For Twins and closer Joe Nathan, one game of catch can change the season

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Joe Nathan has heard four medical opinions on his torn ulnar collateral ligament, he said, and though each differed slightly, the general message was the same.

"It's been, 'You have a tear; can you throw with it?' " Nathan said. "From a doctor's standpoint, their opinion is more than likely I won't be able to, just from what they've seen. They said it's not impossible."

And so, his hopes and perhaps his UCL hanging by shreds, the Twins' closer will play catch Saturday or Sunday, he and manager Ron Gardenhire said, to test his arm.

If the pain in his elbow is too much, Nathan said, he will have Tommy John surgery and begin a yearlong recovery and rehab process. If his arm can withstand the tear, he'll begin what he said is "definitely going to be an accelerated program" to continue a superhero attempt at pitching with an injury that usually requires months of rehab at least.

Saturday will mark two weeks since Nathan left an exhibition game against Boston after feeling pain in his elbow. The Twins hoped then that the all-star's discomfort was nothing more than scar tissue still breaking up from offseason surgery to remove bone spurs and chips from his pitching elbow. Nathan flew to Minnesota for tests that revealed what general manager Bill Smith labeled a "significant" UCL tear.

In the time since, Nathan and his agent, Dave Pepe, and the Twins have researched the options for the closer while Nathan has spent time in the gym, running to keep in shape and trying to gingerly strengthen his throwing arm. One option Nathan said he considered, if briefly, was platelet-rich plasma therapy, in which doctors would draw his blood, separate the platelet-rich-plasma -- thought to promote and speed up the healing of tissue -- in a centrifuge and inject that concentrated plasma into the site of the injury.

That worked for Braves reliever Takashi Saito's torn UCL in 2008, but Nathan said, ultimately, it wasn't for him. The PRP therapy takes at least two months of rehab, time Nathan doesn't want to risk losing.

"It really isn't in my favor, just based on probably (the type of tear), based on the fact that I don't want to waste three months seeing if this thing works," he said, "and then find out it doesn't and I have to have surgery then and possibly miss next year, too."

Nathan originally targeted Saturday to first test his arm but hadn't consulted with the Twins. While in Jupiter on Monday, Gardenhire was asked about Nathan's target date to throw; the manager said hearing what Nathan had said "ambushed" him.

He doesn't want Nathan's throwing session -- which Gardenhire said would be nothing more than playing catch; no throwing off a mound or in the bullpen -- to become a "circus." But he does want to be there to watch it, so that could determine when Nathan throws. The Twins play at Port Charlotte on Saturday (Gardenhire makes all the spring trips) and at Hammond Stadium on Sunday.

Nathan was away from the team for two days last week battling illness. After an emotional couple of weeks, he said, getting sick forced him to slow down.

"I just had a lot of things happen mentally and physically," he said. "So I took it as an opportunity to just kind of sit a bit, allow my body to recover and allow myself to get over the sickness. I feel good now."

The 35-year-old made it clear that he felt good before tearing his UCL. Originally drafted by the Giants as a shortstop, Nathan didn't start pitching until he was 22. That, he said, means his pitching arm is much younger than his age suggests.

"To me, age is not a concern," Nathan said. "I feel like I've kept myself in good enough shape that the years on my arm should be in my favor to be able to come back from this. I'm not afraid of the rehab if I do end up having the surgery. I know it's not where I want to be if I end up getting this thing, but at the same time, I know it's not the end of the world."

Whatever Nathan decides will alter the course of Minnesota's season and, perhaps, the closer's career. The Twins have no closer waiting in the wings, and Gardenhire has said it would be impossible to mold one this spring.

For now, the Twins' hopes for Nathan, though slim and perhaps waning, rest on a simple game of catch.

"If he can do that," Gardenhire said, "then we go from there."