Ryan's Glute Strain Is the Worst Possible Timing for Minnesota

The MRI results are in: Joe Ryan has a mild left glute strain and is headed to the injured list. Minnesota's only All-Star this season, and the team's most reliable starter at 7-8 with a 3.86 ERA across 26 starts, is now out of the rotation with 49 games left and the Twins sitting half a game from the last wild card spot.

The rotation behind Ryan is thin in ways that were already visible before Tuesday's blowup in Kansas City. Taj Bradley has been excellent, but after him the options get complicated fast — Bailey Ober is serviceable, Zebby Matthews and Connor Prielipp have both been inconsistent, and Simeon Woods Richardson has been genuinely difficult to watch. Pablo Lopez, David Festa, and Marco Raya are all on the injured list. That's a lot of rotation depth tied up in the training room at once.

Minnesota spent the deadline week adding bullpen arms, including Jeff Hoffman from Toronto, which looks smart in hindsight — the back end needed help regardless. But the front-office calculus assumed Ryan would keep making starts. The offense has also cooled lately, averaging 3.6 runs per game over the last 10 contests. A team scoring at that rate needs its best pitcher available. Right now he isn't.

The "mild" designation on the strain is the one thing to hold onto here. Glute strains at the mild end can resolve in two to three weeks, which would leave Ryan time to make five or six more starts if things go cleanly. That's the next 10 days to watch: whether this stays mild or becomes something more.