The Twins released righty Matt Canterino, according to the MLB.com transaction log. That was the likeliest outcome when Minnesota designated the injured pitcher for assignment last week. Canterino underwent season-ending shoulder surgery midway through Spring Training.
Injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers. The Twins therefore needed to trade Canterino or release him after the DFA. A trade of a pitcher rehabbing shoulder surgery seemed unlikely. Assuming he goes unclaimed on release waivers, Canterino will become a free agent. The Twins can look to bring him back on a two-year minor league contract, though the former second-round pick will have the ability to explore other opportunities.
Canterino was once one of Minnesota’s most promising young arms. The Rice product ranked in the top half of Baseball America’s ranking of the organization’s top 30 prospects every season between 2020-24. A mid-90s fastball and plus slider gave him a chance at a mid-rotation role or potential leverage work out of the bullpen.
He just hasn’t been able to stay healthy for almost his entire professional career. Canterino battled elbow issues early in his minor league tenure. That was a precursor for 2022 Tommy John surgery. He missed two seasons recovering from that procedure. Minnesota added him to the 40-man roster during the 2022-23 offseason so as not to lose him in the Rule 5 draft, but he hasn’t thrown a regular season pitch since then. They were hopeful that he’d return from the elbow problem this year. The shoulder issue arose during Spring Training and will cost him yet another season.
Canterino has been very effective in his intermittent stints. He has a 1.48 ERA with a 39.1% strikeout rate over 85 career minor league frames. He’ll turn 28 in December.
This guy has got to have the highest digital ink/innings pitched ratio in the history of professional baseball.
Id sign him, I read an article a while back, sounds like the surgery is more of a precautionary measure and he is expected to make a complete recovery.
It’s also his third major surgery and he hasn’t pitched an inning in that time
It’s not precautionary. He has chronic shoulder strains that pop up almost immediately when he starts throwing from the mound. They don’t do major surgery as a precaution.
The article I read made it sound less serious, that he was getting some ligaments tightened up, and that he would be back to full strength.
He could be Rodon, he could be Sixto Sanchez, Rodon came back to full strength and put up Cy Young numbers. Sixto crashed and burned.
It’s cutting and re-grafting the ligaments in his shoulder labrum. It’s a major surgery with an expected 15ish month recovery time for Canterino. While UCL replacement/repair surgeries have a high success rate, messing around with the labrum does not. Nick Paparesta (Twins trainer) indicated he expected Canterino’s recovery to be a bit slower than the minimum 12 month down time because of all the issues he’s had.
Martras – that is more detail than what I had read. The article I read gleaned over the cutting and grafting. Thanks for the detail.
If I had a system with room I’d sign him just to see what he could do, out of simple professional curiousity as much as anything. He’s got monumental talent and he’s just never put together a healthy month to show it off. You wish everyone could get that half season in the sun, but life’s not like that.
It sucks that this guy just can’t get healthy. He has flat out dominated in the minors when he’s actually been able to get on the field.
Guy has some potential, especially if he recovers from surgery. 34% K-rate in AA and a 1.83 ERA? Could be a decent bullpen piece in the future. Might be a bit too late to be a starter but who knows how he ends up healing.