NORTH PORT, Fla. -- When Matt Shoemaker arrived at camp, he said that he was ready to put his history of "freak injuries" in the past and start a new chapter with a contending team. He certainly wrote a good first page on Friday.

Shoemaker retired all seven batters he faced in his Spring Training debut on a neat 32 pitches, throwing 20 for strikes, exiting Minnesota's eventual 4-0 loss to Atlanta at CoolToday Park after becoming the first Twins starter to pitch into the third inning this spring. The Twins signed him to a one-year, $2 million deal on Feb. 18 to pitch out of their rotation following three consecutive seasons in which he was limited by injury.

Shoemaker wasn't pitching against just any run-of-the-mill Spring Training lineup, either. His 2 1/3 perfect frames came against the meat of the defending National League East champions, including a top four of Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies, NL MVP Award winner Freddie Freeman and Marcell Ozuna.

"He competes very well," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "He mixes his pitches very well. We got a chance to see that. His ability to keep guys off-balance is real, and the way he manipulates the ball is definitely different from your average guy that you’re going to see out there on the mound, so we were able to get a good look at that."

Shoemaker appeared to primarily rely on his fastball, though he actually threw his splitter more often in 2020, when he posted a 4.71 ERA in six starts for the Blue Jays. He was able to turn to both the slider and splitter to finish up tough at-bats on Friday, though he felt that the execution of all of his pitches could still have been improved as a whole.

"I’m feeling really good," Shoemaker said. "Physically feel great, mentally feel great. Just piecing stuff together, whether it’s mechanics, actual pitches, movement, release points. That’s what’s great about spring, getting ready for the season and going out there and competing."

Powerful dose of Garlick

Kyle Garlick doesn't usually make this strong of a first impression.

He's never been much of a performer before the regular season, and he hadn't gone deep once in five years of Spring Training before he arrived in the Twins' organization. It's been quite the different story early this camp, as the 29-year-old outfielder homered twice in his first three games to emerge as the club's early home run leader in camp before going 0-for-2 on Friday.

"Usually, it takes me a while to get in the groove of things," Garlick said. "Honestly, I haven’t really had a lot of good Spring Trainings in the past. Usually, it takes me even a couple weeks into the regular season to get going, but I’m feeling good right now and just hoping to keep it rolling."

It's been tough for Garlick to find a landing spot. He came up with strong Minor League numbers in the Dodgers' organization, but that's about as competitive of a roster situation as it gets. He saw some limited time with the Phillies in 2020, but he's since bounced around via two waiver claims this offseason -- first by the Braves and now by the Twins.

It won't be easy for Garlick to crack this roster, either, considering the wealth of outfielders at or near the MLB level, but there might still be an opening for him in the left-field competition alongside Jake Cave, Brent Rooker and Alex Kirilloff if he continues to hit like this.

"I really don’t try to think about it too much," Garlick said. "I know the competition that I’m going up against personally. They all seem like a good group of guys and very talented as well, but I just try not to think about it too much and I just go out there and do my own thing."

Simmons has arrived

Shortstop Andrelton Simmons has finally arrived in the United States, Baldelli said, after completing the documentation process that delayed his departure from Curaçao and caused him to miss nearly two weeks of full-squad workouts. The Twins hope that Simmons will be able to participate in workouts this weekend once he completes the intake process.

"Really looking forward to seeing him just get out there, put some cleats on, run around and take some ground balls at shortstop," Baldelli said. "That's what I'm looking forward to. I still think it's coming pretty soon, and again, until I see him out there, I'm not going to have anything totally in stone yet, but I'm planning on seeing him very, very soon."

Up next

The Twins' chain of spring pitching debuts will continue with Michael Pineda's first start of Grapefruit League play in their five-inning matchup against the Red Sox on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. ET at JetBlue Park -- that is, if the weather allows, seeing as there's rain in the forecast in the Fort Myers area in the afternoon. Pineda pitched to a 3.38 ERA following his reinstatement from suspension in 2020, and he should again be an important mid-rotation arm for Minnesota.