Denard Span is surprisingly leading off and playing center field for the Twins tonight in his first game action since August 13.
Span suffered a concussion in a collision at the plate on June 3 and pushed himself to return two months later despite continuing to experience dizziness and other symptoms. He went 2-for-35 (.057) in nine games and was shut down again, but has said all along that he wanted to play at least a couple times before the year was over.
Obviously it’s great to see Span back, but there’s no indication that he’s completely symptom-free and rushing his recovery just so he can appear in a few meaningless September games seems unnecessarily risky for the Twins.
Last time Span clearly wasn’t himself despite going on a minor-league rehab assignment before rejoining the lineup and Justin Morneau recently suffered a setback with his own concussion recovery 15 months after his initial brain injury.
