For as bad as things have been going for the Minnesota Twins, the absolute last thing the team needed was another injury to a key player.
Minnesota started the year without both Brooks Lee and Royce Lewis, and while the former has returned to the lineup Pablo Lopez hit the IL after straining his hamstring in a start against the Kansas City Royals last week. All of that bad injury luck is why everyone assumed something horrible had happened to Joe Ryan on Monday night against the New York Mets.
In the fifth inning Ryan gave all seven people at Target Field and the rest watching at home one of the biggest jump-scares of the season. After delivering a pitch that went behind Luisangel Acuña, Ryan threw his glove to the ground and appeared to limp toward home plate.
Joe Ryan gave Twins fans a scare after awkward pitch vs. Mets
Joe Ryan with an extremely awkward pitch pic.twitter.com/mtGGFM1OJi
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 15, 2025
Thankfully it all ended up being a giant nothing, which is extremely lucky given how things looked.
It would have been a brutal blow to lose Ryan, not only because of the bad luck the Twins have had with injuries so far this year but because of how things ended last year. Ryan’s season was cut short in August when he suffered an injury that knocked him out for the rest of the year, something that likely played a major factor in the team’s historic meltdown in September.
Not only did Ryan avoid an injury, but he stayed on the mound to finish out the inning by striking out Francisco Lindor and getting Juan Soto to pop out. It looked like Rocco Baldelli was considering pulling him from the game, as Justin Topa got up immediately in the bullpen to start warming up, but he instead allowed Ryan to get out of the fifth on a high note.
Ryan ended the night with 100 pitches, striking out eight batters and once again giving Twins fans a glimmer of hope to be happy about in an otherwise dark pit of despair. Much like Ty France winning AL Player of the Week was a bright spot, Ryan’s last two outings have shown he has everything it takes to be the ace the Twins desperately need right now, but have done nothing to actually deserve.
Thankfully this injury scare was merely a blip rather than something that took him out of action just as he’s starting to heat up.
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