The Twins didn’t have an official update on the health of reliever Brock Stewart on Friday. The team was waiting to see results of a magnetic resonance imaging exam before a 7:10 p.m. first pitch against the White Sox at Target Field.

Stewart, however, knows what it was he felt in his right shoulder during a rough two-third of an inning in a 15-2 loss to the Mets in New York on Monday.

“It was not a good feeling, and it was a feeling that I hadn’t really felt before,” the veteran right-hander said. “So, I relayed that to the training staff. Here we are.”

Stewart, 32, was placed on the 15-day injured list Wednesday with a shoulder strain, which suggests he can work his way back into the bullpen and help as the Twins try to overtake Cleveland in the American League Central. But since joining the Twins mid-season last year, Stewart has never made a quick trip to the injured list.

Last season, Stewart was placed on the 15-day IL with elbow soreness before being transferred to the 60-day IL. This season, he hit the 15-day IL with shoulder tendinitis before being transferred to the 60-day.

It’s frustrating for player and team because Stewart has been generally excellent when he pitches. In 28 appearances last season, he was 2-0 with an 0.65 earned-run average and 39 strikeouts in 27⅔ innings after signing a two-year, minor league contract in July 2022.

Stewart started this season with 12⅓ scoreless innings before the shoulder knocked him out. He made three appearances after being activated on July 24, and opponents hit .539 with a 1.532 OPS in 2⅓ innings.

Asked if he thinks he’ll be back again this season, Stewart said, “I mean, I’m hoping I can get back next week, obviously. I don’t want to not be available.”

This time, the injury is in the same general location, the right shoulder.

Stewart said he didn’t feel it until he already had thrown about 15 pitches, and then only on breaking balls.

“Only the cutters and sweepers when I really had to finish with my hand out in front and on top of the baseball,” he explained. “That’s when I noticed it. It wasn’t like an intense pain, but I know inherently as a pitcher that you’re not supposed to feel what I felt.”

The Twins immediately replaced Stewart on the active roster with Trevor Richards, acquired in a deadline trade with the Toronto Blue Jays for minor-league infielder Jay Harry.

Matt’s hard lemonade

How many major league batters are hitting the ball harder than Matt Wallner? Darn few. On average, in fact, only one.

Wallner entered Friday’s game with only 69 official at-bats in 28 games, so he doesn’t qualify to be an official league-leader in anything. But in his small sample size, the outfielder from Forest Lake is hitting the ball harder, on average, than nearly anyone.

That includes Shohei Ohtani, Giancarlo Stanton and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Wallner’s average exit velocity of 95.9 mph, in 34 of what MLB’s Statcast calls “batted-ball events,” ranks second to only Aaron Judge’s average exit velocity of 96.0. That’s in 235 more BBE, of course, but the fact remains: Wallner hits the ball hard. His 116.8 mph max velocity this season ranks ninth in the majors.

And speed matters, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli noted. As a minor leaguer in Bakersfield, Calif., in 2002 — well before exit velocity was a thing — he had a future MVP teammate in Josh Hamilton.

“On top of all the other things he could do, he just got hits,” Baldelli recalled. “He could chop a ball up the middle and — bing, bing, bing, like a pinball — it’s up the middle and they are diving after it. I’m like, ‘Everything this guy hits is a hit.’ I’m kind of jealous … As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized it was not luck. He was hitting the ball harder than everyone else on the field — by a lot. Even when he’s hitting the ball on the ground, you end up seeing more production.”

Wallner, Baldelli noted, “Hits the ball hard like that, and I think we’re seeing a lot of good things like that.”

Wallner entered Friday’s game hitting .364 with five homers and nine RBIs in 15 games since being recalled from Class AAA St. Paul on July 2.

Busted

The Twins brought first-round draft pick Kaelen Culpepper to Target Field on Friday before sending him to the training facility in Fort Myers, Fla. He took some swings in the cage before the game, and broke one of Carlos Correa’s bats.

I didn’t bring anything, any gear to swing with,” said Culpepper, a shortstop from Kansas State. “I think the first bat they brought out was a Louisville Slugger that Royce Lewis swung. I was looking for a bigger barrel with some grip on it.

“They brought out Correa’s bright pink bat. I was swinging good with it. Then the second swing, it just snapped. I was like, ‘Oh.’ Now, I’m here and I’m in debt to Correa.”

Briefly

The Twins had no medical update on Correa, on the 10-day IL with plantar fasciitis in his right foot. He is out of his walking boot and took swings and played catch on Friday. He hasn’t played since July 12.

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