Journeyman right hander Jason Marquis missed a huge chunk of spring training for the Minnesota Twins after his daughter was seriously injured in a bike accident in New York. He stayed with his wife by his daughter's side for a few weeks waiting for her to recover, and understandably did little in the way of baseball during that time.
He's back with the team now, but isn't quite in shape enough to immediately add himself to the rotation. His forecast seems to show him joining the rotation at some point around mid-April, since he came back in good shape and with his pitches all looking like they should.
The Twins plan to be careful with Marquis, who was unable to do many drills and didn't face other professional hitters. On Tuesday, Marquis threw on a back field to Twins minor leaguers as General Manager Terry Ryan, manager Ron Gardenhire and other club officials looked on.
"He came back in good shape," Ryan said. "It was encouraging. He threw 54 pitches; the majority were strikes. He used all his stuff. Now we'll see how he feels tomorrow."
The Twins will not need his services until at least April 15 against Texas with their rotation of Carl Pavano, Liam Hendriks, Nick Blackburn and Francisco Liriano holding down the fort until then.
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