Twins starter Chris Paddack confident he’ll pitch again this season, but when is unclear – Twin Cities

When Chris Paddack’s elbow “kind of locked up” during the All-Star Break, it brought back bad memories for the Twins right-handed pitcher.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried,” he said.

In the midst of his first full season as a pitcher since 2021, Paddack is already a veteran of two Tommy John surgeries. He had the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow repaired as a minor leaguer in 2016, then again as a major leaguer in 2022.

“I don’t think the success rate of guys coming back from three Tommy Johns is ideal,” he said Sunday. “So yeah, that thought creeps into the back of your mind.”

The good news for Paddack is that a magnetic imaging study performed Friday revealed no damage to the ligaments in his elbow. The bad news is that he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to pitch again this season.

“Whether it’s late July or early August, or mid-August or late August, we don’t know the answer,” he said.

Paddack, 28, said before Sunday afternoon’s game against the Brewers at Target Field that doctors and trainers had told him he had a muscle injury in his forearm, which was a relief for both the player and the team.

“I got a little bit of hope when I saw that the ligament was attached, it was tight and it looked strong,” he said.

At his home in Texas, Paddack took a few days off during the All-Star break before returning to his throwing routine on Wednesday, and while he was throwing, he said, he felt great. Then he woke up Thursday with little range of motion or the ability to bend his forearm.

“After I had two surgeries, I knew something was wrong,” he said.

Paddack knows how to use an MRI and understood that Friday’s test was good news, but he also knows that a forearm strain can be a precursor to a torn ligament.

“So the fact that we were able to get ahead of that and take the tension off the ligament is definitely positive,” he said.

Manager Rocco Baldelli said the team has no plan for Paddack’s spot in the rotation — Wednesday against the Phillies — other than the Twins recalling a replacement from Class AAA St. Paul. Whether that’s an arm that stays with the team while Paddack is, or other guys at different times, remains to be seen.

“There would be no advantage or benefit to me having a plan a month or two from now,” Baldelli said. “We’re going to call somebody up for that next start at that spot and have them ready to pitch. We’ll start there and see what that looks like. If I did more than that, I’d be making up stuff that I don’t have confidence in.”

Among the starters for St. Paul scheduled to start games for the Saints early this week: David Festa, Louie Varland and Caleb Boushley. Festa and Varland are on the 40-man roster; Boushley is not.

Paddack was on the IL with arm fatigue — it felt like he was holding a dumbbell, he said — before returning to make two starts before the break, allowing four earned runs on eight hits and three walks. He struck out nine. For now, he’s waiting for the symptoms to subside before getting going again. He’s thrown 88⅓ innings this season after throwing a combined 27⅓ in 2022 and 2023.

“Your body just naturally responds,” Paddack said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, enough, I’ve had enough.’ And that was it, knocking on the door: ‘Hey, I need a breather, man. You killed yourself.’

“So I think the velo has gone down, off speed maybe not as sharp as I would like, even though we tried to sharpen those tools. I think this is our answer.”

Originally published: July 21, 2024 at 2:06 PM