Joe Ryan Was Visibly Angry After His Winning Start Monday Night. Why?

Joe Ryan has never been a pitcher who hides his emotions. Throughout his Twins career, fans have seen his reactions go viral, whether he's celebrating a spectacular defensive play behind him or watching a mistake leave the ballpark before it lands in the seats. Ryan wears his emotions on his sleeve; that's part of what makes him so compelling to watch every fifth day.

For some players, showing emotion can become a distraction. For Ryan, it often serves as fuel. His competitiveness is evident in everything from his body language on the mound to his postgame interviews. That's why his comments after Monday's win over the White Sox stood out. Even after another quality start and a much-needed Twins victory, Ryan sounded frustrated with how the game unfolded.

Monday's start against the White Sox looked like another example of him leading the Twins to victory. Though he surrendered a pair of home runs, Ryan worked six innings and helped the Twins snap their five-game losing streak. It was his second straight outing against Chicago after facing them last Tuesday, and the results were largely similar. Ryan attacked hitters, limited damage, and handed the game over with Minnesota in position to win.

Yet after the game, his mood suggested something was bothering him. When asked about the game plan against the White Sox this time around, Ryan offered a noticeably brief response.

"We pitched today, and we won," said Ryan, glancing around and sounding half-exasperated. "It was good."

For a pitcher who is typically thoughtful and willing to discuss his approach, the answer felt unusually short. His next response provided more insight into why, in baseball lingo, he had the ass.

"I don't feel like I gave enough length,” Ryan explained. “There's some things that could have gone differently, and trying to mix things up when we didn't need to be doing that, and adding things in that we haven't done all year.”

What attempts to mix things up bugged him?

“Just kind of changing the plan at times, and it limits the innings there. I was probably in a spot to go a couple more innings. Certain things didn't go the way we probably should have stuck to. It happens."

That answer raised eyebrows, because Ryan rarely sounds dissatisfied following six innings of work, especially in a victory. The key phrase may have been "adding things in that we haven't done all year." Later, he was asked a follow-up question regarding the game plan and approach.

"Just a couple of things we were doing that we'll talk about this week, and we'll figure [it] out. But it won't happen again."

Whatever those changes were, Ryan clearly wasn't a fan. His tone conveyed that, as much as his words. Specifically, rather than lamenting his own mistakes, he seemed to imply that there were elements of pitch-calling or planning that put him in a position to fail. The details weren't revealed publicly by players or coaches, but it's fair to wonder whether the adjustments involved how Minnesota attacked Chicago's left-handed hitters.

Facing the same team in back-to-back starts is never easy. Hitters gain familiarity. They remember sequencing. They recognize release points. Sometimes, a pitcher and coaching staff feel pressure to introduce something different simply to avoid becoming predictable. The challenge is finding the balance between adjustment and overthinking.

Ryan's success this season has been built on trusting what already works. His fastball plays better than its velocity suggests because of its shape and carry through the strike zone. His splitter generates weak contact and swings and misses. His breaking pitches complement everything else. When Ryan is at his best, he's attacking with conviction, rather than searching for something new.

Looking at the Baseball Savant pitch data from Monday, there are signs the plan may have shifted. His velocity was up across the board. Ryan's fastball averaged 1.4 mph harder than his season average, and similar increases showed up throughout his pitch mix. The stuff itself wasn't the problem.

Against left-handed hitters, Ryan leaned heavily on his fastball and knuckle curve. He threw his four-seamer 54% of the time and his knuckle curve 22% of the time. Compared to his season averages against lefties, that represented an 8% increase in fastball usage and a 6% increase in knuckle curve usage.

Those numbers suggest an intentional adjustment. The question becomes whether the change actually played into Chicago's success.

Ryan's four-seam fastball has carried a 46.3% Hard Hit rate this season. On Monday, White Sox hitters put 10 of his fastballs into play and produced six hard-hit balls. Fortunately for Ryan, only three became hits. One of those hits left the yard for a home run.

While the final line wasn't disastrous, the quality of contact was probably higher than Ryan would have liked. If the plan involved challenging left-handed hitters more aggressively in the zone with fastballs and breaking balls, it's understandable why he may have viewed the results skeptically. Below shows how Ryan approached left-handed batters in his last two starts versus Chicago. Ryan and the Twins leaned harder into the high fastball and went away from using the sweeper the way he did in the previous outing.

That's especially true considering how dominant Ryan has been throughout the season. Pitchers who are performing at an elite level often develop tremendous confidence in the routines and strategies that got them there. When something changes, and it leads to damage (even minor damage), it can be frustrating.

Perhaps the most notable takeaway from Ryan's comments wasn't that he disagreed with the approach. It was how strongly he felt about it. Ryan has been a major success story of the Twins' pitching development process. Monday served as a reminder that even in collaborative environments, pitchers still need to feel ownership of the game plan.

The good news for Minnesota is that Ryan's frustration came after another quality outing, not after a disastrous one. His velocity was excellent. His stuff looked sharp. He still completed six innings and helped secure a much-needed victory.

If anything, Ryan's comments reveal the mentality that has helped turn him into one of the American League's best starters. He wasn't satisfied with six innings and a win, because he believed there was more in the tank. He thought he could have pitched deeper into the game and prevented some of the damage if the Twins had stuck with the approach that has carried him all season.

For a pitcher leading one of baseball’s most injured rotations, that dissatisfaction may actually be a positive sign. Ryan isn't focused on the box score. He's focused on maximizing every outing. And if his postgame comments are any indication, don't expect to see the same experimental game plan the next time he takes the mound.

What will change with Ryan before his next start? Should Ryan have been mad? Leave a comment and start the discussion.