Ryan gets good news from MRI, still on track for Opening Day

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Twins breathed a little sigh of relief Sunday morning after receiving encouraging news regarding right-hander Joe Ryan.

The team’s expected Opening Day starter was scratched 15 minutes before his scheduled start Saturday due to back tightness, but an MRI revealed inflammation in Ryan’s back but nothing more serious. He will be shut down for a period of a few days, but as of now his status for the beginning of the season is not believed to be in question.

“He’s just dealing with some inflammation and as a result has some tightness,” general manager Jeremy Zoll said. “So he’ll be down for a few days here just to let things calm down. We’ll progress him as tolerated and don’t envision this impacting his readiness for Opening Day.”

Ryan went through much of his pregame routine Saturday before feeling discomfort, including long toss. He said he did not feel the discomfort while throwing, but rather while making other movements in his preparations. He wasn’t terribly concerned, even if Twins fans were – especially in the wake of co-ace Pablo López suffering a season-ending elbow injury earlier in the week.

“I felt like it was more on the minor side,” Ryan said. “I just wanted to take the extra precaution and not – I could feel myself starting to compensate a little and I didn't want to go down that path, especially this early and with how good I've been feeling. It was smarter to not throw. I'm happy I didn't. It was the right move and going into I didn't know, imaging-wise. It was the best result we could ask for. I'm happy with that.”

While Opening Day looks safe for now, the World Baseball Classic is more of a question for Ryan. He is slated to pitch for Team USA, and was expected to leave for their camp in about a week. His participation in the event has not yet been ruled out, but it’s uncertain at this point.

“It's crossed my mind, but I'm not taking anything off the table,” Ryan said. “I'm not really jumping to any [conclusions] too quickly. I'm just focused on hitting this rehab process and get through that.”

Neither Ryan nor Zoll discussed any specifics regarding the WBC, but one possibility that does exist is that he could skip early-round pool play and join the squad for elimination rounds. For now, though, Ryan is going to focus on simply getting ready to throw again.

He explained that overall he feels good, that walking around and participating in normal actions are not problematic. Ryan did not rule out some light throwing as early as Monday, though that seems unlikely.

“I don’t know if I have a for sure bare minimum,” Zoll said. “Sounded like a few days he’d be down. We’ll get some core stability exercise in there to help settle things down. That’ll be part of his prep work going forward. But I think a few days is what we’ve been talking about, and then kind of progress as tolerated. This is definitely one where the symptoms will dictate a lot of that. He’ll get on the anti-inflammatories and all that.”

Ryan has acknowledged that at times he’s made mistakes pitching through injury or illness, so he made a point in this case to be cautious.

“I think I've learned a lot of lessons over the years of pitching through things that I probably shouldn't pitch through and that will carry over longer,” Ryan said. “We made the decision that won't affect anything going forward. We can tackle it. I'm not worried about it.”