MINNEAPOLIS — Kyle Farmer was headed for the couch before the Minnesota Twins said not so fast.
Rather than spend a relaxing day at home after playing in three straight minor-league rehab games, Farmer learned he’d be activated and starting for the big-league club in the opener of Friday’s important doubleheader against the first-place Cleveland Guardians. It was just one element of a chaotic morning in which the team revealed injuries to Joe Ryan, Brooks Lee and prospect Luke Keaschall, while Brock Stewart confirmed he’s set for season-ending surgery.
Stewart will miss five to six months after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder, an unsurprising development compared to the announcement that an MRI had revealed Ryan’s return this season is in doubt.
Even though Ryan exited Wednesday’s start against the Chicago Cubs with biceps tightness, the Twins were hopeful he had avoided a serious injury. Instead, Ryan, who leads the team in innings pitched and strikeouts and carried the lowest ERA among its starting pitchers, is dealing with a Grade 2 teres major strain and will be out indefinitely.
Somehow, the news for the Twins got worse and worse as Friday morning wore on.
Lee informed the Twins that a shoulder injury he’d been managing — one which had required the rookie to undergo an MRI — was unplayable. Though he has no structural damage, Lee was placed on the 10-day injured list with biceps tendonitis.
A few minutes after Farmer said he learned he was being activated, Stewart told reporters his best option is to undergo surgery with Dr. Timothy Kremchek on Tuesday in Cincinnati, which will allow the reliever to be ready for spring training. Later in the morning, a team source indicated injured reliever Justin Topa isn’t ready to rejoin the club.
As if all that wasn’t troubling enough, Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey announced Keaschall, a top-100 prospect according to both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America, would need season-ending reconstructive elbow surgery.
But the big focus is on Ryan and whether there’s enough time for him to return to a team that entered Friday’s doubleheader only 3 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the American League Central.
“Joe and us were all surprised by the nature of it,” Falvey said. “Obviously, we’re in August. The amount of time down will dictate the amount of time to build back up, so there is some risk to the remainder of his season, no question. We’ll have more clarity on that as we get through the next phase of this.”
With a little more than seven weeks left in the season, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli suggested Friday that Ryan would miss a “matter of weeks to months.” For now, Ryan and the Twins will seek another medical opinion on the injury.
One silver lining to the injury, Falvey said, is Ryan’s strain doesn’t involve his lat muscle. Another is that injured starter Chris Paddack’s forearm is healing well, according to the doctor, and the right-hander could begin a throwing program soon, Falvey said. Still, the loss of Ryan is a blow to a team that is already depending on two rookie starters.
“It is a punch in the gut,” Baldelli said. ”You’re used to getting information sometimes that you’re not hoping for. You want better. You’ve got your fingers crossed like everybody else all the time on every issue, and on this one, Joe has a legitimate strain and it’s something that has to heal. … This is going to be a little while.”
To fill the void, the Twins intend to use some combination of Louie Varland and Triple-A prospect Zebby Matthews, who started on Thursday night. A team source said the Twins also are in contact with 44-year-old starting pitcher Rich Hill, who reportedly threw more than 100 pitches in front of scouts on Friday. Hill pitched for the Twins during the 2020 season.
#MNTwins are in contact with LHP Rich Hill, 44, who threw today for scouts and hopes to pitch for a contender down the stretch. https://t.co/eOo7GMkvhb
— DanHayesMLB (@DanHayesMLB) August 9, 2024
Following a disastrous start at Triple-A St. Paul on June 23 in which he allowed 11 earned runs, Varland, who is pitching in Friday night’s game, has been outstanding. Over his past six starts, Varland has a 1.48 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 30 1/3 Triple-A innings. Still, the right-hander has struggled in the big leagues, logging a 5.30 ERA in 20 starts.
All of the Twins’ injury woes are exacerbated by their inability to complete a deal for starting pitching depth before the July 30 trade deadline. Falvey acknowledged the team didn’t have as many paths to acquire a pitcher as it initially hoped and that none would have been commiserate to Ryan.
Twins starter Pablo López said he was sad to hear about Ryan’s timeline and thought the pitcher had taken a big step forward this season, improving his fastball velocity and the quality of his secondary pitches. López also said it makes the team’s deadline lethargy loom larger.
“It definitely makes it a little tougher,” López said. “Teams that get people at the deadline and go through this, they’re able to hold off a little longer. If it was already relying on the people in this clubhouse, now it’s going to be relying even more on us or whoever comes in and fills that spot and steps up.”
A flame-thrower out of the bullpen when he’s been on the field, Stewart was expected to provide the Twins with another big arm out of the bullpen. Yet as he got closer and closer to returning, Stewart pitched through worsening pain. Given three options, Stewart thinks a “clean-up” of his shoulder and being ready for spring training is the best route.
“There were times throughout the process where I was almost in denial, like, ‘Nah, I’m good,’” Stewart said. “‘I’m good. I’ll be fine. Everybody’s hurting a little bit.’ But a lot of the time, this hurt a lot. … If it hurts, obviously, the stuff suffers. The velocity suffers. And then, in turn, the results suffered. And then the confidence suffers, too. So it was just not a good position to be in. And if I can go get this cleaned up and be good to go for next year, it is what it is.”
What the Twins can expect from Topa at this point is unclear. Acquired from Seattle as part of the Jorge Polanco trade in January, Topa has yet to pitch for the Twins. He struck out seven over five scoreless innings during rehab outings with St. Paul. But in his most recent appearance Wednesday, Topa’s velocity was down 3 mph.
Though he required an MRI, Lee’s injury is not considered serious compared to the others.
“This isn’t something that we think is a long-term issue for him,” Falvey said. “But it’s been sore enough — he’s been playing through it. He’s trying to figure out a way to navigate through those realities as a young player and what he feels he can play through, what he can’t, all those things. He got to a point where, I think Roc said it to you all pregame, that he was just a little too sore.”
A second-round pick in 2023, Keaschall was having a banner season. Promoted from High-A Cedar Rapids to Double-A Wichita, Keaschall had hit a combined .303/.420/.483 with 15 home runs and 48 RBIs this season. He recently informed team officials of an elbow injury that became too much to play through after doing so for quite some time. Because he’s a position player and not a pitcher, Keaschall’s Tommy John surgery shouldn’t prevent him from being ready for the start of next season.
Despite all of the bad injury news and the potential for distraction, Baldelli thought his players handled a crazy morning well.
One immediate beneficiary is pitcher Scott Blewett, who pitched for Kansas City in 2020-21 and spent last season pitching in Taiwan. Blewett was promoted to take the place of Ryan. Another is Farmer, whose right shoulder strain recently improved after a cortisone shot took effect. Farmer appeared in rehab games on three straight days and went 3-for-11 with a walk. Not expecting to be activated, Farmer was merely checking in with teammates and the medical staff and didn’t even have his game bag when Baldelli gave him the news.
“Farmer happened to be here,” Baldelli said. “We were able to just go tap him on the shoulder and tell him not only that he’s active, but he’s playing in Game 1 unexpectedly. He was probably not expecting it. He was literally about to leave and go relax.”
(Top photo of Joe Ryan: Nic Antaya / Getty Images)
