April 11: The Twins announced that Lopez has been placed on the 15-day IL. Festa has been recalled from Triple-A St. Paul in his place and will get the start in tonight’s game.
April 9: The Twins plan to place Pablo López on the 15-day injured list, manager Rocco Baldelli tells reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star-Tribune and Dan Hayes of The Athletic). Minnesota’s Opening Day starter was diagnosed with a Grade One strain of his right hamstring.
A Grade One strain is the least severe. Baldelli indicated the Twins are hopeful that López will be back after a minimal IL stay. He suffered the injury during last night’s appearance in Kansas City. López needed to depart after 4 2/3 innings and 78 pitches. He went for an MRI today which revealed the mild strain. It halts a very strong start to the season. López has allowed six runs (three earned) with 14 strikeouts and two walks over 16 2/3 frames.
This will be the first injured list stint for López since the Twins acquired him from Miami in the swap for Luis Arraez during the 2022-23 offseason. He’s made all 32 starts in each of the past three seasons, in fact. López combined for 379 1/3 innings of 3.87 ERA ball over his first two years in the Twin Cities. He ranked eight in MLB in innings and tied for sixth in starts during that stretch.
The Twins blanked K.C. tonight behind an excellent start from Joe Ryan. They nevertheless have a 4-8 record. Their rotation entered play Wednesday with an MLB-worst 6.26 earned run average. López and Ryan have been excellent, but each of Simeon Woods Richardson, Chris Paddack and Bailey Ober have been hit hard through two starts.
Minnesota hasn’t had the luxury of many early-season off days. Tomorrow will be the halfway point of a stretch of 12 straight game days between April 5-16. Ober will pitch in the series finale with Kansas City. Paddack and Woods Richardson would line up for the first two starts of their weekend set in Detroit. They’ll need someone to step into López’s spot on Sunday.
Zebby Matthews and David Festa are each highly-regarded young pitchers who made their big league debuts last season. Neither player had much success as rookies, but they’re more talented than the sixth and seventh starters for a lot of teams. Matthews, who would be on regular rest for Sunday, has been excellent through his first two turns in Triple-A. He has punched out 13 against one walk while firing 10 innings of two-run ball. Festa has an 8:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio while giving up five earned runs in 8 1/3 frames. If the Twins want to keep both youngsters in the minors, they could reselect swingman Randy Dobnak after running him through outright waivers last week.
Zebby time.
The beat goes on.
Stick a spoon in him
Matthews’ current Triple-A stat line (1.80 ERA, 0.600 WHIP, 36% strikeout rate, 2.7% walk rate) suggests he’s not just a fill-in but a potential outlier who could stabilize the rotation’s ERA if deployed as a hybrid starter-opener.
That’s over 2 games. Overall he has a 4.34 ERA at AAA level. His K to walk ratio has been impressive throughout Minors. He’s given up HRs at a huge rate at MLB level. He seems to throw only moderately hard and looking at his stats seems like he relies on locating the ball. I’d be leery that placing the ball alone isn’t enough the higher the level he’s at and his stuff is just very hittable to MLB batters.
He was an emergency call up last year. Wasn’t ready, but Twins had no better options. I’m ok seeing if the kid has figured something out.
He absolutely deserves a shot. His #s and not just in MLB look as tho he throws something that’s being seen well or batters are waiting for. Hopefully this time around he prospers, I don’t wish failure on anyone, except for maybe players wearing pinstripes of arrogance.
His fastball has ticked upwards this season in spring training and his first 2 starts in AAA, from averaging 94.9 mph last year to 97.1 mph this year. His slider and cutter are also up 2-3 mph this year. The good news is that the uptick in velo hasn’t hurt his control and placement of pitches this year at all. Yes, it’s only ST and 2 regular games, but there is no reason that he shouldn’t be looked at as being ready. He took his lumps last year and learned from them.
Zebby only throws moderately hard? He was consistently hitting 99 in his last start. You obviously don’t know much about him.
He had two rough starts in the majors last year of the 9 he pitched (gave up 9 against Toronto and 6 against Baltimore). 6 of the starts he gave up 2 runs or less. He has great stuff and great control. He reminds me very much of a young Corbin Burnes. Same pitch shape and profile and similar build.
I just watched a Jomboy video of Simeon Woods Richardson and Rocco Baldelli acting like idiots against the Royals. Rocco should STFU. It took me exactly 5 minutes to realize he’s a petulant little boy. And what’s up with SWR? WEIRDO. Play baseball morons.
I see the Twins are 4-8, Lopez has a hammy injury. Chris Paddack still sucks, just don’t as Chris Paddack. He’s still fighting for Rookie of the Month in April 2019. Why are people so damn self defeating?
Wow, Pablo hasn’t hit the IL or missed a start since 2021. Hard to find that consistency/durability in a pitcher. Hopefully this is just a blip for him and he comes back strong.
Matthews would still be a legit prospect if he hadn’t exceeded his rookie status last year. I saw Keith Law said he would’ve had him somewhere around 50-55 this year.
Please, somebody, anybody buy this team and then fire the GM and the beta called Baldelli.
Twins have some good young pitching, but yeah after watching that Jomboy vid with woods-Richardson…. Hopefully everyone who knows him knows him as just a funny guy but if not then he’s a very ”trade-able” weirdo….. ha!
They are gonna have to trade some of that pitching for hitting cause their offense is atrocious