AK is lucky the Twins didn't put him on the minor league IL. It would have been harsh, but this is kind of a no-win situation that shouldn't have come to this.
It's also a super weird situation, because when you're performing this poorly you should be communicating with your team. If nothing else, for coaching purposes.
As far as I can tell from my seats 6 miles south of Target Field, this has nothing to do with Cal Ripken and I don't understand that part of the article. It feels more like the author is trying to connect some dots that aren't there.