday night - so he said on Friday he pushed it about as hard as he can in any workout and he didn’t have any problems.  And that’s a great thing for us."

This is great news for the Twins.  Last season, Morneau was having an MVP quality season when a concussion derailed his (and one of my fantasy baseball teams) season just prior to the All-Star break.  Typically, players return fairly quickly (anywhere from 2-4 weeks) from concussions.  Unfortunately for Morneau and the Twins, his symptoms persisted, and he never made back on to the field.  After several months of recovery, Morneau appears to be on the "up-and-up" and on the verge of resuming baseball activities a few weeks ahead of schedule. 

Usually, teams have trouble replacing a player that produced a .447 wOBA and 5.3 WAR in 81 games, but not the Twins.  Instead, they made the appropriate adjustments, put up a 48-32 record over the course of the rest of the season, and surpassed the White Sox and Tigers to secure their sixth division title nine years.  Still, even with the success they had last season without Morneau, the Twins are a much better team with him both in the lineup and on the field.  Their second half performance was largely unsustainable when you consider that (a) the replacement defensive alignment the Twins sent out to the field was simply atrocious, and (b) the Twins received huge offensive production out of 40 year old slugger Jim Thome, who likely will not give an encore performance in 2011.

Hopefully, Morneau continues to recover as expected.  With him in the lineup, the Twins will be the odds on favorite to secure their seventh division title in ten years.  If he's not, they might end up being a 75-80 win team.

Morneau's Road to Recovery

Justin Morneau was putting together an MVP quality season when a concussion, on July 7th, unexpectedly derailed his season.   Despite multiple attempts to comeback last season, Morneau suffered through intense headaches and dizziness.  Finally, it appears that Morneau is on the road to recovery.  Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that Morneau has resumed his cardio workouts, and should be able to return to baseball related action in the near future.

"The road to recovery is going well," Morneau wrote in an e-mail to the Star Tribune. "I started working out again this week, and I am feeling pretty good. It has been a long and frustrating road, but feels good to be able to function normally on a day-to-day basis.

The first couple of workouts have gone well, and I am sure I will be more than over-anxious to get spring training and the season started once February rolls around."

This is great news.  Morneau is an incredibly talented player, and it'd be a shame to see his career derailed by a freak injury.  At the time of his injury, he was putting up career highs in batting average, OBP, and SLG; a .447 wOBA (+35.1 wRAA); +9.8 UZR (+9 DRS); and 5.3 WAR.  While the Twins played very well in his absence, it's entirely possible the Twins would've fared better in the playoffs had he been in the everyday lineup. 

Last season was shaping up to be a career year with Morneau putting up numbers far above his career norms.  I expect him to regress back to his mean baseline performance, so expecting a reprise of 2010 in 2011 should not be expected.  Going into his age-30 season, I expect him to return to the 3.5 to 4.0 WAR player he was prior to next season.  Either way, it'll be great to have him back.  He's a solid player that makes one of the best teams in the American League even better.