Twins GM Jeremy Zoll provided reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press) with some unfortunate updates on two starting pitchers today. Mick Abel is unlikely to pitch again this season in the aftermath of his arthroscopic elbow surgery on July 1, and David Festa‘s season-long shoulder problems will keep him off the mound for the entirety of the 2026 campaign.
It was almost a year ago that Abel and catching prospect Eduardo Tait were acquired from the Phillies for Jhoan Duran, in one of the most prominent of the many deals the Twins swung as part of their deadline fire sale. The Twins’ focus was mostly on acquiring MLB-ready younger players who could contribute to the roster in immediate fashion, and Abel fit the bill as a former top prospect in his rookie season in the Show.
After four forgettable outings for Minnesota over the rest of the 2025 season, Abel posted a 3.98 ERA over 20 1/3 innings at the start of the year. The righty gave up nine earned runs over his first 7 1/3 innings of work, but rebounded to toss 13 shutout frames over his next two starts. Those ended up being Abel’s last outings of the year, as he was placed on the 10-day injured list due to an initial diagnosis of elbow inflammation.
Abel made a pair of minor league rehab starts in June before more elbow discomfort led to his surgery. A timeline wasn’t provided until today, when Zoll said Abel is scheduled to get his first post-surgery checkup in the last week of August. Even if everything goes well in that evaluation, there isn’t likely to be enough time left in the season for Abel to get through a throwing progression and some rehab outings, even if he is only built up enough for bullpen work.
Festa developed a shoulder impingement during Spring Training and received a stem-cell injection to try and aid the healing process, yet the right-hander hasn’t been able to take part in any game action. “He had thrown a few bullpens and then had a re-occurrence of symptoms in his shoulder,” Zoll said, adding the ominous detail that the Twins think Festa could be dealing with symptoms related to thoracic outlet syndrome.
This isn’t the first time Festa has dealt with a TOS scare, and more will be known once Festa visits a specialist this week. Once a well-touted prospect in Minnesota’s farm system, Festa posted a 5.12 ERA over 117 2/3 innings over the 2024-25 seasons, but it has been almost a year since his last big league game.
Between Pablo Lopez‘s internal brace surgery and these long-term injuries to Abel and Festa, the Twins’ rotation has lost some notable arms but remained fairly stable in terms of results. Joe Ryan is an ace while Bailey Ober, Taj Bradley, and Zebby Matthews have all ranged from okay to inconsistent. Connor Prielipp is on a rehab assignment and could soon return as a fifth starter, but rotation help surely looks like a target for the Twins if the team does some buying at this year’s deadline.
Abel is going to be an ace and one of the best pitchers in the league next year I’m just going out there and saying that he is a very bright and young player. I don’t even know if David Festa exists anymore I’m starting to wonder if his TOS is going to end his career which would be extremely unfortunate.
Idk what goes through peoples heads when they make comments anymore.
Ok???
I agree your comment is a very good example of that.
To say Abel is going to be an Ace is a bit optimistic I think he has the stuff to be close to one… but he’s closer to say Kyle Bradish than Zach Wheeler…
So to me, he’s more of an enigmatic # 3 starter
A little more than slightly optimistic with Abel haha
Festa, and Zebby, have both underwhelmed in their MLB opportunities. IMO they both need to be in the bullpen. To keep them healthy and give their stuff a boost
Twins need to take another look at Abel’s medicals at the time of the trade. Could be they received damaged goods and have reason to go back to the Phillies with regard to the terms of the trade. Regardless, the Twins should have a great deal of caution and concern on any future deals with the Phillies.
Same concerns with any future deals with the Orioles (Lopez) and Giants (Dyson and DeSclafani) and Seattle (DeSclafani). I wouldn’t go out of my way to deal with any of those 3 teams and if I did, I would DEMAND extra compensation back in return due to past transgressions against the Twins.
@Jackson I don’t know why you have singled out the Mariners there. The M’s had DeSclafani for all of 20 days in the Winter of 2024 before trading him along with Gabriel Gonzalez, Darren Bowen, and Justin Topa for Jorge Polanco. DeSclafani never threw one pitch for the Mariners. And I think you guys did alright with that trade package.
We got stuck for that portion of DeSclafani’s contract that was not eaten by the Giants (another reason for avoiding deals with the Giants = that’s where Seattle got DeSclafani from and with Seattle. We got ZERO on-field benefit from DeSclafani. Topa was injured, then a bust and has been jettisoned, Gonzalez has yet to contribute at the Major League level and Bowen os a 25 YO pitcher who has not made it past AA. Thus far our return for Polanco, a starting and established second base man has been ZERO.
Stick to making bad puns, Jacksson13. You’re good at that more than anything.
You still have hope with Gonzalez. He hasn’t been written off yet and he has a lot of years of control. And I thought Topa contributed at least one solid year of high leverage relief. Topa was excellent with Seattle. He was the part of the trade I hated the most to give up.
(And remember Seattle only got about 70% of one season of “good” Polanco out of that trade. There was a wasted 1.3 years because of various Polanco injuries.) He helped get us to the ALCS though, he was healthy when it mattered. Will always be grateful for that.
Sounds to me that the Twins should probably do a better job of evaluating the healthy of incoming players.
@Jacksson13,
So, you’re saying the Phillies are guilty of trickery or skullduggery, possibly subterfuge? These are serious charges that could have significant consequences, if your case is proven.
The Twins are only 2 games out of a WC. Are they buying, selling, or staying put?
The owner likes to tell us they plan on competing. Hopefully that means they grab a competent reliever or two without giving up too much prospect capital
Dang,one of the Festas goes down. Matt Festa will have to hold down the fort now.
Matt pitching one inning for the Mets and being credited with -.7 war is wild.
Ray King wishes he could boast Reggie Roby’s tree trunk thighs.
Too bad Abel never got a chance to face Lorenzo Cain.