FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Luis Arraez had just finished showering on Thursday at his home in Fort Myers when he heard news of the ratification of the CBA, but he didn't want to waste a moment.

"Baseball is back!" he exclaimed to his wife.

"Hey, are you crazy?" she replied.

"Yes, I'm crazy!" he said. "I want to go to the stadium right now."

He had to wait until Friday to report to Hammond Stadium, like everyone else, but once dawn broke, he and five other Twins -- outfielder/first baseman Alex Kirilloff, outfielder Max Kepler, and pitchers Bailey Ober, Randy Dobnak and Cody Stashak -- represented the first group of players to report to Major League camp and begin workouts in preparation for a shortened ramp-up to the 2022 season.

"I'm excited," Arraez said. "Happy to be here again. Everybody said baseball is back, so that's what we love. We love baseball. That's why we're here."

"I think it's going to feel like a special Spring Training," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "I think there's going to be a lot of enthusiasm for people just being back out there on the field. Doesn't matter what it is. When something gets held away from you for a period of time, something that you care about, you want it back."

Ober and Stashak played some catch on the outfield grass, while Arraez, Kepler and Kirilloff hit in the cage and outdoors. Arraez also took some light infield drills on one of the side fields. All of that activity should ramp up considerably in the coming days, as 40-man roster players have to report by Sunday ahead of the first day of full-squad workouts on Monday.

In the meantime, Baldelli and his medical staff have plenty of catching up to do to determine the physical condition of their 40-man players -- and so far, early returns have been quite encouraging.

The skipper got to lay eyes firsthand on Kirilloff taking swings in the cage and felt the 24-year-old was in a good spot with his right wrist, which sapped his power in 2021 and led to season-ending surgery in July. He indicated that he didn't expect to limit Kirilloff's participation this spring, though the Twins will monitor him, as they do with all players. Without any issues, Kirilloff should be a front-runner to play a corner-outfield spot on Opening Day.

"If there was any concern at this point for him taking swings on the medical side, he wouldn't have been out there," Baldelli said. "There isn't. He's out there, getting ready for his season. I think that's got to be a good feeling for him, too, after what he's dealt with."

Arraez also reported to camp noticeably slimmer -- he said he dropped 11 pounds -- after spending a month training and hitting at Nelson Cruz's house in the Dominican Republic starting in mid-January. Cruz is famous for his aggressive training regimen, and Arraez jumped in headfirst by training alongside the veteran. He said they'd work from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., take a break, and go back to work at 7 p.m.

"I'm feeling strong," Arraez said. "That's what my focus was."

And the cherry on top? Royce Lewis, the No. 1 prospect in the organization per MLB Pipeline, arrived to the complex late Friday after workouts had ended, recovered from his torn ACL and ready to get to work on Saturday.

Baldelli and his Twins staff prepared the best they could upon their arrival in Florida without knowing what condition in which their players would arrive -- and they had to be ready to adjust accordingly. So far, so good.

"The players, whenever the lockout was to end, would be coming down very quickly, and things would start very quickly and get going very quickly," Baldelli said. "So what we didn't want was to also be moving. We wanted to be stable when that happened. And we were, and I think we're in a pretty good place."

Worth noting

The Twins brought back right-handed reliever Juan Minaya on a Minor League deal with an invite to Spring Training, according to a source. The 31-year-old has been in the organization since 2020 and will be a non-roster invitee to camp for a third straight season. He pitched effectively out of the Minnesota bullpen down the stretch in ’21, posting a 2.48 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 20 walks in 40 innings.