Joe Ryan’s activation off the injured list on Monday gave the Twins a familiar face back in the rotation, and it also pushed Connor Prielipp into a different lane for the rest of the season.
Ryan returned after a month on the shelf and started Minnesota’s series opener against the Tigers at Comerica Park. He worked four innings, allowing three runs, two of them earned, on three hits and one walk while striking out seven. He needed only 66 pitches.
That setup made Prielipp the piggyback arm behind him, and the left-hander handled four innings of his own in what looked like the beginning of a role shift. Prielipp gave up two earned runs on five hits, walked none and struck out five. He threw 68 pitches in the Twins’ 5-4 loss.
The move fits where Minnesota is right now, and it also fits Prielipp’s workload. The southpaw has already blown past his previous high for innings in a season, piling up 126 2/3 between the majors and Triple-A.
Before this year, his career-high came last season, when he threw 82 2/3 innings in the minors. Even that was a big jump for him after injuries limited him to 28 innings in college and 30 in the minors before 2025.
Prielipp has stayed healthy for most of the season, aside from a 10-day IL stint for a left middle finger blister. The results in his first big league season haven’t been clean - he carries a 5.25 ERA over 108 innings - but the underlying numbers suggest there’s more here.
He has struck out 24.8% of hitters, sits in the 67th percentile in that category, and has produced a 44% ground-ball rate, which lands in the 61st percentile. His expected ERA is 4.12, more than a run better than his actual mark.
That’s why the bullpen route makes sense for now. It keeps him from having to stretch to 80-plus pitches every fifth day, and it helps preserve him for what the Twins seem to care about most beyond this season: 2027. If a lockout carries into the regular season, the innings burden could matter even less.
Minnesota’s place in the standings also points in the same direction. The Twins are 4 1/2 games behind Cleveland for the final AL Wild Card spot, so a playoff push is still possible, but it’s not the most likely outcome.
For the moment, protecting a young arm like Prielipp seems like the smarter play. And if the Twins do catch fire, he could still be a useful weapon out of the bullpen in October.
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Rodriguez has come back from injury and shown the kind of offensive production that can force a closer look, while Morissette has taken a notable step forward at the plate since entering the organization. Rozek keeps giving the club useful pitching depth, which only adds to the calculus as the Twins sort through what kind of support the major league roster might need in the weeks ahead. [Read more 🡒]
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The tricky part is what comes next, because Jeffers is nearing free agency and the Twins have to decide whether to extend a qualifying offer. That path could at least give Minnesota draft compensation if he ends up signing elsewhere, but it also comes with the possibility of putting the team in a hard spot with one of its most productive everyday players. Jeffers is expected to look for a long-term deal on the open market, which means the Twins may soon have to choose between trying to keep one of their best all-around hitters or preparing for life without him. [Read more 🡒]
Joe Ryans Return Gave Twins Fans A Reason To Exhale
Joe Ryans return from the injured list offered the Twins something they had been missing during his absence: a reason to believe the right-hander could get back to being himself. After working through a glute strain, Ryans first start back showed cleaner life on the ball than he had been showing before the injury, with his four-seam fastball regaining the kind of vertical and horizontal movement that makes his whole arsenal play up.
Even with some runs crossing the plate, the broader picture was encouraging for Minnesota. Ryan was generating plenty of swings and misses, and the underlying signs pointed to a pitcher whose stuff was trending in the right direction rather than one trying to survive on fumes. For a Twins rotation that needed reassurance, the outing looked more like a reset than a setback. [Read more 🡒]