The Twins will place Joe Ryan on the 15-day injured list this afternoon, manager Derek Shelton told reporters on Thursday (link via Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star-Tribune). Minnesota lists Zebby Matthews as their probable starter for today’s series opener in Milwaukee. He’ll be recalled from Triple-A St. Paul as the corresponding move.
Ryan has been diagnosed with a mild left glute strain. That’s a reasonably encouraging outcome that hopefully explains his recent struggles. (He’d also gone for testing on his back this week, but it seems the glute has been the primary cause.) Ryan hasn’t looked like himself since the All-Star Break. He had a sub-3.00 ERA in the first half, earning his second All-Star nod in the process. Ryan has taken the ball three times since the Break and been knocked around by generally light offenses.
The 30-year-old righty served up six home runs to a usually punchless Guardians lineup in his first start of the second half. Minnesota skipped his next start, citing arm fatigue. Ryan returned after an eight-day break and pitched six innings against Kansas City, allowing four runs on eight hits. He faced the Royals again and gave up five runs (four earned) across 5 1/3 frames, allowing seven hits while recording only three strikeouts.
Ryan has allowed 17 runs in his past 15 1/3 innings, only striking out 10 of his last 73 opponents. Minnesota has lost all three starts. His four-seam fastball averaged 92.1 mph during Tuesday’s appearance at Kauffman Stadium, his lowest in a start since early May and more than a tick down from his 93.4 mph season mark.
Minnesota can backdate Ryan’s IL placement to Wednesday. He’d be eligible to return on August 20, though the Twins are idle that day. They only have one off day (next Friday) on the schedule before then. That means they’ll probably need at three starts from Matthews, who’d be lined up for home starts against the Orioles and Braves following tonight’s appearance.
Matthews was squeezed out of the rotation when the Twins acquired Dean Kremer from Baltimore a week ago. He had the worst numbers of anyone in Minnesota’s starting five, posting a 5.22 ERA across 81 innings. Matthews was optioned after one of his best performance of the year, as he struck out a career-high 10 batters in a 5-3 win over the Mariners. He still allowed three runs, including his 16th homer of the year, over five innings. Matthews has underperformed a solid strikeout and walk profile over parts of three big league seasons, primarily due to his struggles keeping the ball in the park.
The Twins started August with a four-game losing streak. They snapped that with a 4-3 victory yesterday to avoid being swept by Kansas City. That’s dropped them back below .500 but hasn’t really changed their place in the standings.
The White Sox and Guardians each got swept this week, so Minnesota is still three games back of Chicago and tied with Cleveland. They’re now a half-game back in the Wild Card picture, as the Rangers occupy that spot thanks to winning the final two games of their series with San Francisco. The Tigers have won five of their last six since blowing a seven-run lead in Baltimore and essentially guaranteeing a Tarik Skubal trade. Detroit is still in fourth place but now just 3.5 back in the division and a game off the Wild Card pace. Baltimore and Seattle are both within 1.5 games of the last Wild Card spot.
