Baseball - Liriano Sent to Florida for Rehab

Minnesota Twins will send Francisco Liriano, injured on his left elbow, to Florida to their spring training and minor league facility in Fort Myers on Tuesday to start a therapy and rehabilitation program.

Liriano will be supervised by Lanning Tucker, who is the team's rehab coordinator. The Twins are hoping that Liriano will totally recover during the off-season and will be able to start the next season at his full capacity without any surgery.

Liriano, who turns 23 later this month, had an outstanding season stopped after he has been injured and added to the disabled list in early August. After a month of treatment, Liriano returned. But he had to leave again with pain after only 28 pitches in a start against Oakland on Sept. 13. He finished 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA.

The left-hander had an MRI test and meetings with several medical specialists. All of them confirmed that he has no structural damage. However the Twins were still wondering what has caused the soreness in his elbow. Officially the injury has been listed as a mild strain of the ulnar collateral ligament.

According to the specialists Liriano does not need surgery yet. But that could change if he doesn't show improvement this winter, the main goal for the team being to get him ready by next February for the start of spring training, there is no guarantee.

This week the Twins have been eliminated at the first round of the playoffs by the A's. The team's strategy is now focused on the off-season. Ryan's first decisions concerns contract options for 2007 on center fielder Torii Hunter and starting pitcher Carlos Silva. In addition to these two players, there are also potentially eight players up for salary arbitration and big raises, including batting champ Joe Mauer, MVP candidate Justin Morneau and cleanup hitter Michael Cuddyer.