{"id":492167,"date":"2026-02-22T14:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/492167\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T14:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:25:07","slug":"mri-reveals-lower-back-inflammation-for-joe-ryan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/492167\/","title":{"rendered":"MRI Reveals Lower Back Inflammation For Joe Ryan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right-hander Joe Ryan<\/a> was scratched from his scheduled Spring Training start yesterday due to lower back tightness and underwent an MRI yesterday to determine the severity of the issue. Those results came back today, and The Athletic\u2019s Dan Hayes<\/a> reports that the MRI revealed only inflammation in Ryan\u2019s lower back.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a \u201cbest case scenario\u201d\u00a0for Ryan, in the words for Hayes. It should allow the right-hander to avoid a lengthy layoff and, while the Twins\u2019 exact plans for Ryan as he nurses that inflammation aren\u2019t yet clear, it seems reasonable to expect the right-hander\u2019s ability to be available for Opening Day to be unaffected by this injury. That\u2019s great news for the Twins, who have already lost right-hander Pablo Lopez<\/a> to the injured list for the year as he prepares to undergo<\/a> Tommy John surgery. Losing Lopez from the front of the team\u2019s rotation was already a tough blow, but the loss of Ryan as well would\u2019ve been devastating for Minnesota. Ryan figures to be joined in the rotation by Bailey Ober<\/a>, with the final three spots left to some combination of youngsters Simeon Woods Richardson<\/a>, Zebby Matthews<\/a>, Taj Bradley<\/a>, Mick Abel<\/a>, and David Festa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ryan figures to be especially important to the Twins this year given that he\u2019s coming off the best season of his career. An All-Star for the first time in 2025, the right-hander posted a 3.42 ERA in 171 innings of work. He made 30 starts (31 total appearances) and struck out an impressive 28.2% of his opponents while walking just 5.7%. Ryan was held back from true ace-level production by his lackluster 11.5% barrel rate; only five qualified pitchers allowed more home runs than the righty\u2019s 26 last year. Even with that flaw, however, Ryan was a quality front-of-the-rotation starter who garnered plenty of interest at last summer\u2019s trade deadline. While the Twins conducted a fire sale that saw them part ways with Carlos Correa<\/a>, Harrison Bader<\/a>, and nearly their entire bullpen, Ryan was one of the most notable pieces to remain in place.<\/p>\n

The Twins once again entertained offers on him (plus other stars like Pablo Lopez and Byron Buxton<\/a>) early in the offseason but eventually took those players off the market in December following Tom Pohlad\u2019s ascension to the role of control person for the franchise. Pohlad, who mutually parted ways with team president Derek Falvey last month, is pushing for the club to contend in 2026 despite a roster that doesn\u2019t look substantially different than the one that was among the worst teams in baseball after the trade deadline. There\u2019s enough talent youngsters on the roster (including Luke Keaschall<\/a>, Royce Lewis<\/a>, and Brooks Lee<\/a>) that it\u2019s not impossible to imagine the team taking a step forward this year, but if the team fails to do so Ryan could once again find himself in trade conversations this summer should he remain healthy.<\/p>\n

In the shorter term, it remains to be seen what Ryan\u2019s inflammation will mean for his anticipated participation in the World Baseball Classic. Ryan was announced as part of the Team USA roster for the WBC, but it\u2019s possible he\u2019ll be forced to sit out the tournament due to the injury even in spite of its mild nature. Players around the league have been denied insurance<\/a> ahead of the WBC, causing issues for all sorts of teams as they prepare for the event. That\u2019s led to additional caution around rostering players who would otherwise seem like safe bets to roster for the tournament, and it\u2019s unclear what impact (if any) that could have on Ryan\u2019s participation at this point. The good news for Team USA is that their group of rotation options remains stacked even if Ryan is unable to participate; Paul Skenes<\/a> and Tarik Skubal<\/a> headline a group of starters that also includes Logan Webb<\/a>, top Mets prospect Nolan McLean<\/a>, and veteran southpaw Matthew Boyd<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right-hander Joe Ryan was scratched from his scheduled Spring Training start yesterday due to lower back tightness and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,13650,462,82],"class_list":["post-492167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-joe-ryan","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}