Almost everything that could go wrong for the Yankees lately has. Losing games? Well, obviously. Injuries? Unfortunately, yes. Is the resentment cooling? You know that. Do pitchers who have had good years suddenly have off days? And that too. Defensive lapses? Yes.
However, over the years, there was always one thing that could help the Yankees win: a game against the Minnesota Twins. Well, that’s who’s next, so this weekend we’ll see how big the decline really is.
After trading away many of their standout players at the trade deadline last year, the Twins are in the midst of a rebuild of sorts. While Byron Buxton, Joe Ryan and a few others you know are still here, this is a different team than they have been in recent years. They’re still in the playoff race, but that’s more a product of the AL Central than anything else.
With both teams starting a three-game set tonight, let’s take a look at the likely matchups over the next few days.
Friday: Gerrit Cole vs. Mike Paredes (7:04 p.m. ET)
Coming off the injured list for the first time, Cole hit the ground running, throwing two shutouts in 6+ innings, including striking out 10 in one of them. However, in five starts since then, he has a 6.12 ERA and 5.95 FIP. His main problem at the time was home runs, which he allowed seven times in those five games. Home runs were not an issue for the Twins as they were ninth in MLB with 110 in Thursday’s games.
This will be the Yankees’ first meeting with rookie Paredes. This will be just his fifth career start and seventh game overall since he was called up in late May. He’s doing well so far, with a 4.26 ERA and a 103 ERA+. However, his FIP is noticeably worse at 5.44, as he doesn’t really strike out many hitters.
Saturday: Carlos Rodon TBA vs. Zebby Matthews (1:35 p.m. ET)
Rawdon can often be tiresome to watch. His 4.6 BB/9 is pretty high, and only 61 percent of his pitches on the season are on strikes. At the same time, he acted effectively. He has a 3.30 ERA and 3.45 FIP. The question is always fair, will his walks burn him and how deep can he go into the game?
Update: Rodon is actually going on the IL with left elbow inflammation, so… that’s great. Elmer Rodriguez pitched last night in Triple-A, so he is unavailable for a spot start. Perhaps it will be Brendan Beck, who made a cameo start back in May and was expected to start tonight for Scranton (he will at least find his feet tomorrow as a potential “mass guy” ahead of the rookie). Or maybe you!
Matthews is another fairly inexperienced pitcher, but in this case the Yankees had seen him a couple of times before and got to him. They faced him last year in August and September, and in the second of those meetings the Yankee offense gave him nine runs on 11 hits in just three innings. His nine starts this year overall were about league average.
Sunday: Ryan Weathers vs. Joe Ryan (1:35 p.m. ET)
Weathers is another pitcher who requires some effort, but unlike Rodon, his numbers aren’t “pretty good.” His ERA (4.08) is technically better than average (104 ERA+), and his FIP (4.13) isn’t terrible either, but when he’s bad, he tends to be bad enough to knock the Yankees out of the game. In his last start, he lasted just 1.2 innings, allowing five runs against the Tigers. The defense hurt him as only two runs were earned, but he didn’t do much glory that day.
After a borderline 2025 season in which he was featured in trade rumors during the Twins trade deadline, Ryan took a slight step back this year, at least if you just look at his ERA. However, his 2.95 FIP is the best of his career, and his 0.9 HR/9 is by far the best of his career. If the Yankees’ offense is in one of its moods, he could very well beat them easily, even if a quick look at his stats shows he hasn’t been all that good this year.