Twins GM Jeremy Zoll provided reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press) with some unfortunate updates on two starting pitchers today. Mick Abel is unlikely to pitch again this season in the aftermath of his arthroscopic elbow surgery on July 1, and David Festa‘s season-long shoulder problems will keep him off the mound for the entirety of the 2026 campaign.
It was almost a year ago that Abel and catching prospect Eduardo Tait were acquired from the Phillies for Jhoan Duran, in one of the most prominent of the many deals the Twins swung as part of their deadline fire sale. The Twins’ focus was mostly on acquiring MLB-ready younger players who could contribute to the roster in immediate fashion, and Abel fit the bill as a former top prospect in his rookie season in the Show.
After four forgettable outings for Minnesota over the rest of the 2025 season, Abel posted a 3.98 ERA over 20 1/3 innings at the start of the year. The righty gave up nine earned runs over his first 7 1/3 innings of work, but rebounded to toss 13 shutout frames over his next two starts. Those ended up being Abel’s last outings of the year, as he was placed on the 10-day injured list due to an initial diagnosis of elbow inflammation.
Abel made a pair of minor league rehab starts in June before more elbow discomfort led to his surgery. A timeline wasn’t provided until today, when Zoll said Abel is scheduled to get his first post-surgery checkup in the last week of August. Even if everything goes well in that evaluation, there isn’t likely to be enough time left in the season for Abel to get through a throwing progression and some rehab outings, even if he is only built up enough for bullpen work.
Festa developed a shoulder impingement during Spring Training and received a stem-cell injection to try and aid the healing process, yet the right-hander hasn’t been able to take part in any game action. “He had thrown a few bullpens and then had a re-occurrence of symptoms in his shoulder,” Zoll said, adding the ominous detail that the Twins think Festa could be dealing with symptoms related to thoracic outlet syndrome.
This isn’t the first time Festa has dealt with a TOS scare, and more will be known once Festa visits a specialist this week. Once a well-touted prospect in Minnesota’s farm system, Festa posted a 5.12 ERA over 117 2/3 innings over the 2024-25 seasons, but it has been almost a year since his last big league game.
Between Pablo Lopez‘s internal brace surgery and these long-term injuries to Abel and Festa, the Twins’ rotation has lost some notable arms but remained fairly stable in terms of results. Joe Ryan is an ace while Bailey Ober, Taj Bradley, and Zebby Matthews have all ranged from okay to inconsistent. Connor Prielipp is on a rehab assignment and could soon return as a fifth starter, but rotation help surely looks like a target for the Twins if the team does some buying at this year’s deadline.
