Great News: Joe Ryan is an American League All-Star, After All

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Joe Ryan felt he had done everything he could to earn inclusion at next week’s All-Star festivities. Now, the league has acknowledged that fact. With Hunter Brown unavailable to pitch in the game due to a start this weekend, Ryan got the nod as a replacement selectee. He’ll slide up in the Twins’ injury-ravaged rotation and pitch Friday’s series opener with the Pirates against fellow All-Star Paul Skenes, ensuring that he can pitch for the AL if the chance comes Tuesday.

“Yeah, I was just super excited. I don't know,” Ryan said after learning the news. “The first thought that came to me was just being excited for [Byron Buxton] and being able to watch the Home Run Derby and him be at his home ballpark. I think that's such a cool aspect of this game, that I get to share that experience with him.”

For Buxton, who was briefly the only Twin tabbed for the game, the feeling was mutual.

"It means a lot," Buxton said. "I don't think it's something he had on his radar at the beginning of the year. It's just about coming out, pitching well, and he's done everything that you could possibly ask to get to this spot. It's definitely good to see him get rewarded. He definitely needs to be in."

This will be Ryan’s first trip to the Midsummer Classic, but he’s made good cases for selection in each of the last three first halves. To get over that hump required [player reason], but that doesn’t diminish what Ryan has accomplished. Even beyond his sparkling 2.76 ERA, the numbers are exceptional. Baseball Reference offers a step-by-step layout of the way they compare a pitcher’s actual runs allowed (RA9, or runs allowed per nine innings, earned or otherwise) to their expected ones. The key adjustments are quality of opponent, defensive support, and park factors. Ryan’s opponents have been stronger than average this year; the Twins defenses aligned behind him have been below-average; and he’s pitched in a mix of parks that favors hitters, overall. His 2,85 RA9 is dramatically lower than the 5.17 RA9 Baseball Reference’s model estimates an average hurler would have allowed. Only the following four pitchers have more Runs Above Average, following this framework, than Ryan has this year:

• Zack Wheeler
• Paul Skenes
• Tarik Skubal
• Cristopher Sánchez

In the past, for various reasons, Ryan’s ERA and RA9—his actual run prevention indices—have sometimes failed to match what his skills suggested he deserved. He would let adversity snowball and end up giving up big innings, or let up too many home runs. This year, though, he’s been every bit as good at keeping runs off the board as at striking batters out and limiting baserunners. Perhaps he’s gotten an assist from a slightly deadened baseball, but he’s also been better at managing difficult situations—and his arsenal has gotten deeper and more varied, making it harder for opponents to square him up. Here's what his mix looked like, in terms of movement and velocity, in 2024.

And here's what he's done to alter the picture in 2025.

Ryan has added a curveball to his main breaking ball, the sweeper, and subtly subdivided his slider. It was one pitch; now it's almost two distinct ones. Of late, a harder, more cutter-like version of the pitch is prevailing for him. He's also more fully embraced the sinker he started throwing last year, including going to the pitch against left-handed batters at times. That pitch, in particular, has helped him run a career-high 38.6% ground-ball rate, and it's even earned him a gratifying, unexpected nunber of whiffs.

"I've gone to it a lot," Ryan said. "The spin is so similar, it's the same spin as my split, so that's kind of nice. Just having another weapon to go to, I mean, you watch the best guys in the game, they have the two fastballs—aside from deGrom, I'd say, most guys that are doing it at that level have a sinker, have a four-seamer. It's just such a tough look for hitters. We started throwing to lefties a bit more, too."

With those small changes, Ryan has unlocked the damage suppression that was the lone missing ingredient from his game until now. It's been enough to open a few more eyes, even in a game obsessed with the strikeouts he was already racking up at an admirable rate. Now, while it's unlikely he needs or decides to show off all six (or seven) of his pitches next week, he'll at least get to mingle with the rest of the All-Star hurlers who have proved to be that well-rounded. It's an honor for which he doesn't mind having had to wait. He mentioned being glad to get a chance to talk to Wheeler, who helped him hone his sinker last year. He also took time to praise the process of between-starts adjustment and preparation with the coaching staff.

"The work with Pete and Matt Daniels and Luis and everybody has been a tremendous help to get everything honed in," he said. "We're working on stuff every week. Even if I have a great outing, we're still trying to get better each time, and add more, and subtract in areas volume wise usually. Just trying to be the pitcher I can be and always working to get better and always working to make some adjustments. I would say the arsenal is at a pretty good spot right now."

That competitive drive has finally resulted in the recognition Ryan's teammates and manager long felt he deserved.

"He’s had some other first halves that were good and probably was in consideration for something like this in the past," Rocco Baldelli said Wednesday. "But he just has continued to go out there and just do the work. You have to do the work. You have to have the success and put up the numbers and be just continuously really good. And he has. He seemed so happy when we told him. I feel like you could feel it off of him, you could see it in his face. He’s worked really hard for it, and now he gets to be acknowledged the way he should. It was great news for all of us."

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[DocBauer]

He deserved it, point blank. 

He probably deserved it last season.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

Let’s hope it is the first of many!

[jmlease1]

Well deserved. I'm a big fan of Ryan, nice to see him get the recognition he's earned.

[David HK]

I'm really happy for Joe!  It's well deserved, especially after the heartbreak of last  year!