Sunday Camp Notes: Spring Hiccups

* The batting cages at Hammond Stadium were largely quiet early on Sunday morning, with one exception. In the last stall, center fielder Byron Buxton worked with hitting coach Tom Brunansky, who fed him underhand tosses and offered tips on keeping his head still and staying back on the ball.

Buxton has been set back over the past week, first by an illness that caused him to miss a few games and then by Saturday’s rainout.

“It’s not been ideal,” Terry Ryan acknowledged, although he added that the team can use some different methods to get him caught up on at-bats, such as having him lead off every inning in a minor-league game.

Manager Paul Molitor also expressed urgency to get Buxton back up to speed at the plate, and mentioned that he plans to have him DH in Monday’s game against the Pirates.

* Sano’s rawness in right field was quite evident when he failed to reel in a relatively routine line drive to his left in the third inning. He got a bit of a bad read and had the spinning ball clank off his glove, resulting in an error and contributing to a rocky frame for the starter Santana.

As you might expect from a 260 lb 22-year-old playing outfield for the first time, Sano has not looked very fluid in right, and it’s particularly noticeable when he’s playing alongside Buxton, the very definition of grace and quickness in center.

“There’s going to be times where we’re going to to see plays like that, plays that you hope he’d learn to make more consistently,” Molitor said. “I’m kind of happy when they hit way his ball now, so he gets to see more action.”

With only two weeks left of spring training, it is nearly certain that this learning process will carry over into the regular season.

* Aaron Hicks got the chance to face his former team for the first time since being traded for John Ryan Murphy in November. He reminded the Twins of his arm strength when Rosario attempted to tag on a fly ball to medium center with two outs in the fourth and was gunned down on a perfect throw.

Molitor is typically a fan of aggressive baserunning but not in this instance.

“It’s just not a play that you can risk getting thrown out on,” he said. “A little over-aggressive there. We talked about it in the dugout."

* Murphy, too, was getting his first look at the team that traded him away in November. He went 0-for-2 with a walk and strikeout at the plate, but the most notable moment of his day came in the fifth inning, when New York right fielder Ben Gamel attempted to steal second against him.

Murphy’s throw sailed into center and Gamel slid in safely. It’s not the first time the newly acquired catcher has misfired on a throw this spring, and he is now 1-for-6 on stolen base attempts. That’s noteworthy in part because of the low success rate, but more so because of the sheer volume. Opponents have attempted seven steals in Murphy's 43 innings behind the plate; comparatively, they’ve only tried stealing twice in Kurt Suzuki’s 31 innings.

Murphy’s career throw-out rate in the majors is 28 percent, which is roughly average, so there’s no huge cause for concern, but it’s something to monitor.

* Three relievers who are vying for one of the last remaining bullpen spots appeared in Sunday’s game: Fernando Abad, J.R. Graham and Ryan Pressly.

Graham was roughed up, and took the loss. Abad looked fine. But the most impressive of the bunch was Pressly, who worked the ninth and flashed the velocity that makes him an intriguing middle relief option. He touched 96 with his fastball on the Hammond radar gun and his hard slider was clocking at 88 and 89.

“He’s had flashes, I think consistency has kind of held him back,” Molitor said of the right-hander, who missed much of the 2015 season with a lat strain. “He’s had a good spring coming off the layoff, and I’m encouraged by what he’s given us so far."

* Ryan said before the game that a decision on Alex Meyer’s role hasn’t been made but will come soon. Although indications from Molitor, and Meyer himself, have been that the organization is leaning toward keeping the hard-throwing righty in the bullpen, where he finished last year, Ryan (who has the final say) sounded somewhat inclined to give starting another shot.

“It’s easier to bring him up here as a starter or reliever if he’s starting in Rochester,” the GM said. “That’ll weigh into my decision. We’d like to have an avenue to be able to bring him up either way."

* I had the opportunity to watch two of the organization’s best pitching prospects work on adjacent fields in minor-league scrimmages in the morning. On one field, Jose Berrios (Twins Daily’s No. 2 prospect) was working, while lefty Stephen Gonsalves (No. 7) toed the rubber about 100 feet away.

Berrios was repeatedly registering between 92 and 94 MPH on the gun with his fastball, and he complemented it with quality offspeed stuff that elicited several whiffs. In those regards, he’s pretty much in midseason form, but his command continued to lag behind.

Tracking stats in these scrimmages is even more pointless than usual, since hitters weren’t even running the bases, but I saw Berrios issue several walks and plunk a batter in the arm. For the most part, though, he wasn’t missing by much. He’s close.

Gonsalves is another story. In the couple innings I watched, he worked mostly in the high 80s with his fastball and I didn’t see him top 90. He has never really profiled as a hard-thrower but at his peak he’ll inch up a few ticks. He threw some nice changeups but his curveball was inconsistent, occasionally dropping sharply through the zone and occasionally bouncing in front of the plate.

The breaking ball may turn out to be a make-or-break (no pun intended) pitch for the lanky left-hander. Reining in that offering and getting it over with more regularity will be vital to his succeeding at the higher levels.

* The Twins host the Pirates on Monday at 12:05. Follow @TwinsDaily on Twitter throughout the game for updates and insights.