KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Twins plan to promote right-hander David Festa from Triple-A St. Paul on Friday to face the Detroit Tigers at Target Field, manager Rocco Baldelli said.
Festa would take Pablo López’s roster spot once the Twins officially put him on the 15-day injured list because of a mild strain of his right hamstring.
“We’re going to call up Festa and give him the ball and let him go,” Baldelli said.
Zebby Matthews is a good bet to get a promotion from the Saints to start the opener of the next series at Target, against the New York Mets, on Monday night. It would give the Twins a six-person starting rotation until López returns.
Using both young pitchers this way would give others in the Twins’ rotation an extra day of rest between starts. The Twins are in the middle of a 12-day stretch without a break. Baldelli said this plan had been in the works before López’s injury Tuesday night.
“It’s something that’s a forward-looking, get-ahead-of-things move for our starting pitchers,” Baldelli said.
Festa comes in with a 5.40 earned-run average in two starts with eight strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings at St. Paul.
He posted a 4.90 ERA in 14 appearances, making 13 starts with the big-league team in 2024. In his five-year minor-league career, Festa has a 3.53 ERA with 336 strikeouts, 108 walks and 25 home runs allowed in 273 innings.
Festa’s own turn in the rotation at Triple-A otherwise would have come Friday, and Matthews was aligned with López, who would have gone Sunday if not for the injury.
It will be the first time López misses a start with the Twins. He could miss as many as three starts while on the IL, but the Twins hope the extra pitcher in the rotation, plus upcoming days off over the next two weeks, will make it just two starts missed.
López would rather miss none.
“I don’t like it. I hate it,” López said. “But it makes sense.”
López and head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta both said they have gone over reams of medical data looking for a reason the injury happened. It does not appear there was anything López did wrong, or could have done differently, to prevent it.
“We have not found anything, or uncovered any secret diamond, that was causing the issue or did cause the issue,” Paparesta said. “I think it’s just the competitive nature of this game, the repetitive stress upon the body that this game puts on people.”
Paparesta praised Carlos Correa for noticing that López wasn’t right and bringing his teammate to an understanding that it was time to get off the field.
“Pablo made the right decision, and it’s going to help him come out of this better off,” Paparesta said.
Lee to try nine
Paparesta said infielder Brooks Lee will play a nine-inning game with St. Paul on Friday as the next step in rehabbing a lower back strain.
Lee, who injured his back in spring training, started his assignment at Fort Myers, Fla., on Sunday before quickly ascending to the Triple-A squad. He has played parts of two games for the Saints, and was scheduled to rest Thursday before returning to the lineup.
Lee probably would need to play multiple full games before the Twins bring him to the big league team.
Paparesta said they wouldn’t let Lee play unless he said his back was feeling up to it.
“Once we get them out to a rehab assignment, the question of the injury in our mind is pretty much solidified,” Paparesta said. “We try to make the rehab as hard as possible so that the games are as easy as can be.”
Baldelli said that third baseman Royce Lewis was still several weeks away from being ready to play. Lewis is not quite midway through what was said to be a possible eight-week stint on the injured list.
“When he’s a lot closer, then I’ll start following it on a day-to-day basis,” Baldell said.
Buxton returning
The Twins didn’t have outfielder Byron Buxton available for the past two games because he went home to Georgia to attend a personal matter, said to be a friend’s funeral. Putting him on the bereavement list would have meant the Twins would have been without him for three games, so instead they played short for two games.
Buxton, who played the first 11 games of the season, is batting .171/.209/.293 with a home run, 16 strikeouts, one walk and two stolen bases in 41 at-bats.
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