Five years ago, Twins made deadline deal for Joe Ryan that’s paying dividends
· Yahoo Sports
Nelson Cruz was at Target Field, preparing for a night game against the Los Angeles Angels, when word started trickling through the ballpark: The veteran slugger had been traded to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Joe Ryan was about 6,000 miles away, eating breakfast in the Olympic Village when he heard the same from Team USA teammate Eric Filia. He exchanged a look with Shane Baz, the two Rays prospects wondering who from the organization had been traded.
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Ryan got his answer when he finally looked at his phone.
Five years ago to the month, the Twins made a trade — shipping away two months of Cruz and minor league pitcher Calvin Faucher for two pitching prospects, Ryan and Drew Strotman — that has become the best, by far, in recent team history.
And that’s because Ryan, who will represent the Twins for the second consecutive year at the All-Star Game this Tuesday in Philadelphia, has developed into one of the best pitchers in the game.
The signs were there early.
Catcher Ryan Jeffers remembers facing Ryan, now 30, while the pair were at Class-A Advanced in 2019. He left an impression.
“It was kind of before anyone knew what was going on with fastball metrics and stuff. You face a guy. He’s throwing 90 (miles per hour) and you’re like ‘I can’t hit it,’ ” Jeffers said. “When the trade happened, I think all of us, especially because there were a lot of us younger guys around the org in the time, we knew who he was. (It) was like ‘Oh yeah, this kid, no one can hit his heater.’ ”
But despite his success as a minor leaguer, the Rays hadn’t given him an opportunity yet at the major league level.
Ryan posted a 1.96 earned-run average during his first full professional season in 2019 across three levels, striking out 183 batters in 123 2/3 innings and finishing the season at Double-A.
He pitched at the alternate site in 2020 because there was no minor league season and said he was told when he got there that there was “no chance,” he would get called up to the major leagues that season.
“I didn’t know where I really stood,” Ryan said. “I think looking back I was pitching pretty well, but it felt like I was not pitching well at all because they were like ‘You’re not going to go to the big leagues.’ ”
The next season, Ryan pitched in the qualifier for the Olympics and, eventually, in the Olympics themselves. The fact that the Rays allowed him to go overseas to compete in Tokyo was another sign that he wasn’t in any imminent major league plans.
So on that July day — the 22th in the United States, the 23rd in Japan where Ryan was — when the out-of-contention Twins began their sell-off by sending Cruz to Tampa Bay, it was a big step toward Ryan finally getting the opportunity he was seeking.
“This is a guy, I mean his numbers speak for themselves,” then-Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said the day of the trade. “This guy, if you go look at his track record, he has consistently performed. … The Rays have had a strong track record of developing pitching, we know that. I think that’s a calling card of that organization. So to get someone like him who has developed through their group I’m sure will be a great add for us.”
That comment proved prescient.
After winning a silver medal in Japan — Ryan went 1-0 in the tournament with a 1.74 ERA across two starts — he returned to the United States and made just two starts in Triple-A before the Twins called him up.
It was evident early that the Twins were working with something special. In his second career start, Ryan carried a perfect game into the seventh inning against Cleveland.
“I think it was after his second start here, we were just joking about how we got the Rays,” reliever Taylor Rogers said. “That was a nice job there.”
A couple of starts later, he went to Wrigley Field and struck out 11 Chicago Cubs hitters in a five-inning start.
“The Wrigley one was like ‘This guy’s going to be a dude,’ ” Rogers said.
As Ryan grew in his career and continued to establish himself, the daily nagging thought of what he would do if baseball didn’t work out for him — the answer, likely, was joining the fire department —started to slowly fade away.
He started to earn some money. He was able get someone to do soft tissue work with in the offseason. He had access to better quality food.
“Little things get better, and then you can focus on baseball. And you’re like ‘OK, now I’m in the big leagues,’ and you’re like ‘Oh, maybe I can do this,’ ” Ryan said.
After the 2022 season, without the stress about his financial situation that he used to have, he went to Driveline, the data-driven baseball performance facility, where he worked on a splitter, among other things. He went to Driveline again after the 2023 season to continue to hone his arsenal and work on a sinker.
When he first came up in 2021, Ryan was throwing his four-seam fastball almost 66 percent of the time. Now he has a more expansive, ever-evolving variety of offerings to attack hitters with. Just this year, the usage of his curveball has shot up significantly.
“I was just trying to evolve with the game and what it was telling me I needed to improve upon,” Ryan said. “I think it’s just kind of inherently how I’ve always operated is you recognize your success, but I don’t think that you should live in that or identify with that because I just think that’s a dangerous place to be.”
Years of tinkering, of tweaking, of adding more tools to his toolbox and striving for improvement has led him to this point. Ryan entered Saturday with a 2.85 ERA. He had struck out 122 batters in 104 1/3 innings to just 23 walks. His 3.1 fWAR (Wins Above Replacement per FanGraphs) entering Saturday was sixth-best in the major leagues. And, importantly, he has been a pillar of stability for the Twins in a rotation that has been ravaged by injuries around him.
The Twins thought they were getting a good pitcher in 2021. What they’ve gotten has likely been even better than they even predicted.
“It was obviously the best thing for me,” Ryan said of the trade. “It’s been a good time.”