Minnesota Twins: Kyle Gibson heads to the IL with ulcerative colitis

The Minnesota Twins starter will be on the shelf with a stomach condition while the Twins have recalled Lewis Thorpe to take his place.

The Minnesota Twins pitching rotation took another blow on Sunday morning when starter Kyle Gibson was placed on the 10-day injured list with ulcerative colitis. The diagnosis came down as the Twins were recovering from their 10-7 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night and have recalled Lewis Thorpe from Triple-A Rochester to take his place.

Gibson has had a mercurial season for the Twins in 2019 as he’s had some positives such as a career-high strikeout rate of 22 percent and a career-low walk rate of seven percent. On the flip side, there are times where Gibson gets too fine with his pitches and seems to get the best of himself leading to an ERA of 4.58.

The right-hander’s last start may have been influenced by his condition as he battled through five innings allowing four runs against the Detroit Tigers on Friday night. For a starting rotation that’s already thin on effective arms, losing the potential of Gibson getting hot down the stretch could be a key blow in the American League Central race.

For now, the Twins will rely on Thorpe to shoulder the load in his third stint with the Twins this season. The right-hander has gone 1-1 with a 4.40 ERA in six appearances with Minnesota and figured to be in line for a September call-up anyway.

Much like Thorpe’s performance, the entire starting rotation will need to have all hands on deck down the stretch until Gibson returns.