Correa amped to provide reinforcements to surging Twins

CHICAGO -- We take a break from your regularly scheduled sausage-related programming to bring you news of health.

Or maybe not, because it looks like Carlos Correa is buying into sausage-mania, too.

“The vibes, as you guys can tell, are great,” Correa said. “We’ve got a sausage now and all that. It’s good to be a Minnesota Twin right now.”

As good as the vibes have been amid this seven-game winning streak that has surged the Twins all the way back to above .500 following a very tough start to the season, they’re only about to get better with the return of Correa on Monday, followed by the expected return of closer Jhoan Duran on Tuesday.

The sausage quickly gaining cult hero status across the nation seems to have done this team plenty of good over the last week, but it can’t play shortstop or throw 103 mph -- and fortunately, the reinforcements have that covered.

“There’s no pressure whatsoever when the team is playing that way and when everyone is swinging the bat the way they’re swinging it,” Correa said. “You just go out there and swing at good pitches and see what happens and hope for the win at the end of the night. I like where we’re at right now as a team.”

Correa is coming back from his right intercostal strain without a rehab assignment after missing 16 games. But as he noted, there’s less pressure for him to be the savior of the offense now that the bats have seemingly found their footing over the last week, having scored five or more runs in each of the last seven games, including double digits in the last two.

But his presence alone should knock over plenty of important dominoes for the Twins’ roster composition.

Now that Willi Castro is no longer the club’s everyday shortstop, he can go back to playing more of the outfield and third base as needed, a role in which he’s a better defensive and offensive fit.

By choosing to send down utility man Austin Martin instead of the red-hot Jose Miranda, the Twins could use more of Miranda and Castro at the hot corner instead of the struggling Kyle Farmer while the veteran continues to find his groove at the plate.

“[Martin] makes things happen for a team, and he was a big reason why we’ve been playing some really good baseball, but also we have to make some tough decisions too,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

It also helps that Correa was having one of the better Aprils of his career -- hitting .306/.432/.444 before his injury -- and that should fit seamlessly into an already seemingly much deeper Twins lineup than it was two weeks ago, when he hit the IL in Detroit amid a dire stretch in which the Twins lost 10 of 13 games.

“I was bored just watching from the sidelines but now I get to play again. The team is rolling, they’re playing great, so it’s a fun time to come back and rejoin the team.”

There won’t be as much pressure on Duran once he returns on Tuesday, either, following a second rehab outing with Triple-A St. Paul in which his velocity was back up to normal -- averaging 101.8 mph, topping out at 102.9 -- because the Twins’ bullpen has been among the game’s best in his absence.

Justin Topa’s arrival to the bullpen could also be imminent later this week, which will give the Twins some difficult decisions -- but these are the types of conversations the Twins would much rather be having than the ones from a few weeks ago, when they had none of these players, and no rally sausage, either.

“I feel excited because I’m coming back to help more,” Duran said. “I know they’re doing a great job right now. They’re doing great and having a lot of fun. I want to be there soon to be a part of that group.”