Ryan Heads to Minnesota for Evaluation After Getting Roughed Up by Kansas City

Joe Ryan took a beating against the Royals on Tuesday and is now heading back to Minnesota to be evaluated for a potential injury. No diagnosis yet, no timeline. Just the thing you don't want to see two days after the trade deadline closes.

Ryan is the team's only All-Star this season and has been its most reliable starter — 7-8 with a 3.86 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP across 26 starts, the kind of innings-eating consistency that holds a rotation together. Behind him, Taj Bradley has been excellent, but the drop-off after those two is steep. Bailey Ober is serviceable. Zebby Matthews and Connor Prielipp are both north of 4.90 ERA. Simeon Woods Richardson is 0-9. Pablo Lopez is on the 60-day IL. The Twins are already thin; losing Ryan would make them genuinely short.

Minnesota spent the deadline rebuilding its bullpen, adding Jeff Hoffman and others to shore up the back end. The logic was sound — get the leads to the ninth. That plan works a lot better if the rotation can produce leads. The Twins are two games out of the last wild-card spot with 51 to play, and they've scored just 3.2 runs a game over the last 10. They need Ryan healthy. They need results soon. Right now they have neither.