Twins hold first official workouts on Monday

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The first day of official workouts for pitchers and catchers kicked off Monday with 15 pitchers throwing bullpen sessions with the other 13 healthy pitchers in camp slated to throw on Tuesday.

The day started with a meeting with the eight catchers in camp at 8:30 a.m. ET, to go over signs before a meeting with the pitchers was held at 9 a.m. The pitchers were then broken up into six groups, with three groups throwing under the watch of pitching coach Rick Anderson. The other three groups played catch and worked on pitchers fielding practice drills.

Several notable Twins pitchers threw their first official bullpen sessions of the spring on Monday, including Ricky Nolasco, Phil Hughes, Matt Guerrier, Jared Burton, Alex Meyer, Glen Perkins, Brian Duensing, Samuel Deduno, Ryan Pressly, Casey Fien and Caleb Thielbar.

Only Guerrier was held back, as the non-roster invitee is still only throwing fastballs after undergoing surgery in mid-August to repair the flexor mass in his right elbow.

"He's throwing all fastballs right now and is going to be on a little bit of a [throwing] program," said Twins assistant general manager Rob Antony. "He won't appear in any games probably for the first week or week and a half. But he should be fine. His arm strength is fine, but he's just throwing fastballs and will likely mix in breaking balls this week."

Of the 29 pitchers in camp, only left-hander Edgar Ibarra isn't ready to throw off a mound, as he was diagnosed with Hepatitis B two weeks ago, and is expected to take it easy at the start of camp. Ibarra rested for two weeks before camp and missed his scheduled bullpen session on Monday. But the disease is not contagious and Ibarra is already playing catch in hopes of pitching soon.