Twins halt Cole Sands' Triple-A rehab after slow recovery progress

Cole Sands’ rehab in Triple-A never really got moving, and that is the setback the Twins did not need. After one appearance for the St. Paul Saints, the right-hander was scratched from a scheduled June 5 outing and shut down because his recovery had not advanced enough, pushing Minnesota farther from getting one of its more trusted bullpen arms back.

Sands, 28, had been on the 15-day injured list since May 2, retroactive to April 29, with a mild right forearm strain. He had been out since late April before the rehab assignment was set to begin June 3 in St. Paul, where he was expected to work one inning of relief. Instead, the brief return turned into a pause, and the Twins have sent him back to rest and treatment mode while he rebuilds toward a throwing program.

The practical consequence is simple: the timetable moved backward. Major League Baseball rules require a seven-day wait before a player can restart a rehab assignment after it is shut down, so Sands cannot just pick up where he left off. That kind of stoppage is often more telling than a clean rehab progression, because it suggests the body is not responding on schedule and the clock toward a return to Minnesota’s bullpen has been reset.

That matters because Sands had already become a meaningful part of the Twins’ relief mix before the forearm strain intervened. In 2026, he made 12 major league appearances, posted a 4.63 ERA, struck out 11 batters and logged 11.2 innings. He also had four different stints with the Twins, and MLB.com noted how sharp he was early, with a 0.73 ERA over his first seven appearances from April 3 through May 30.

Minnesota drafted Sands in the fifth round in 2018 out of Florida State, and he made his major league debut on May 1, 2022. Since then, he has moved back and forth between Minnesota and Triple-A St. Paul, but this latest interruption is a more troubling one because it leaves the Twins waiting on a pitcher they have already needed this season. With pitching injuries piling up, a stalled rehab is not just a medical note. It is a direct delay in the one area Minnesota can least afford another one.