MINNEAPOLIS -- Any professional manager would want to be cautious with a starting pitcher's workload if they’d only thrown in 154 2/3 innings over five years, and that’s exactly the approach Twins manager Derek Shelton is taking with his rookie left-hander, Connor Prielipp.
“I think any chance that we can give him a day or two, we’ll do that,” Shelton said. “There’s a big difference between monitoring a guy when he comes to the big leagues to be cautious, and then there’s the difference [with] this guy, who has 150 innings since he was a 17-year-old in high school. We have to be very thoughtful of that.”
Prielipp, 25, has already had numerous injuries throughout his career, from Tommy John surgery during his time at the University of Alabama to UCL surgery in what was supposed to be his first full season of pro ball in 2023. He pitched a new career high of 82 2/3 innings in 2025, which was a major accomplishment with his injury history, and the Twins are in no rush to push those limits more than necessary.
A year ago at this time, Prielipp was at Double-A Wichita and had thrown in just 19 1/3 innings through seven starts. This year, he’s already totaled 34 2/3 innings through eight outings between the Majors and Triple-A St. Paul, and set a career high with 93 pitches thrown in his last outing in Cleveland on Friday.
Prielipp was originally lined up to make his next start Thursday against the Miami Marlins. However, with Taj Bradley having recently been placed on the 15-day IL with a right pectoral strain, the Twins are taking the opportunity to reshuffle their rotation, give Prielipp an extra day or two of rest and have him start this upcoming weekend against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I think right now we have to make sure we get the best out of Connor Prielipp and also keep him healthy,” Shelton said. “We’ll try to do that any way possible. There is no perfect scenario to this.”
Each outing, Prielipp has been building up in his pitch count total, even as the last three starts have been five innings exactly each time out. He’s managed to put together a 3.32 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 26.6% strikeout rate, and 8.9% walk rate through 19 innings over the first four starts of his career.
The stuff with his pitches has played out well for him, with hitters chasing his pitches out of the zone 33.3% of the time. Now it’s just a matter of finding out how Prielipp can keep his stuff playing up with a larger workload being added in each outing, slowly but surely.
“We saw it earlier, when he punched out four guys in a row in his [first] start,” Shelton said. “The stuff is there. So it’s just a matter of how we monitor. But in terms of how he’s handled it, I thought it’s so far, so good.”