Twins pitcher decides to keep spare rib

Here's a rib-tickler by way of spring training.

Twins right-hander Phil Hughes had surgery last July to relieve pressure off nerves in his shoulder, which involved removing a rib. Tigers pitcher Jeremy Bonderman had the same procedure to correct a thoracic issue in June 2008.

Hughes, though, decided to keep his surgically removed rib, according to MLB.com

“Anybody would ask to keep it, right?” Hughes said in the MLB.com report. “If they’re going to take a bone out of my body, I’m going to want it …

“I was woozy and about to be wheeled in [to surgery], and I asked the doctor if I could keep it, and he said, ‘Technically not,'” Hughes said. “But when I came out of surgery, my wife said they gave it to me.”

The rib is being kept in a jar of fluid, said Hughes, who is fielding ideas on what to do with it. A necklace, perhaps?