The Twins were relieved to learn today that catcher Joe Mauer only has an inflamed sacroiliac joint following an exam on Tuesday in Fort Myers and a meeting this morning with Twins team physician Dr, John Steubs.

The Twins will switch to a stronger prescription of medication and see how Mauer responds over the next few days before he tries to do any physical activity.

“It shows the same thing,” Twims manager Ron Gardenhire said. “The inflammation in the SI joint and they are going just change the medicine and see where we go from there. Change the type of medicine he’s taking, that’s what I was told by Dr. Steubs.

“I don’t know what he’s been taking, but they are going to go with something more aggressive.”

The sacroiliac joint, or SI joint, is located at the base of each side of the spine and the top of the pelvis. In Mauer’s case, the inflammation is at the right side of his lower back.

This is what the Twins suspected all along, as Mauer kept feeling pain in that area when he tried to run. Gardenhire actually sounded pleased that it wasn’t something more serious.

“`Yeah. We were thinking it could be something huge, the way it has been going,” Gardenhire said. “Obviously, it’s the same thing. We just haven’t gotten it under control yet.”

Mauer can swing a bat, catch and throw. Running has been his only challenge. If the Twins can get rid of the inflammation, Mauer can return to baseball actitivies and try to get on the field before spring training ends.

My take: There were indications before the exam that this issue was unrelated to the kidney surgery he had in December and it really looks that way now. Hopefully, we’ll verify that later today.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 10:42 am and is filed under Breaking news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.