Jeffers to miss 6-8 weeks with thumb fracture

MINNEAPOLIS -- Ryan Jeffers actually had one of his most productive stretches of the season at the plate in the last two weeks -- but he'd been achieving all that through persistent soreness in his right thumb.

It turns out that the soreness was a symptom of a small fracture in Jeffers' thumb, which will require a surgical procedure and sideline him through a 6-8 week recovery period, Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey announced on Saturday.

"He's been battling the last few weeks after he got hit in thumb a little bit," Falvey said. "We did the X-ray initially, nothing shown there. He battled through, got his symptoms in a pretty good place, obviously. He was actually probably hitting as well as he's hit all year in the last few weeks. And he's kind of a warrior and battled through some soreness."

Jeffers' exact return timeline will be dictated by the pace of his recovery, with the six to eight weeks of healing likely followed by a buildup and rehab assignment. The likely timetable would put him on track to return to the Twins sometime in September.

"Staying positive," Jeffers said. "I'll come back with time at the end of the year, and hopefully really impact this team. I was joking with Kenta [Maeda] yesterday, me and him are going to be September callups. You've got to try and find the positives in it."

The Twins originally thought they were in the clear after Jeffers took an errant warmup pitch off his right thumb just before a July 1 game against the Orioles. Though he exited that game in the fifth inning, the Twins originally diagnosed the injury as a contusion and had Jeffers back in the starting lineup three days later.

But when the soreness and pain never went away, the Twins sent him in for a bone scan, which revealed a fracture that had not been visible on the X-ray. Jeffers asked whether he could play through the issue, but he was advised that the most appropriate move for his long-term health was to undergo the surgery.

Jeffers was placed on the 10-day IL on Friday, with the Twins selecting Caleb Hamilton for his first MLB callup in the corresponding move. Falvey said the Twins are still thinking through their plans for how to handle the catching split in Jeffers' absence, but Gary Sánchez will receive the bulk of the starts.

"Obviously with Gary and Ryan, we kind of viewed that as tandem in many ways," Falvey said. "Caleb's up here now as a backup consideration. We haven't really worked through all that yet. Now that we know the timeline and how much time there is, we do expect Ryan to be back toward the end of this. So our hope is that we have internal options, for sure, Caleb can step in."

The expectation is that Jeffers will remain with the team throughout his recovery to help in game-planning meetings with the coaches, pitchers and catchers, especially when it comes to pitchers like Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan, who have almost always been paired with Jeffers this season.

"Obviously, he'll need to rehab at some point and disappear from the team," Falvey said. "But hopefully in the interim period, he can be a big part of the game-planning conversation and be able to give Gary what Gary needs for Sonny and for others that he hasn't caught as often."

"Stay in constant communication with the pitchers, continue to have those relationships and build those relationships, because when I come back at the end of the year, it's going to be go-time," Jeffers said. "It's going to be the last couple of weeks where every game matters, we're getting in the playoffs. So for me, I'm going to stay as active as I can."