PHOENIX — He knew this rest period eventually would occur, but Chris Paddack hoped it didn’t come until after the All-Star break.
Unfortunately for the Minnesota Twins starter, a planned rest is required with baseball’s Midsummer Classic still three weeks away. On Tuesday, the Twins placed Paddack on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder fatigue.
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Paddack, who underwent reconstructive elbow surgery for the second time in May 2022, is headed for the IL after dealing with dead arm and body fatigue over the past month. Paddack is 5-3 with 70 strikeouts and a 5.29 ERA in 78 1/3 innings this season.
Though Paddack wishes his results were better, he’s content with how he’s physically held up. Paddack’s new goal is to pitch again for the Twins before teams head into the All-Star break July 14 and demonstrate that his IL stint is nothing more than a planned blip on the radar.
“Unfortunately, it’s hard to dictate what a full season’s going to look like with a guy that threw 8-10 innings last year,” Paddack said. “No one is going to be talking about this in October. If anything, they’re going to be like, ‘Man, how were you able to manage getting past that fatigue to make sure you’re out there to throw 80 more innings?’”
All parties knew Paddack would require a shutdown period at some point this season. Returning to action late in 2023, Paddack pitched a combined 18 1/3 innings between Triple A and the regular and postseason for the Twins.
Before those seven outings, Paddack hadn’t pitched since April 2022, when he made five starts for a total of 22 1/3 innings. As optimistic as Paddack and the Twins were after he lit up the radar gun working mostly in relief in 2023, they mentally prepared for hurdles.
Teams typically manage pitchers returning from Tommy John surgery with care. Given how few pitchers there are who have recovered from two TJs, the expectation all along was the Twins would keep a close eye on Paddack.
Over his past five starts, Paddack’s pitch velocities have been inconsistent. The right-hander made a mechanical change in late May with his lower half that allowed him to jump from an average 91.5 mph four-seamer May 30 to 95 mph by his next outing (June 5). From there, he averaged 95.2 mph (June 10) and 93.7 mph (June 16) down to 91.4 mph in his last start Friday.
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After Friday’s start, Paddack said the ball felt like a dumbbell in his hand. Over those five starts, Paddack’s ERA jumped from 4.39 to 5.29.
“You look at the objective information from start to start, and you listen to his subjective nature after each start,” Twins head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta said. “And you use your brain to be smart about what you’re doing and be smart about his career. I think ultimately he’s got some tenderness in his shoulder and he’s a little bit gassed out and fatigued. It’s really not that hard to put all the pieces together. … To have pitchers try to go out there and show you objectively that they don’t maybe have the type of velocity they had previously is just a smart idea to do what’s best for the player.”
Paddack hasn’t touched a ball since Friday and won’t for another day or two. At that point, Paparesta and Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said the pitcher would be re-evaluated and the team would determine the next course of action.
Though he acknowledged the possibility the Twins might choose to rest him through the All-Star break, Paddack wants to return before then. Of returning before the break, Paparesta said “ultimately that’s the goal” but won’t set a hard date.
“The last thing we want to do is push him out there in a compromised position,” Baldelli said. “He knows that, too. We’re going to rehab him and get him back onto the mound.”
𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗦𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗝𝗘𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗨𝗣! 💣💣💣#MLB pic.twitter.com/cRZKBzPtp3
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) June 26, 2024
For now, the Twins are still determining their next course of action after Paddack was scratched for Thursday’s series finale against Arizona. The team promoted Ronny Henriquez on Tuesday to add another arm to the bullpen.
It’s possible the Twins go with a bullpen game, though Baldelli hasn’t relied on that tactic often in his five-plus seasons as manager. Paddack also is out for 15 days, which means his turn will come up multiple times. Baldelli ruled out the possibility of using the team’s days off — they didn’t play Monday and are off next Monday, too — as a way to keep his remaining starters on regular rest.
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Instead, the Twins are likely weighing a decision among Triple-A starters David Festa, the team’s top pitching prospect, Caleb Boushley and Randy Dobnak. Though Boushley is already on the 40-man, the Twins may see the most upside in Festa, who is ranked the No. 100 prospect by MLB.com.
Twins rally but fall short 5-4 in Arizona
The Twins wiped out another early deficit Tuesday, tying Arizona in the seventh inning after falling behind by four runs. Homers from Byron Buxton and Ryan Jeffers evened the score.
But the Diamondbacks took advantage of a two-out walk issued by Jorge Alcalá in the seventh inning and topped the Twins 5-4 at Chase Field. The loss dropped the Twins to 43-36.
Buxton went 3-for-4 with two runs. His fifth-inning solo home run finally got the Twins on the board after a bunch of hard-hit balls found gloves early. Buxton then singled in the seventh inning after Carlos Santana drew a walk, and both scored as Jeffers found the bleachers for the first time since May 30, a span of 58 plate appearances.
Buxton and Jeffers nearly paired up again to produce the tying run in the ninth inning with two outs. Buxton doubled and would have scored easily on Jeffers’ hard liner to left, but it hung up long enough to be caught and strand the tying run.
“We had to fight to really get everywhere in this game,” Baldelli said. “We went down early. Some of the runs we gave up were, they have athletic players, they put the ball in play, they punch it, they chop it. They put it in play. They hit some balls hard, too, but sometimes that’s the way you end up losing a ballgame. It feels not great walking in the clubhouse after a game like this where you’re thinking we did a lot right and really played OK. … You almost feel like you can win a game like that more times than you can lose a game like that the way we were playing, but that’s not the way it is (Tuesday) so we’ve got to move on.”
𝗕𝗨𝗖𝗞 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗖𝗞!!! 🚀🚀#MLB pic.twitter.com/Wx409MuK1w
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) June 26, 2024
Twins starter Joe Ryan adjusted after a rough start.
Ryan surrendered a two-run homer in the first inning to Ketel Marte and two more runs in the second on a Eugenio Suárez RBI triple off Buxton’s glove and a Tucker Barnhart RBI single.
From there, Ryan retired 15 of the last 16 batters he faced.
“Jeffers did a great job in between innings working with (pitching coach Pete Maki) and just made some adjustments,” Ryan said. “I feel like they had a good plan for the first time through and they were able to beat me to the spot. … (The homer is) frustrating, but I executed my pitch and that’s all I can do in that situation. He beat me to the spot.”
(Top photo of the Twins’ Carlos Correa forcing out Geraldo Perdomo: Chris Coduto / Getty Images)