Counting stats don’t tell the whole story, but David Festa is off to a hot start in Triple-A for the 2024 season.
The St. Paul Saints have limited his five starts to 15 ⅔ innings. However, the 24-year-old New Jersey native is keeping the run game down against opposing hitters. His 1.72 ERA is sixth best among all Triple-A pitchers with at least 15 innings thrown. He’s also striking out batters 20.2% of the time and walking them only 10%.
During his last start on Tuesday night against the Rochester Red Wings, Festa had 14 whiffs and 17 in his previous start against Indianapolis, averaging his whiff rate to 35.7%. Even with his limited workload, Festa has complied 20 strikeouts so far this season, which he attributes to changing his mechanics on his delivery to home plate.
“Over the last few outings, we dove into some mechanical things that might help me out, which have allowed me to be better with my execution more consistently,” Festa said about his improvements this season. “I think we found something that will allow me to be more consistent, and that resulted in better execution, which has led to swing and miss.”
According to Saints manager Toby Gardenhire, these are the results he and the Twins front office want to see in Festa’s development. More so than pushing him beyond the pitch count limits they’ve set on the right-hander for the first month of the season.
“We’re just trying to extend guys out a little bit,” said Gardenhire. “A lot of it, too, is to protect on the back end. When you have young pitchers you don’t want them to throw too many innings in a year because there are a lot of studies that show it puts a lot of pressure on young guys’ arms.”
Festa has had a lot of help from Saints pitching coach Pete Larson and his catching tandem. Saints catchers Jair Camargo, Alex Isola, Chris Williams, and Patrick Winkel have all caught him at one point throughout the Twins’ minor league system.
“All four of those guys are really good at what they do,” said Festa. “Not only are they good at hitting and fielding their position, but they do a great job of simplifying it for us pitchers. When you go out there and throw the ball, you know that they’ve done their homework and it puts you in a comfortable spot, knowing if you just trust them, you’ll be in a good spot.”
Camargo caught Festa for his start on Tuesday night and said Festa’s swing-and-miss stuff was up to par. Camargo didn’t have the night he wanted at the plate as a hitter, but his pitch calling behind the plate fostered Festa’s success.
“I try to have a really good relationship with all my pitchers,” said Camargo. “David is a great guy. He’s always willing to listen, has great tools, and is such a great pitcher. He’s been able to get better every outing, and yesterday (Tuesday) was a good one for him.”
Festa does not worry too much about the limitations. He has only one more start remaining where the Twins will limit his pitch count below 70.
“I know I’m still in the build-up process,” Festa said. “I have to throw twice this week on Tuesday and Sunday, so that gives me a little less rest. But once I get through this week, it’ll look more like five innings, normal starts. Whether it’s one inning or six innings, my job is to still put up zeros, execute my pitches, and give the team a chance to win.”
Over the last three years, it has become more common for minor league affiliates to have six-game, week-long series against opponents. Festa will be the Saints pitcher this week, facing the Red Wings lineup a second time.
“Every team we play [has] great hitters, so it’ll be a challenge to face the same team twice in a week,” said Festa. “You have to dive back and look at how you pitch those guys. What worked, what didn’t, and evaluate if they’re looking for something that worked the last start or not.”
The Twins will limit his next start against the Red Wings to 65 to 70 pitches. With an ongoing epidemic of pitchers suffering arm injuries, the Twins are taking whatever precautions they can with a pitcher like Festa, who has avoided undergoing the knife.
“Everybody’s trying different things to get ahead of these arm issues,” said Gardenhire. “It’s obviously not going great in Major League Baseball. I don’t know what the answer is, but I know we’re trying to protect these guys’ arms the best we can.”
Arm protection is crucial. Things are going well for Festa, but he continues to tinker with his pitch mix while trying to protect his arm. Festa has continued developing his curveball, the fourth pitch he’s added to his arsenal. Although he has only thrown it five times in games, he’s feeling confident in the results so far this year.
“I got a couple of outs with it in Indianapolis,” Festa said. “I threw like three and got outs on two of them. It’s really going to allow me to have better success against lefties. Something slower, more depth, and hopefully, something that also makes my fastball play up to lefties. And hopefully, it’ll make me more efficient if I throw a fastball and slider.”
Festa will face some hot Red Wings hitters again on Sunday, including old friend Travis Blankenhorn, Darren Baker, the son of retired MLB manager Dusty Baker, and the Washington Nationals’ No. 2 prospect, James Wood. While it’s a top-heavy lineup, it’s another test to show how prepared Festa is to make his next step to the majors.
