Minnesota Twins star pitcher Joe Ryan recently suffered an injury scare early in spring training. As a result, he will not begin the World Baseball Classic with Team USA, but could be added to the roster later in the tournament. While speaking with MLB Network on Sunday, Ryan provided an update on his back injury concern.
“Little inflammation in there,” Ryan said. “Kind of bugging me. You gotta be smart this early in camp and protect yourself. Yeah, we got a good plan together. Feeling really good. Got to get off the mound yesterday and threw 30 pitches, feeling good. Working on execution more than feeling my back so that's always a good thing.”
It seems as if Ryan will be alright barring any setbacks. Nevertheless, it is early in spring training. The Twins and Ryan obviously do not want to risk any of the aforementioned setbacks, so proceeding with caution is the best strategy.
The fact that Ryan is already throwing off a mound once again is a promising sign. Throwing off flat ground is one thing, but the angle of the mound could cause a pitcher to feel pain in their back if there is an issue. Ryan said he was working on execution of his pitches more than feeling any pain in his back, so that's an encouraging update without question.
Ryan, 29, is coming off an All-Star 2025 season that saw him pitch to a 3.42 ERA across 31 outings on the mound. He added 194 strikeouts in what was an all-around strong campaign.
