The Minnesota Twins have already suffered enough injury setbacks with some of their young starting pitchers. Then, on Saturday morning, they placed Taj Bradley on the 15-day IL with right pectoralis muscle inflammation.
The move is retroactive to May 6, the day after his last start in D.C. He went six full innings, allowing four hits, two walks, two earned runs, and struck out eight Washington Nationals batters on 96 pitches.
The Bradley injury news comes only days after Twins officials shared with reporters in D.C. that fellow starters Mick Abel and David Festa had suffered setbacks in their recoveries.
Abel has been out since April 15 with right elbow inflammation and had to receive a cortisone shot after he felt sore in his right triceps after he pitched a simulated game last Saturday. The Twins have shut Festa down since spring training due to right shoulder impingement, and he began experiencing discomfort during his rehab. He has once again been shut down from throwing for the time being.
Now add Bradley to the mix of Abel, Festa, and Pablo López, who is out for all of 2026 after undergoing a second Tommy John surgery in February, and the Twins are down four of their eight starting pitchers they had in their plans to start the spring training.
That comes nearly a week after Joe Ryan left his last start against the Toronto Blue Jays early due to right elbow soreness. Fortunately, the MRI came back clean on Ryan’s elbow. He felt good after a bullpen session, and the Twins kept him in as their starter for the game against the Guardians on Saturday. However, they will closely watch him to see if any signs of injury flare up in the start.
As of now, the Twins have a rotation of Ryan, Bailey Ober, Simeon Woods Richardson, and Connor Prielipp. Zebby Matthews has spent all of 2026 at Triple-A St. Paul. He’s likely to be called up during the next homestand to fill Bradley’s spot in the rotation. The Twins didn’t call Matthews up following Bradley’s move to the IL on Saturday, because he pitched eight innings in the St. Paul Saints’ 7-4 win over Las Vegas on Friday night.
Matthews struggled out of the gate to start the season in St. Paul. However, over his last four starts, he owns a 2.45 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 25.6% strikeout rate, and 7.8% walk rate over 22 innings of work.
While Matthews will be a good reinforcement to Minnesota’s rotation, losing Bradley will still be significantly felt for the time being. There’s no clear timeline on how long the Twins expect Bradley to be out, but losing any starter who has a 2.87 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 3.51 FIP, 26.1% strikeout rate, and 8.5% walk rate over their first eight starts is a blow to any team’s rotation.
Dan Hayes of the Athletic also reported that left-handed prospect Kendry Rojas joined the Twins clubhouse Saturday afternoon as part of a taxi squad move. The move all but indicates they’ll use a bullpen game to play out Sunday afternoon when Bradley was originally scheduled to start.
With Bradley’s spot not coming up again until their series with the Milwaukee Brewers next weekend, the Twins have options with how they’d like to shake out the rotation for the start of their next homestand. Ober will likely keep his originally scheduled spot to start Tuesday night against the Miami Marlins. Still, they can shake up the rotation any day after that, because Matthews will have reached five days of rest Wednesday night and Woods Richardson, six.
The Twins may roll out with nine relievers in their bullpen at least until Wednesday, when Matthews reaches his five full days of rest. However, nothing is guaranteed until then.
