Alcala looks set to begin the season in the Minnesota bullpen with injuries to Caleb Thielbar (hamstring) and Jhoan Duran (oblique), MLB.com reports. He has a 2.16 ERA this spring with a 10:3 K:BB in 8.1 innings.
Alcala has had a strong spring and looks back to full strength after two injury-plagued seasons. He threw just 17.1 innings last season with an ugly 6.23 ERA and missed more than four months with a stress fracture in his right forearm. He threw just 2.1 innings in 2022 due to an elbow injury that required season-ending arthroscopic debridement surgery. He could become part of the setup mix if his fastball can come close to averaging in the high-90s as it did earlier in his career (97.4 mph average in 2021).