Zebby Matthews Faces Live Hitters for First Time, Could Start Rehab Assignment Soon

On June 4, Zebby Matthews was making his fourth start of the season after being called up to replace an ineffective Simeon Woods Richardson. Matthews was just starting to find his way with the Twins, but after that day's five strong innings, shoulder discomfort flared for the second time in a week. After imaging, he hit the injured list with a moderate subscapularis strain in his right shoulder on June 8. Early guesses pegged his return in the four- to eight-week window.

This was, of course, devastating news: Pablo López had hit the shelf with his own shoulder injury just a few days earlier. Making matters worse, Bailey Ober was clearly not right, dealing with decreased velocity, mechanical issues, and was gritting through his starts ineffectively while playing hurt. Just like that, in the span of a couple of weeks, the Twins lost their ace, fifth, and sixth starters, and couldn’t count on their number three. Many fans began to despair, writing the season off as a lost cause. After all, Joe Ryan, while awesome, just isn’t set up for success when Chris Paddack is next in line and an unproven David Festa is the number three.

Fast-forward a month. On Tuesday afternoon, the Twins provided a measure of good news, the likes of which fans have been clamoring for: Zebby Matthews is not far from returning to the Twins. He faced live hitters for the first time since hitting the shelf—including fellow rehabbing rookie Luke Keaschall.

Matthews threw roughly 40 pitches across two innings. This is an important step, as he has needed to check several boxes after his rest period—things like long toss, throwing off a flat surface, throwing his breaking pitches, then throwing bullpen sessions. Facing live hitting is different than those prior progressions.

“You can try to recreate the bullpen to make it as much like simulated games as possible, but once the hitter gets in the box, it’s always a little different," Matthews said. "Just trying to feel good out there, throw stuff in zone, and from there you can work on, whether it’s sequencing or execution, the finer parts of pitching. Today’s just about feeling good and throwing strikes.”

In total, it was a success, though he put a few (simulated) runners on base and allowed some (simulated) hard hits.

“Felt good. I feel normal out there,” he said. “Obviously, didn’t quite execute the way [I] needed to, the first time with hitters; [I was] a little excited. But no, it was good.”

Speaking about his stuff on the mound, he added:

“Ultimately, the first time with hitters, you want to feel good out there—make sure everything feels good out of [your] hand, you’re able to get it in the zone. But it’s always tough. First time, you have the adrenaline back with the hitters, it’s a lot different setting.”

Now that he has faced live hitting, what other milestones will the righty need to achieve before rejoining the team? How much longer will fans need to wait before seeing him make another start at Target Field?

“We’ll sit down and talk. Kind of had to check this off today, but we’ll sit down and talk, probably some time today, and figure out next steps and go from there,” Matthews said. He indicated that over the next couple days, he expects to hear about a rehab assignment with Saint Paul—the next logical step in his progression. Of course, this depends on his body recovering well over the next couple days, similar to the way it would post-start. Before rejoining the Twins, he will need to get used to several ups and downs, and build back up to being able to throw six innings.

“You have to be patient; you can’t rush anything, because that’s when you have setbacks. So you communicate with them on how you’re feeling, and you’re honest with them, and just get back out there when you can.”

Fans may expect to see Matthews rejoin the rotation and supplant Travis Adams some time shortly after the All-Star break, if all goes well. While it’s a small sample, Matthews has pitched to a 3.25 FIP across four starts in 2025. He has struck out nearly 12 per nine innings, and if he can pick up where he left off, he will give the rotation a real shot in the arm in the second half.

His return will also give fans another fun young player to watch, as the Twins fight for a playoff berth. Here’s hoping the Twins can tread water while waiting for Matthews to bolster the rotation. There's still a lot of baseball left to play in 2025, and he has a big role to play if the Twins are to play meaningful games in September, let alone October.

Twins Daily's Matthew Trueblood contributed reporting.

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