David Festa Set To Get Second Look in Minnesota Twins Rotation

[Matthew Lenz]

After the news of Pablo López hitting the injured list with a Grade 1 hamstring strain, David Festa was called up for his 2025 debut. Now, it appears he’ll face the New York Mets on Wednesday’s getaway game.

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

David Festa had a productive season debut Friday, going 4 ⅔ innings, allowing one (unearned) run, and striking out four while walking one Detroit Tigers batters. He got through that on just 64 pitches. Perhaps most impressive was the 28% whiff rate, including a 57% whiff rate on his changeup. According to Statcast, Detroit had no Barrels against him. It was just the start you'd hope for after Festa’s rookie season, which saw him produce a 19.5 K-BB% and a 3.76 FIP, and it's exactly what the Twins needed to give him a second crack at the rotation.

Some may have been surprised to see Festa get the call over Zebby Matthews, who has been the better of the two in a small sample so far in 2025, but the timing just worked out better for Festa. It was likely that Festa was making a start on Friday, whether it be for the St. Paul Saints or the Twins, whereas Matthews had just thrown 80 pitches across five innings on Tuesday. Regardless, even after Festa was named Friday’s starter at Target Field, some speculated that he would be demoted back to St. Paul. This would make way for a Matthews promotion to start Monday against the Mets. Even the Twins nodded and winked in that direction, behind the scenes.

Instead, Joe Ryan drew the Monday start. Bailey Ober gets them on Tuesday, and Festa was named the starter of the series finale on Wednesday's matinee. It is possible that the initial plan did look different, as it wasn't announced until yesterday afternoon that Matthews would start for the Saints on Tuesday. Festa told our Matt Trueblood he was told mid-morning Saturday that he would get the nod again Wednesday. Regardless of when (or even why) the decision was made to roll with Festa for a second time, though, it's an outcome the righty earned—even on just four days' rest.

Not only did he earn it, but procedurally, it might be the most logical move. Having thrown just 64 pitches on Friday allows him to start after four days' rest without any restrictions, saving the Twins from optioning Festa—which would mean he couldn't be promoted for 15 days (barring an injury). The same goes for Matthews. With López only expected to miss the minimum amount of time (hopefully), it wouldn't be ideal to lock up your two best “next men up” for two weeks in case injury strikes elsewhere. 

 

It also may make sense strategically, as the Twins are facing the Mets' top three arms this series. Instead of putting Matthews in a position where he's facing a potent lineup while battling rotation ace Clay Holmes, the Twins opted to have two of their top arms go head-to-head with the Mets’ top two on Monday and Tuesday. This opened the door to roll with Festa for a second time as the Mets will deploy Griffin Canning—a more favorable duel than Matthews v. Holmes. It could also be that Matthews's pitch mix isn't a favorable matchup against the Mets. 

The Mets have produced well against horizontal movement dating back to last season (before they had Juan Soto). While both pitchers have a plus slider, Matthews also throws a cutter that has typically graded out as just below average. Moreover, last season, the Mets were one of the best fastball-hitting teams in baseball and Festa’s four-seamer has a little less glove-side movement and a little more induced vertical break than his peers'.

At this point, we’re just throwing ideas against the wall and seeing if they stick. In reality, we don't know the reasoning behind the decisions that have been made regarding Festa and Matthews. I do think that procedurally it made the most sense, especially considering the brevity and effectiveness of Festa’s first start. Regardless, it’s really only a matter of time before we see Matthews on a big-league mound. 

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How would you have handled Festa and Matthews? Join the conversation in the comments!

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[LambchoP]

It is very sad that our SP going 4 2/3 innings is considered a productive start. We saw this a few years ago. Even if our starters pitch like all stars for just 4-5 innings that still leaves Way too many innings for the pen to cover each and every night. This leads to guys getting overused, ineffectiveness, injuries and most importantly, games lost. Pitching was supposed to be a strength of this team. Season already is looking lost so I would treat the rest of the year as auditions for next year. Call up Zebby Festa and Morris and see if anyone claims a rotation spot. Then call up Keaschal, Rodriguez, Mccusker, Martin and Camargo. Might as well see what we have for next year and how much we need to acquire from outside the organization. I don't know how Rocco DOESN'T get fired after this trainwreck season.

[Mike Sixel]

Festa was a top prospect in all of baseball last year. He should get the start. 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

Festa came up.  Performed well.  Earned the chance to do it again.  Why would you swap them out when he is pitching well? 

Matthews' time will come. No tragedy here.  I'd be willing to bet that he sees it that way also. This isn't college with NIL and transfers.  He'll be fine.

[bean5302]

I think it's fine Festa gets the start over Matthews. Honestly, I expect both Festa and Matthews to be in the rotation before the end of the year, but Festa clearly has the higher position based on historical status and MLB results last year.

Not sure how many pitches Baldelli will let Festa have. I think Rocco rolls one of those hundred-sided dice immediately after having position players draw straws to determine if they're going to start and what position the player is going to play sometimes.

Baldelli's optimal lineup he hopes works out one day:
C - Matt Wallner
2B - Carlos Correa
SS - Harrison Bader
DH - Mickey Gasper
CF - Ryan Jeffers
3B - Trevor Larnach
1B - Byron Buxton
RF - Brooks Lee
LF - Christian Vazquez
 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, LambchoP said:

It is very sad that our SP going 4 2/3 innings is considered a productive start. We saw this a few years ago. Even if our starters pitch like all stars for just 4-5 innings that still leaves Way too many innings for the pen to cover each and every night. 

This.

[NYCTK]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

Festa was a top prospect in all of baseball last year. He should get the start. 

Talk like this is how fans become so disappointed in prospects. He wasn't anywhere near a top prospect in all of baseball. He was top 5 in a middle of the pack farm system. Which is good but no one should expect him to be Koufax. 

Less unwarranted hype and more appreciation of the actual level of player. I like Festa, and I think he offers a good matchup against Canning. But he's also similarly likely to go 3 and give up 6. 

[tony&rodney]

David Festa can be very effective when he mixes his pitches and keeps the ball away from the whomp um zone, like many pitchers. Festa does have swing and miss pitches. Hopefully Baldelli watches Festa throw 85-105 pitches tonight across 7 innings. 

FWIW, Festa was ranked #5 among Twins prospects last year but I don't remember him on anyone's top 100 lists.  

[Fatbat]

2 hours ago, LambchoP said:

It is very sad that our SP going 4 2/3 innings is considered a productive start. We saw this a few years ago. Even if our starters pitch like all stars for just 4-5 innings that still leaves Way too many innings for the pen to cover each and every night. This leads to guys getting overused, ineffectiveness, injuries and most importantly, games lost. Pitching was supposed to be a strength of this team. Season already is looking lost so I would treat the rest of the year as auditions for next year. Call up Zebby Festa and Morris and see if anyone claims a rotation spot. Then call up Keaschal, Rodriguez, Mccusker, Martin and Camargo. Might as well see what we have for next year and how much we need to acquire from outside the organization. I don't know how Rocco DOESN'T get fired after this trainwreck season.

Its April, in MN. SP’s aren’t going to throw 7-9innings in April. Would we like to see 6.1innings. Absolutely but the only trainwreck on this team is the lack of hitting and scoring runs. 

[LA Vikes Fan]

This. C'mon guys, a young pitcher going a solid 4 2/3 in his first MLB start of the year in April is something to celebrate, not criticize, One unearned run, 4 SOs. He could have gone longer but we didn't field well and once again we didn't score any runs. Score was tied 1-1 when he left so we didn't have a lot of room to let him go further.  

With that said, treating this as a retooling/rebuilding year makes a lot of sense to me. To be more specific, I would either trade Paddack now or after one more start to improve his trade value. If he can't be traded for a bat, I would move him to the bullpen as the long man and either keep Festa up when Lopez returns or call up Matthews to take his rotation spot. I would demote or DFA Gaspar and replace him with Keaschall now so we can see how he performs while Lewis is out. Vasquez may be a great defensive catcher, or at least good, but we can't carry his bat. He is released, Camargo up.  Keirsey either plays 3-4 days a week instead of Larnach and/or Bader, or if they really have no confidence in him trade or demote him for McCusker. To me, that's a start. More coming if guys don't get better. 

[Fire Dan Gladden]

3 hours ago, LambchoP said:

It is very sad that our SP going 4 2/3 innings is considered a productive start. We saw this a few years ago. Even if our starters pitch like all stars for just 4-5 innings that still leaves Way too many innings for the pen to cover each and every night. This leads to guys getting overused, ineffectiveness, injuries and most importantly, games lost. Pitching was supposed to be a strength of this team. Season already is looking lost so I would treat the rest of the year as auditions for next year. Call up Zebby Festa and Morris and see if anyone claims a rotation spot. Then call up Keaschal, Rodriguez, Mccusker, Martin and Camargo. Might as well see what we have for next year and how much we need to acquire from outside the organization. I don't know how Rocco DOESN'T get fired after this trainwreck season.

We go from a decent start for a young pitcher to blow up the team and fire Rocco. Does anyone suppose we could get one article where the comments don't go down this road?
 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

2 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

We go from a decent start for a young pitcher to blow up the team and fire Rocco. Does anyone suppose we could get one article where the comments don't go down this road?
 

It does seem to blast to the extreme right away.  If it were that easy to blow up a team, start over, and be successful everyone would do it.  Same with managers.  You know, all of the ones we don't have are great and the ones we do have are awful and shouldn't be managing. 

Sheesh.

[USAFChief]

33 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

We go from a decent start for a young pitcher to blow up the team and fire Rocco. Does anyone suppose we could get one article where the comments don't go down this road?
 

You know one foolproof way to get rid of all the "fire Rocco" comments?

Fire Rocco.

 

Hahahahahahahahaha. I kill me.

[thelanges5]

He looked good on Friday. I’m happy to see him again Weds. There will likely be at least 1 more Pablo start to fill. Let Festa eat!

[jmlease1]

Happy to see Festa get another start. Hope to be able to catch at least some of the game, would definitely like to see how he's throwing. I'm still a big fan of the Slim Reaper and his development has been quite good. His biggest problem in his first stint was handing out too many free passes, and he was also a little bit too hittable. In his first outing he was on top of both of those things, even if he didn't get out of the 5th. I thin if he can limit the baserunners, he's going to do just fine and this will be a good test for him.

I would say it's probably the right move from an organizational standpoint to give Festa another start rather than tap Matthews, even though Matthews has been on it so far and looking very sharp in AAA. Once the decision was made to go with Festa for the first start, there's not a good enough reason to swap him out for Matthews at this point and some good ones to give Festa another start, not the least of which is Festa pitched pretty well.

I'm sure we'll see Matthews at some point, but I'm excited by Festa's potential as well. Be interesting to see if he deploys that sinker, or if it's not ready for prime time yet...