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The Minnesota Twins lost another member of their starting rotation on Sunday, placing right-hander Zebby Matthews on the injured list with a strain in his throwing shoulder. (In a corresponding move, the Twins activated left-handed reliever Danny Coulombe from the IL.) Matthews’ deactivation comes just days after the Twins announced that staff ace Pablo López will miss between two and three months after sustaining his own shoulder injury.
Matthews, 25, was CBS Sports’ preseason breakout pick for the Twins based on his bat-missing ability and the likelihood that he would get a prolonged look on the big-league roster. In four starts this season, he had amassed a 5.21 ERA (79 ERA+) despite a 3.13 strikeout-to-walk ratio fueled by a 30.1% strikeout percentage.
Matthews’ injury comes at a suboptimal time for the Twins in multiple respects.
For one, Minnesota is starting to run low on rotation options to surround Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, and Chris Paddack. The Twins’ top internal options are David Festa (who started on Thursday) and Simeon Woods Richardson (who opened the year in the rotation). Both Festa and Woods Richardson are sporting ERA north of 5.00 through 11 combined starts. The Twins brought up righty Travis Adams from Triple-A earlier this weekend, and he could conceivably make his big-league debut by slotting into the rotation at some point over the coming week. Otherwise? The Twins have just one other starter on their 40-player roster: Triple-A righty Marco Raya, who hasn’t pitched well to date. They could potentially call upon fellow righty Andrew Morris, but doing so would require them to create space for him on the 40-player roster.
For another, Minnesota’s weakened rotation makes it less likely the Twins can give real pursuit to the Detroit Tigers for the American League Central title. The Tigers enter Sunday with a seven-game advantage, the largest in the majors, and as the favorite to win the division (-290, per DraftKings). The Twins are by no means out of contention — they’re tied for the second wild card and a half-game up over the first team left out — but the AL is tightly packed and it’s never easy to fill two rotation slots at this point in the season.
Unfortunately for the Twins, they no longer have much of a choice in the matter.