FORT MYERS, Fla. – It’s been a long first month of camp, and it’s still more than two weeks till Opening Day. But with March 26's Opening Day in Baltimore growing ever larger on the horizon, the Twins cleared a key hurdle on Tuesday when Joe Ryan made his Grapefruit League debut.
Nearly four weeks since camp opened, three weeks since Pablo López suffered a season-ending right elbow injury, and 2 1/2 weeks since Ryan was scratched from what would have been his first Spring Training start, Minnesota is rolling out its full expected season-opening rotation.
Ryan’s debut, four days after Bailey Ober made his first spring start, means that the team’s starting five is as intact as it’s going to be. It’s time to start seeing what these guys can do.
“It feels good. Feels great to just get back out there,” Ryan said after holding the Rays scoreless over three innings while permitting two hits and two walks in the Twins' 6-5 win at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte. “I watched [Ober’s] inning the other day, and he looked great. Just good to get everything rolling again.”
The road to get to this point has already been rocky. The rotation was expected to be the strength of the 2026 Twins, and it very well still could be. But the group took a huge hit when López was injured in a live batting practice session. Then shortly after that, Ryan came down with inflammation in his lower back, which kept him out of games for 17 days.
It got worse before it got better. David Festa, a candidate for a starting spot, was sidelined with a right shoulder injury. And Ober, working to regain the form that made him one of baseball’s most reliable starters prior to 2025, was pushed back a bit early in the Grapefruit League season after a couple of unsatisfactory throwing sessions.
But Ober made his game debut Friday and looked solid. Now Ryan has gotten in a game, and he said his back felt fine after his 48-pitch outing and he should be on track to start the opener. They join a promising and frankly exciting group of four young starters vying for the last three spots in the rotation – Taj Bradley, Simeon Woods Richardson, Zebby Matthews and Mick Abel.
This still should be a good group, and the pitchers themselves are eager to let it rip.
“It’s exciting,” said Matthews. “It’s still kind of tough to lose Pablo, I think. Everybody in the organization feels for Pablo. He’s going to be a big loss for [us]. But ultimately, we have a lot of young talent and a lot of pitchers that can have success and that have had success. The consistency hasn’t always been there, but we’ve shown the ability to have a lot of good success in the big leagues. So I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
In the absence of Ryan and Ober, the youngsters have acquitted themselves well. Bradley has shown outstanding stuff, Woods Richardson has gotten stronger as camp has gone on, Matthews had a rough inning Monday but overall has looked good, and Abel has been superb. Now Ryan and Ober start getting stretched out.
“Just get out there and compete,” Ryan said. “I think we've been working on a lot of things, so just go throw it all together and just get back there, get working with [catcher Ryan] Jeffers a little bit more again. That's pretty much the main focus.”
We’re still not at Opening Day yet, and a lot can happen in two weeks. There are no guarantees about the Twins rotation, but even so, it’s a high-upside group and now they have their presumed first two starters in games.
“It’s go time,” said Woods Richardson. “We’ve got a couple more games left, couple more weeks left, and then it’s time to go hit the road and go compete. So it’s good to have our guys coming back.”