Finally, the finish line could be near for Josh Donaldson's recovery.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said Saturday that the former MVP third baseman could return to the team sometime during the coming homestand, which will encompass three games against the White Sox and five against the Tigers. Baldelli indicated that there could be roughly a week or so left in Donaldson's program at the club's alternate training site.

"I think we're getting to the final stages of this buildup," Baldelli said.

Donaldson has been out of action since he sustained a right calf strain during a July 31 game against Cleveland at Target Field, and the Twins have been adamant throughout the process that they were not planning to rush him back in any way.

In a cautionary tale that supports the Twins' abundance of care with Donaldson's condition, the Yankees placed outfielder Aaron Judge back on the injured list on Friday, also with a right calf strain. Judge had initially sustained the injury on Aug. 11 but re-aggravated the injury after only six innings upon his return to the field.

"Again, we need [Donaldson] to get his at-bats, which he's getting plenty of, but we need him to build up in the field, too, because coming back and playing three or four innings doesn't exactly give us what we need," Baldelli said. "We need to make sure he can handle it physically and recover and come back the next day."

As Baldelli indicated, Donaldson has been seeing ample at-bats against live pitching in intrasquad games at CHS Field in St. Paul, Minn., but there simply hasn't been enough action in those abbreviated contests for Donaldson to get both his necessary at-bats and opportunities on defense. There's no way for the Twins to simulate a full nine-inning game situation, so they'll have to adjust by getting Donaldson those reps in machine games instead of live-arm games.

"You're going to have to get creative, and that's what we're going to do right now with JD," Baldelli said. "He's feeling good. He's moving well. He's able to run and move in quick mannerisms and become more explosive and all the things we were looking for him to do, he's doing now. Now, we need to build him up."

Odorizzi to throw bullpen upon return to Minneapolis
Twins starter Jake Odorizzi hopped on the video conference on Saturday morning to show off the chest contusion that has relegated him to the 10-day IL, and the right-hander pulled out his phone to display a past image of the large, eye-shaped, black-and-red oval on his chest after he was struck with a line drive Aug. 21 in Kansas City.

Odorizzi has ramped up to playing catch but hasn't yet thrown a bullpen session, which he plans to do when the club returns to Minnesota following the current road trip. He also plans to throw to hitters in St. Paul before his eventual return to the Twins.

"Just one of those things that takes a little bit of time to kind of calm down and not feel like you have a ball underneath your skin in your chest from all the tissue, bruising and all of that stuff," Odorizzi said. "Feeling better. Played catch yesterday, played catch today. It’s one of those things that there’s a lot of trauma to the area which takes a while to disperse, but that’s life."