Minnesota Twins Reveal Details on Matt Wallner Injury Timeline

After a disastrous start to their 2025 regular season, the Minnesota Twins have won five of their last six games, including a sweep of the Los Angeles Angels, over the weekend. Now 12-16, the Twins have climbed up to fourth in the AL Central standings.

Undoubtedly, injuries are a big part of the conversation, through 28 games. They’ve played the entire season without Royce Lewis — who is currently on a rehab assignment in St. Paul and could return this week — but that’s only the start of the conversation.

The 2025 Minnesota Twins have played chunks of their spring regular season schedule without Brooks Lee, Willi Castro and Pablo Lopez. Then, this week, they lost recent call-up Luke Keaschall to a broken bone injury. The 22-year-old ball of electricity was off to one of the hottest starts of any Twins prospect in recent memory, batting .368 with a 1.065 OPS in his first seven MLB games.

But the loss of 27-year-old homegrown outfielder Matt Wallner may be arguably the most devastating. Through 18 games to start the new season, Wallner had settled into his new leadoff role beautifully and was somewhat carrying an otherwise lackluster offense, prior to what was quickly reported on as a long-term hamstring injury.

MN Twins don’t expect Matt Wallner back soon

It happened while the Forest Lake, MN native was running down the first base line against the New York Mets on April 15. He was subsequently placed on the injured list. It became clear just a day or two later that Wallner’s injury wasn’t going to be a short-term issue.

Still, we had yet to get a more tangible return timeline on Minnesota’s right fielder. That was until Twins insider and beat reporter Dan Hayes put it into writing at The Athletic on Monday. The Minnesota Twins expect to be without Matt Wallner until “well into May”. For what it’s worth, he is playing catch again.

“Lewis (left hamstring strain) is significantly ahead of Matt Wallner (left hamstring strain), who is eligible to come off the 10-day injured list but only returned to playing catch on Saturday. Wallner could be out of the lineup well into May.”

Dan Hayes – The Athletic

It has been roughly two weeks since the Minnesota Twins shut Matt Wallner down. Hamstrings can be tricky, no matter who suffers one. While speed isn’t thought of as part of Wallner’s game, he does have a pair of triples already this season.

Despite being a bigger guy at 6’4″ and 220 pounds, his 27.3 feet/second sprint speed sits in the 54th percentile league-wide. For context, that checks in well ahead of Carlos Correa’s 26.5 ft/sec. As they always do, the Twins will not rush Wallner along, especially given his size and future importance to success.

Matt Wallner Triple🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/xaAd0SFZ7Q

— Eagle🦅Ball⚫️🟡⚪️ (@Eagle_Ball) April 15, 2025

Matt Wallner took over as the regular right fielder for Max Kepler this season, and he’s shined. Through 18 games the Minnesota kid is batting .262/.373/.474 (.807 OPS) with five doubles, the two aforementioned triples, and one home run. At the time of his injury, Wallner’s 0.6 fWAR was leading the team.

Outfield remains in flux with Wallner out for Twins

Byron Buxton has been incredibly healthy this season for the Minnesota Twins. It wasn’t until Sunday’s game against Los Angeles that he took a scheduled day off. He has routinely been flanked by some combination of Harrison Bader, Trevor Larnach, and DaShawn Keirsey Jr.

At 0.7 fWAR Bader is second on the team behind only Buxton’s 0.9 fWAR. At 0.2 fWAR Larnach hasn’t provided the same value, but his bat has started to heat up in recent days.

Keirsey Jr. has been given a decent amount of opportunity with 26 plate appearances in 20 games, but there has been no offense to speak of. Despite a stellar defensive ability, he is just 2-for-26 with an 8/0 K/BB. It remains to be seen how long Minnesota will let that play out.

Just another @carson_mccusker extra base hit. Two-run double perfectly placed down the third base line. Came into play T5th in the IL with 18 RBI, adds two more to the total. Lead 2-0 top 2 pic.twitter.com/s5I6p4yCFT

— St. Paul Saints (@StPaulSaints) April 27, 2025

It’s possible that Carson McCusker could be given a look from Triple-A. With Wallner remaining out and the offense needing to substantiate a level of scoring ability, calling up the 6’8″ giant who’s crushing Triple A pitching would make a ton of sense.

McCusker has hit at every level since signing with Minnesota out of independent baseball. This year at Triple-A he owns a .316/.388/.632 slash line with six doubles and six home runs. He’s a corner outfielder with less defensive acumen, but that bat may be too intriguing not to try at the major league level.

The Twins 40-man roster is currently full after the recent acquisition of utility infielder Kody Clemens. Still, Wallner’s extended absence may mean the outfield needs a shakeup and trying the next man up isn’t a bad idea.