How good is Joe Ryan – the newest member of the Minnesota Twin’s rotation? Well if yesterday’s performance is any indication, he will be quite good. Joe was perfect through 6+ innings and allowed just 1 hit over 7 shutout innings in the Twins win over the Cleveland Indians yesterday in Joe’s second major league start.
Joe Ryan is a Marin County native who I interviewed recently. He came across as a confident young man, who at 25 years old is someone we may be hearing about a lot more.
He made an impressive first start versus the Chicago Cubs a few days ago. One scout had this to say – “Twins SP prospect Joe Ryan made his debut and was solid against the Cubs. He went five innings strong allowing just three hits, three earned runs and one walk. The box score stats don’t look great, but under the hood, Ryan showed a lot of promise for Minnesota. He induced 14 swinging strikes on 89 pitches and struck out five batters. Nine of those induced strikes came on his fastball.”
And then in this second start last night against the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland, Joe was perfect before finally allowing a one out single to Shortstop Amed Rosario in the seventh inning. He retired the next two batters with an impressive line of 7 innings pitched, 1 hit, no runs, no walks, and 4 strikeouts.
Joe grew up in San Anselmo playing soccer, water polo, and baseball at Archie Williams High School. He was a big San Francisco Giant’s fan who drafted him out of high school in the 2014 MLB June Amateur Draft (39th round).
“I felt that college was a better option” and so he attended Cal State Northridge in 2015. In his freshman year, “I had a few at bats and pitched a few innings but didn’t play much” and as a sophomore his hitting talents emerged hitting over .500 but he was also excelling at pitching. By the time he was a junior in 2017, the “coach was spending more time with me” and his pitching skills started to emerge. Injuries curtailed the end of his junior year and he went undrafted.
Getting healthy, he pitched well in the 2016 Cape Cod summer league for the Orleans Firebirds and impressed some scouts. He then transferred to Division II Cal State Stanislaus in Turlock for his senior year where he continued his development on the mound -– enough that the Tampa Bay Rays drafted him in the Seventh-Round in the 2018 MLB draft.
As he moved through the Ray’s minor league system he started getting rave reviews about his “disappearing fastball” from notable people like Peter Gammons. In a 2021 pre-season assessment of the top 5 teams in the majors that would contend for the championship, he had this to say about Ryan – “Remember the name Joe Ryan, he of the fastball that hitters don’t see and the 234-41 strikeout-walk ratio in 160 minor league innings.”
He was on the verge of being called up by the Rays in late July when he got the news he had been traded to the Twins for Nelson Cruz. About this time he was invited to participate in the 2021 Olympics in Japan where the United States made if to the championship game, losing to Japan. So Joe left with a Silver Medal.
Joe returned to the Twin’s AAA Farm Teams in Durham, North Carolina and St. Paul Minnesota, putting up impressive numbers. Then on September 1st he was called up!!
I asked him about his favorite Giants – “I really liked Matt Cain and Timmy. I remember buying his jersey from the Giant’s store after they won the 2012 World Series.”
Then he told me how one of his biggest thrills was meeting Buster Posey and Bruce Botchy. Joe was 18 and back home for the holidays from his freshman year at Cal State Northridge, his agent (Alan Hull) called him and said he – “wanted me to meet some folks” and “can you come to this car dealership in San Rafael” and when I arrived he introduced him to Bruce Bochy and Buster Posey who were working on a commercial for the Toyota dealership there. “I was thrilled and they could not have been nicer. It really made an impression on me.”
Joe’s Dad and Mom where positive influences growing up. He talked about how his Dad “never pushed me too hard” and “let me develop” at a reasonable pace. They would throw regularly to “develop my arm” and he taught me how to “focus on control not necessarily speed.” He talked affectionately about a game they used to play called “The game of 10” where pitching to his father, he got 3 points for a “solid strike”, 2 points if is was “a bit outside the strike zone”, a point is “just ok”, and nothing if it was a definite ball.” Joe said “7 is a good score and it really helped me focus on throwing strikes.” He showed this throughout his time in the minor leagues and based on his initial outings against the Cub and Indians he should continue to throw strikes — but now to major league hitters.