KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On the same day the Texas Rangers pushed prospective free agent right-hander Yu Darvish to 125 pitches in six innings, the highest pitch count in the majors this season, the Twins made a decision that put Ervin Santana’s long-term health ahead of immediate team concerns.

Saturday’s rainout opened the door for the Twins to bump Phil Hughes back to Tuesday while keeping Santana, the majors’ earned run average leader at 0.77, on track to face the division-rival Kansas City Royals on Sunday and the Boston Red Sox on Friday. Instead, after manager Paul Molitor huddled with pitching coach Neil Allen, the decision was made to give two extra days of rest to Santana.

“I think generally it’s good to try to stay on track with who’s supposed to pitch most of the time,” Molitor said. Sunday. “We varied from that last time with the rainout (April 19) and pushed Ervin up and kept him in his regular slot. The fact Ervin is coming off three games with over 100 pitches consecutively, the two (extra) days work out pretty well for him to get a little extra blow.”

Since throwing 107 pitches on April 15 against the Chicago White Sox in his second career one-hitter, Santana has thrown a season-high 113 pitches in six innings against the Cleveland Indians, followed by 102 on April 25 at Texas.

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In terms of pitcher abuse points, a statistic tracked annually by Baseball Prospectus, Santana ranks 16th with 2,548. Darvish has a whopping 17,489 already, nearly double the total of the next closest pitcher (Detroit’s Justin Verlander).

Santana ranked 32nd and 50th in PAP the past two seasons with the Twins, averaging 97.7 and 98.7 pitches per start in 2016 and 2015, respectively. His combined PAP the past two seasons was 24,453, which was barely above last year’s total for Twins lefty Hector Santiago, who ranked 14th overall, including his last four months with the Los Angeles Angels.

Santana, a 34-year-old right-hander, missed the first 80 games in 2015 due to a steroid suspension and has annual highs of 117 and 119 pitches (2015) since signing a four-year contract with the Twins.

“There are no guarantees how it works out,” Molitor said. “You just try to do what seems to make sense, not only for the short term but for the big picture.”

HALEY PROGRESSING

Reliever Justin Haley (strained biceps) played catch Sunday for the third time since landing on the 10-day disabled list.

Now throwing out to 90 feet, Haley plans to increase the distance to 120 feet and be available to come off the DL as soon as Wednesday.

“I’m just working on getting back to 100 percent,” the Rule 5 pick said. “I don’t know what the game plan is.”

The Twins will maintain a nine-man bullpen until Santiago is activated off the bereavement list for Wednesday’s start.

Swingman Nick Tepesch, who hasn’t pitched since a 95-pitch start at Triple-A Rochester on April 20, remains a candidate to fill the fifth rotation spot the next time it comes up on May 6 against the Boston Red Sox. He would have gone 16 days between starts and has yet to appear in a game for the Twins.

BRIEFLY

Santiago was due to fly back to the Twin Cities on Sunday night after attending funeral services over the weekend in Newark, N.J., for his late grandmother Nelly Rodriguez. That will give Santiago a chance to throw a light side session on Monday in advance of Wednesday’s start, pushed back a day by Saturday’s rainout.

Infielder Ehire Adrianza (oblique) “looked comfortable” after two starts in left field at Rochester, Molitor noted, but struggled to adjust to quality breaking pitches while going 0 for 4 Saturday on his rehab assignment.

Center fielder Zack Granite, the Twins’ minor league player of the year in 2016, was activated at Class A Fort Myers after missing the first three weeks with an oblique strain.

Oakland A’s right-hander Sonny Gray, coming off a lat strain suffered in March, will make his season debut on Tuesday at Target Field. He’ll be followed in the rotation by righties Kendall Graveman (2-1, 2.25 ERA) and Jharel Cotton (2-3, 5.00).