MINNEAPOLIS — If the Twins are going to gain ground on division-leading Cleveland at Target Field this weekend, they'll do so without starting pitcher Joe Ryan.
Ryan, a hard-throwing right-hander, was pulled from his start Wednesday in Chicago after just 3 innings and diagnosed with a significant shoulder strain. The Twins announced Friday that he has been placed on the 15-day Injured List, but will likely be out significantly longer than that.
On Friday the Twins announced that Ryan has a Grade 2 strain of the teres major, a thick, flat muscle that runs from the shoulder blade to the upper arm. Manager Rocco Baldelli said Ryan would be sidelined for “weeks to months” but stopped short of declaring him done for the season.
“Yeah, it is a punch in the gut,” Baldelli told reporters. "It’s going to need time to heal up, and he’ll do everything he can to get himself right and get back, but this is going to be a little while.”
Ryan will seek a second opinion before the Twins reveal a timetable for his recovery, but with a little more than seven weeks in the regular season the time window is tight.
There's never a good time to lose an upper-rotation starter like Ryan, but this one is particularly bad. The Twins host Central Division leader Cleveland for four games, starting with a doubleheader Friday. Ryan has been among the ballclub's most consistent starters this year, going 7-7 with a 3.60 ERA and 147 strikeouts in 135 innings. With Chris Paddack also on the Injured List with no timetable for a return, Minnesota pushes forward with three rookies in the starting rotation - David Festa, Louie Varland and Simeon Woods Richardson. Varland was just called up from St. Paul to start the second game Friday.
“You’re never going to be like, ‘We’re going to make a trade because someone is going to go down,’ or, ‘We’re not going to make a trade because everyone is going to stay healthy,'” said staff ace Pablo López, who along with the resurgent Bailey Ober has to hold down the fort. “Obviously, hindsight is easier than foresight. It definitely makes it a little tougher. Teams that get people at the deadline and go through this, they’re able to hold off a little longer.”
To further shore up their staff, the Twins selected the contract of right-hander Scott Blewitt from Triple-A St. Paul. Blewett, who signed as a free agent with Minnesota, has gone 5-2 with a 3.66 ERA in 36 appearances with the Saints this year. Three of those games were starts.
The club also returned utility infielder Kyle Farmer from a rehab assignment in St. Paul to recover from a shoulder strain.
Cleveland comes to town leading the division by 3.5 games, but the Guardians are on a five-game losing skid with major injury concerns of their own.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.