PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – With his daughter recovering well after an accident, Jason Marquis appears ready to resume his first season with the Twins. The right-hander is expected to return to camp on Tuesday, April 3, the day before the Twins break camp and head to Baltimore for Friday’s season opener.

“It’s pretty obvious there’s not much chance that he’ll start with us,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We’ll have to do something here.”

The Twins already have made provisions for his absence, inserting rookie right-hander Liam Hendriks into his No. 3 slot in the rotation. By Wednesday, general manager Terry Ryan will have to determine what kind of exemption list to place Marquis on so the team can use his 40-man roster spot. The most likely is Major League Baseball’s bereavement list, which allows players to miss between three and seven days for a family medical emergency.

The move would be backdated to his last start, March 19.

First, however, the Twins need to see what kind of shape Marquis is in. His daughter is recovering from a serious bicycle accident, and Marquis has been with his family for the past two weeks. He has been working out with a local high school baseball team near his home in New York, telling general manager Terry Ryan he has thrown between 90-95 pitches in a game.

That’s great, the GM said, but it’s not spring training. “I don’t doubt the effort,” Ryan said, “but it’s different.”

Marquis, 33, made four starts on the major league side of camp before leaving, giving up 12 earned runs on 19 hits in 12-2/3 innings. Gardenhire said the primary concern has always been Marquis’ daughter and that with her condition stabilized, the team can now work on getting Marquis ready for the season.

“He says he has been throwing 90-95 pitches to kids or something like that, but that doesn’t do us any good down here,” the manager said. “We have to get him in under our circumstances here and get him to where he is throwing to some hitters and get him in a game again. But first we have to see him throw on the side. We have a lot of work to do here, then that will dictate what we do next.”

The Twins are committed to a four-man rotation for the first two series, a decision made possible because they have an off day after the home opener April 9. After that, however, they play 15 consecutive games, and 19 in 20 days, so they’d like to get Marquis ready for a home series April 13-15 against the Texas Rangers.

“We’ll take a look and see where he’s at,” Ryan said. “Until then, I certainly don’t want to jump to any conclusions.”