Twins catcher Joe Mauer on Tuesday Wednesday will have a magnetic resonance arthrogram to try to get to the bottom of why he’s still having discomfort in his back nearly three months after surgery to remove a kidney obstruction.

Mauer will have dye injected into his back and stomach area to help doctors detect any problems.

The decision was made after Mauer met with the Twins medical staff, including head physician Dr. John Steubs. The Twins and Mauer believed the he would be close to getting back on the field by now but Mauer recently stopped doing on-field activities because of the discomfort.

When asked early Monday morning if he was getting antsy to get on the field, he said. “I have moved well past that.”

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said the club needs answers.

“We have to figure out what’s going on so we can get him better and get him on the field.” Gardenhire said. “This is another effort to try to figure out where we are at and what we need to do. He’s not on the field yet. He’s not able to consistently go out and do anything.

“Concerned? Yeah.”Â

This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Breaking news, preseason. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.