Joe Ryan’s Breakout Season
Photo by Ken Blaze / Getty Images
On July 22 of the 2021 season, the Tampa Bay Rays would acquire Designated Hitter Nelson Cruz and Minor League pitcher Calvin Faucher from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for Minor League pitchers Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman. Little would the Twins know that Joe Ryan would become the ace of the staff.
Joe Ryan made his debut in 2021, totaling 26.2 innings pitched. The following year in 2022 he would become a main stay in the Twins Rotation. He pitched to a 13-8 record with a 3.55 ERA across 147 innings. A quality season for just a rookie but in 2023, Ryan has made more strides. This year, he has a 2.98 ERA across 93.2 innings along with a 8-4 record. His last start came on June 22nd in which he threw a complete game shutout against the Boston Red Sox.
Ryan is primarily a 2-pitch pitcher: a 4-Seam Fastball (59.4%) and a Split-Finger (27.6%). Occasionally, he throws a Slider & a Sweeper. A unique aspect of Ryan’s evaluation involves his pitching mechanics. His average release height is 5ft, the MLB average is 5.5 - 6.5 ft. This lower arm slot adds deception to his delivery, making it harder for opposing batters to see the pitch. Ryan is also in the 99th percentile in Chase Rate and in the 97th percentile in Walk Rate. It is extremely rare for a pitcher to be elite in these categories which adds to Ryan’s batter to batter excellence.
With other names in the rotation such as Pablo Lopez, Sonny Gray, Bailey Ober and Kenta Maeda, the Twins did an excellent job in acquiring Ryan as he looks like a Cy Young candidate for the foreseeable future.
