The Twins are calling up high pitching prospect Zebby Matthews, studies ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He’ll be part of an injury-plagued rotation and make his MLB debut the primary time he takes the mound. Matthews isn’t but on the 40-man roster, so Minnesota might want to make a corresponding transfer to formally choose his contract.
Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey acknowledged final week that Matthews was very a lot within the combine for a name to the large leagues within the wake of Joe Ryan’s Grade 2 teres main pressure — an damage that places the rest of Ryan’s season in jeopardy. The Twins at present have Tuesday’s starter listed as TBD.
Matthews, the Twins’ eighth-round decide in 2022, posted sub-2.00 ERAs in each Excessive-A and Double-A earlier than his current promotion to Triple-A. He’s had two strong begins and two tough begins on the high minor league stage. Collectively, the 24-year-old has logged a 2.60 ERA with a powerful 30.5% strikeout price and a staggering 1.8% stroll price throughout these three minor league ranges. He’s fanned a hefty 114 opponents and issued simply seven walks in 97 innings this season.
Although he boasts elite command, Matthews is hardly the kind of soft-tossing finesse pitcher one would anticipate for somebody with that sort of location. His heater sits within the mid-90s and tops out round 97 mph. Matthews is listed at 6’5″ and 225 kilos, although Baseball America’s scouting report notes that the “huge” righty “appears to be bigger” than his listed peak and weight. Matthews works with a five-pitch arsenal, complementing his four-seamer with a cutter, slider, curveball and changeup. Each BA and The Athletic’s Keith Legislation write that not one of the 5 pitches are true plus choices, however they every play up due to his precision.
Matthews has ridden his breakout season all the best way to the No. 61 spot on Baseball America’s current replace to their high 100 prospects, the place they word that he has maybe one of the best command in minor league baseball. Legislation ranks Matthews sixtieth within the sport, and MLB.com has him as their No. 100 prospect.
With Ryan shelved maybe at some stage in the season — supervisor Rocco Baldelli mentioned his damage would take “weeks or months” to heal — Minnesota will lean on a rookie-heavy beginning workers down the stretch. Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober give Minnesota some wholesome veterans atop the workers, however they’ll want righties Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa and now Matthews to step onto the workers. Proper-hander Louie Varland, who opened the season because the No. 5 starter, may additionally consider down the stretch, though he’s had a tough displaying each within the large leagues and the minors this 12 months.
Woods Richardson has emerged as a strong mid-rotation arm this 12 months, logging 3.78 ERA with a 21.4% strikeout price and seven.3% stroll price in 102 1/3 innings (20 begins). Festa, a fellow top-100 prospect alongside Matthews, was hit laborious in his first two large league begins (12 runs in 10 innings) however has a 2.04 ERA in 17 2/3 innings since. He’s but to work greater than 5 innings in an enormous league sport, nevertheless. Matthews would be the subsequent man up. The Twins stay hopeful that Ryan will return this season, and righty Chris Paddack can be anticipated to rejoin the rotation in some unspecified time in the future, however he’s nonetheless on the 15-day IL with a forearm pressure.
Matthews gained’t be capable to decide up sufficient large league service time to get a full 12 months in 2024, which means he’ll nonetheless be beneath membership management for an extra six seasons — even when he’s by no means despatched again down from this level on. He’d at present be on observe to succeed in arbitration eligibility within the 2027-28 offseason, though future non-compulsory assignments to the minors may affect each his arbitration and free-agent timelines. He’ll be part of a rising pitching pipeline within the Twins group, the place Lopez, Ryan and Ober are signed/managed via 2027 and every of Woods Richardson, Festa and Varland are (like Matthews) controllable via at the least 2030.
