MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Recent cost-cutting by the Minnesota Twins left a bare-bones bullpen they are trying to rebuild by committee with bargain pickups and a few top-flight prospects.
The budget-friendly lineup has been in flux, too, with none of their young homegrown players reliably producing at the plate and a crushing setback this week when standout catcher Ryan Jeffers was sidelined until perhaps the All-Star break.
The Twins have managed to stayed afloat in a wide-open American League during the first third of the 2026 schedule with repeated winning performances — hinting at a bright future for the foundational piece of any major league club — by their starting pitchers.
“We’re starting to develop a little bit of an identity,” manager Derek Shelton said.
Joe Ryan was the latest with a masterpiece on the mound, matching his career high with 12 strikeouts in six innings and retiring the last 16 batters he faced to beat the Houston Astros on Wednesday. The 2025 All-Star lowered his ERA to 3.02, which would be a personal best over a full season, and shrunk his sparkling WHIP rate to 0.971, which ranks eighth in MLB among pitchers with a qualifying amount of innings.
After their selloff last summer that jettisoned 10 players off the major league roster, the Twins resisted a further teardown and kept their two best trade chips in Ryan and fellow ace Pablo López. Their greatest strength was immediately tested when López was injured on the first day of full-squad workouts in spring training and lost for the year to Tommy John elbow surgery. Mick Abel and Taj Bradley, two of the starting pitchers received in the 2025 trading spree, have since been sidelined.
But the rotation has kept on spinning with favorable results. The Twins rank fifth in MLB with 21 quality starts of six or more innings and three or fewer earned runs. They’re seventh in starter ERA at 3.67.
“I just look at it as, ‘Go pitch on my day,’” Ryan said, uninterested in publicly embracing the role of staff leader in light of López’s absence. “Whoever’s out there, they should think that they’re the guy that day and go do their job, and we’re all going to have their back the same way as anyone.”
Bailey Ober, who has one of three complete game shutouts in the major leagues this year, has made a sharp bounce back from a disappointing 2025 season. Zebby Matthews was recently promoted from Triple-A as a calmer and more confident version of himself after up-and-down stints over the last two years. Rookie Connor Prielipp, the organization’s fifth-best prospect in MLB.com’s preseason rankings, has quickly shown he belongs on a major league mound. Bradley could return from a chest muscle injury this weekend. Abel remains on the injured list indefinitely with elbow inflammation, but he’s not expected to be out long term.
“You see behind the scenes what they’re doing and how they prepare and how they handle success and failure and stay the same, and that’s really a pretty good feeling just knowing guys are going to go out there and have good outings,” Ryan said.
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