Twins Give Update on Starter's Forearm Injury Before Offseason

The Minnesota Twins have plenty of pitching questions to answer this winter, and one of them involves a starter who made 23 starts for them this season.

General manager Jeremy Zoll said at the end-of-season press conference on Tuesday, Sept. 29, that pitcher Zebby Matthews has a flexor pronator strain in his right forearm and was scheduled to get a second opinion that week.

There has been no reported update on that second opinion, but the team's early plan points to rest instead of surgery.

Zoll said Matthews had been fighting through the injury before the season ended.

"It's something he was navigating, battling down the stretch and working hard to manage," Zoll said, according to the Pioneer Press. "We're expecting that to be a conservative treatment and having the rest and recovery of the offseason (to) take care of that."

Rest would be the best outcome for the Twins.

Matthews went 9-11 with a 4.90 ERA in 23 starts, and he struck out 116 batters in 130.1 innings.

Those numbers show both sides of his season, as he could miss bats but had a hard time stringing good starts together, and his inconsistency hurt the Twins in some key spots.

A healthy forearm could be part of the fix, since Zoll said Matthews was trying to manage the injury down the stretch.

Matthews is not the only arm the Twins are watching.

Zoll said reliever Jeff Hoffman also has a mild flexor strain and is expected to recover with rest and rehab, and Hoffman has already explained his trip to the injured list.

There is better news on two young starters.

Pitcher Mick Abel, who had elbow surgery, and pitcher David Festa, who has thoracic outlet syndrome, are both rehabbing and are expected to be ready for the start of the 2027 season, as is reliever Cole Sands after arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow.

Abel has already taken a step forward in his recovery.

The one pitcher who will miss real time is reliever Anthony Banda, who had surgery on July 7 to repair a left lat strain and is on a 12-month timeline, so Zoll is looking at something close to early July for his return.

The Twins finished 77-85 and third in the American League Central, eight games behind first place, and pitching was a big reason why.

Minnesota had a 4.56 team ERA, which ranked 13th out of 15 teams in the American League, and the club already moved on from pitching coach Pete Maki and assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez after the season.

Whoever takes over that staff will want as many healthy arms as possible.

If Matthews' strain heals with rest and Abel and Festa are ready for camp, the Twins will have real depth to work with before they spend a dollar in free agency.

If the second opinion brings worse news, Minnesota will have one more hole to fill in a rotation that already needs help, and that would push starting pitching even higher on Zoll's list.