ST. PETERSBURG -- When Rocco Baldelli spoke of arriving at Tropicana Field on Thursday, his warm feelings about the situation seeped into every word.

“It’s something that I’ve waited for,” the Twins manager said prior to the opening of a four-game series against the Rays. “There’s just a lot of people in this building, people I’ve spent a lot of time with over the years, for years and years and years, that I’m looking forward to seeing.”

Baldelli was the sixth overall pick in the 2000 MLB Draft, with the Rays plucking him straight from a Rhode Island high school. He made his Major League debut three years later and finished third in '03 American League Rookie of the Year Award voting. After a solid ’04 season, during which he bested his numbers in nearly every offensive category, he began battling the then-mysterious ailment (channelopathy) that kept the speedy center fielder from action in ’05 and limited him to just 227 games over the final five years of his career.

After a 2009 stint in Boston, Baldelli returned to Tampa Bay for 10 games in '10 and retired with the team that raised him. Though Baldelli’s playing career ended at age 29, he wasn’t done with the Rays.

He worked his way up the ranks from special assistant to first-base coach and eventually Major League field coordinator, a position he held from 2017 until landing with the Twins.

With all his history with Tampa Bay -- and so many different roles – it’s understandable that Baldelli arrived looking to not only challenge another of baseball’s top teams, but to reconnect as well.

“It’s certainly different,” he said of being on the opposite site of the chalk. “You walk past the door that you’ve walked in so many times and it’s a little unusual. I wish I had more time, because there’s just so many people here that I do care about.

“I’m going to take advantage of the next four games, get a chance to see everyone, and really enjoy it, and try to go out there and get some wins, too.”

Walking wounded
• Center fielder Byron Buxton (right knee contusion) was back in Thursday’s lineup and hitting ninth after leaving Tuesday’s game against the Brewers in the second inning.

“He was trying to stay in the game,” Baldelli said. “He was ready to go after the game. We talked to him, and he was already feeling a lot better.”

Buxton crashed into Minnesota’s center-field wall while trying to catch Yasmani Grandal’s eventual leadoff triple, striking his head on the chain-link fence in the process.

• Mitch Garver (left high ankle sprain) reported no issues after his first rehab game behind the plate with Double-A Pensacola on Wednesday. Baldelli said the catcher was slated to DH on Thursday for about three at-bats before progressing to more of a full-game situation Friday.

• Minnesota continues to play it safe with Nelson Cruz (left wrist strain), with no set timetable on his return, although Baldelli said the Twins should know something soon.

“We want to make sure that this is not something that lingers [or] something that we have to deal with in an ongoing way throughout the season,” he added. “Nelly’s an easy guy to talk to. He knows his body well, so you just have to trust what he’s feeling, what he says.

“I think it’s something with Nelly that when the time comes, I think we’re going to know.”

Prank wars begin
Practical jokes among former teammates and managers aren’t uncommon, and Baldelli was prepared for the full treatment from Kevin Cash. But it wasn’t the Rays’ manager who kicked off the shenanigans before Thursday’s opener but Tampa Bay video coordinator Chris “Chico” Fernandez. Baldelli was greeted with a box in his office at Tropicana Field filled with pre-worn clothes, including a pair of ill-fitting brown cargo shorts and a pair of even smaller, well-broken-in sandals.

“Chico … went to Goodwill and bought me some clothes,” Baldelli deadpanned. “He doesn’t like the clothes that I wear, so he went out there and picked me up some stuff, which was very thoughtful, I thought.”

Cash, for his part, denied any involvement in Fernandez’s master plan.

"I had nothing to do with it,” Cash said. “When I do something, I promise I'll stand by it. I thought it was a good idea. It's very true that Rocco's known for wearing UPS shorts all over the ballpark, so we got him new ones ... or some used ones."