NEW YORK -- Twins general manager Thad Levine joked that "Dr. Arraez" gave a thumbs-up as he walked off the field following an extensive on-field workout on Thursday at Yankee Stadium.

However, the roster fate for rookie second baseman Luis Arraez will officially be in the hands of the coaches and the club's medical staff, who met for a discussion after Arraez finally got the chance to test his sprained right ankle during fielding and baserunning drills ahead of Friday's Game 1 in the American League Division Series against the Yanks.

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The 22-year-old has -- fortunately -- given his coaches a tough decision ahead of Friday's 10 a.m. ET deadline to submit rosters.

"He's healed really well, probably faster than anyone anticipated, and he's put himself in a spot where we're taking this question very seriously," manager Rocco Baldelli said.

The Twins' playoff lineup would get a huge boost from a quick return for Arraez, whose advanced eye at the plate and bat-to-ball ability have led to more walks than strikeouts, a .334/.399/.439 slash line and 2.1 WAR in 92 games as he came out of nowhere to seize an everyday job at second base and in left field.

Arraez had been hitting in the cage over the last several days, but inclement weather in both Minneapolis and New York prevented the rookie from testing the ankle in on-field drills until Thursday. Arraez took ground balls at second base in "as many infield scenarios as he could face in a game," according to Levine.

It was only last Saturday that Arraez exited a game on a motorized cart in Kansas City after a collision with Willians Astudillo. Arraez was diagnosed with the Grade 1 ankle sprain and he could not put weight on his right ankle after that game.

"We were probably sitting around a few days ago saying we're not sure this guy is going to be able to play, just flat out," Baldelli said. "He's healed very well. He's moving around very well, and now we have a good discussion to have."

With the recovery of Arraez and utility infielder Ehire Adrianza in mind, Levine said the Twins' roster picture is still very much in flux, and that there is still a debate as to whether the club will carry 12 or 13 position players for the ALDS depending on their evaluation of the injuries.

It's also not necessarily just a question of whether Arraez could be ready for Friday's series opener, because the Yankees might have bought the Twins a little more time by naming left-hander James Paxton as their Game 1 starter. That means Minnesota could easily slot in Jonathan Schoop and his .917 OPS against lefties at second base in Game 1 and potentially give Arraez an extra day of rest.

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Levine said the Twins have also considered adding a player who wouldn't be completely healthy for Game 1 to the ALDS roster in the hopes that the player could play a more significant role in the later games of the series, though that could be trickier in the shorter, five-game format of the ALDS.

Essentially, would the Twins be willing to take someone like Arraez or Adrianza short of full strength for a limited amount of action, or would they prefer adding the likes of a healthy Willians Astudillo or LaMonte Wade Jr. to the roster instead?

"If they can play 75 percent [of games] at 80 percent, how does that compare to the alternative?" Levine said. "And there's no direct formula, but we try as best as we can to stay attentive to that. We do believe our alternatives will be very solid big league players, so we're only willing to degrade ourselves at one position so much before we're going to seek out the alternative."

The final consideration is that if one of the injured Twins were to aggravate his injury during the ALDS to the point where the club would need an injury replacement, that player would also not be ineligible to participate in the AL Championship Series, if Minnesota was to advance that far.

But the Twins are now at the point where every game matters, and though they erred on the side of safety with injuries through the regular season, all bets are off in October in the pursuit of collecting three wins before the Yankees.

"We’re now in a different phase of the season where we know we’re going to have to take some chances and some risks to beat teams that are as power-packed as teams like the New York Yankees," Levine said. "But I can tell you, as a sneak peek, we’re not going to play it safe at every turn and then leave some of our best players off and find ourselves in need of those best players to win a baseball game."