Matt Canterino Enjoyed Watching the Twins While Crushing his Rehab

Late in September, the Twins had taken over the American League Central and were playoff-bound. After starting all season, Louie Varland was moved to the bullpen, and he aired it out, sitting in the upper 90s and breaking off some really sharp sliders. 

In addition, Chris Paddack came off of the Injured List. The 27-year-old from Cedar Park, Texas, hadn’t pitched since April 2022 after his second Tommy John surgery. On September 24th, Paddack ran from the Target Field bullpen to the Target Field mound, but before he could throw a pitch, the rains came, and a delay pushed back his return to MLB game action. Two days later, he finally had the opportunity. 

In his first inning, Paddack struck out the side and let out a yelp, releasing pent-up emotion that was fun for Twins fans to see. 

At that same time, Twins pitching prospect Matt Canterino was sitting in his room in Fort Myers watching the game, about 13 months into his Tommy John recovery. Was seeing that performance motivational for the 25-year-old from Southlake, Texas?

“I would say it was more joy for Chris than anything. I saw his process. I saw how hard he worked every day. And I saw how much he got to know some of the minor leaguers and formed relationships with people that he didn’t have to in Fort Myers. It was a lot of joy for him, knowing it was a culmination of everything he’s been working on.”

Nevertheless, seeing Paddack’s return come to fruition is something that the two Texans who grew up about three hours apart talked about while they worked and rehabbed in Fort Myers. 

Canterino noted, “he was a great teammate to rely upon in the process, especially because we were in fairly similar spots in rehab the entire year. I was able to bounce a lot of ideas off of him, and we were able to have a lot of good conversations about how we wanted to develop and how we wanted to be better than we were pre-surgery. I’m really thankful for that friendship.” 
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Now Canterino is ready to show that he is back. However, let’s not minimize the timeline. The first issue came early in the 2021 season after just five (dominant) starts in Cedar Rapids. He had a 0.86 ERA, a 0.67 WHIP, and 43 strikeouts to just four walks in 21 innings. He spent the rest of the 2021 season in Fort Myers rehabbing. He worked two innings in a game for the Mussels later that summer, but it didn’t feel right. 

He began 2022 with the Double-A Wichita Wind Surge. He was being eased in, working three innings at a time and then four innings. However, after 11 games and 34 1/3 innings (with 50 strikeouts but also 22 walks). 

He went and met Dr. Meister in Texas, and while they had met before, this was the first time they had mentioned the term “Tommy John surgery.” Meister and Dr. Camp (the Twins' surgeon) were on the same page. They could give it one more try just rehabbing, but he had been doing that for a long time. Canterino had given it “one more try,” and the pain was terrible after one inning in the GCL. He had never had a complete tear, but the ligament was compromised enough. Rehab hadn’t worked. 

So, on August 25th, 2022, Canterino had Tommy John surgery. Dr. Meister’s timeline is a 14-month plan to return to competitive pitching. For the first six months, there was no throwing. It’s all about building strength in the shoulder, elbow, and forearm. Over the next six months, throwing is built up slowly. The first three months involve throwing on flat ground, and the next three months include a return to a mound. That leaves two months where the focus can be on a return to pitching. 

While he is very competitive on the mound, Canterino appreciated the process. “I am a pretty process-oriented person, and I like hitting little check marks along the way. Everything is written out and well-recorded within the rehab. The Twins do a great job of that. I was able to keep hitting those check marks and able to stay optimistic with how things were progressing.” 

The most challenging part, he said, was “just building up to go home for the offseason. I wasn’t building up to face hitters in any games. I still have to wait for spring training.”

However, before heading to Texas for the offseason, he was able to get back on the mound and face live batters. What was the goal? What was the plan for facing live batters? 

“(It marks) The last step to start building up to be ready in games. So, we definitely pushed it a bit. We wanted to see where I was at so we could get an accurate judge. This is what you need to work on this offseason. This is what you need to be ready for coming into spring training. It definitely was a little bit of Let it Rip in terms of velocity and using offspeed pitches as well. So it was good.”

How did it go?

“I was missing bats, so that was good. I was up to 96 (mph). My slider felt completely returned to normal. My changeup felt completely returned to normal. And I was getting swings and misses on all of them. You never want to put too much stock into the results of those things, but in terms of my process, going through, getting ready, Letting it Rip, and recovering the next day, it was exactly what I wanted to do.”

Canterino is set to enjoy his offseason. He’s got a couple of trips planned and will spend time with his closest support group. But he will also be working on improving to impress in Fort Myers in spring training. “I feel like I’m back to where I was, and I know that I’m going to come to spring training and be able to compete for a job and show that I can still compete at the highest level.”

From Paddack’s return, Canterino notes. “This is doable. There will be ups and downs, but this is doable. You can get back, treat the rehab process with a lot of respect, and give it the attention it deserves. You can come back even better than wherever you were when you had to go down.”

Canterino was the Twins second-round pick in 2019. His goal in 2023 is to get to the big leagues, where seven from his draft class have already played. He was excited to watch Matt Wallner, Brent Headrick, Louie Varland, and Edouard Julien play critical roles at various times for the Twins during the season and playoffs. 

“I was beyond happy for my friends that debuted this year and got to be big-time contributors both during the regular season and in the playoffs.” 

In conclusion, it was great to catch up with Matt Canterino. The interview is about 42 minutes long, and we talked about several other topics beyond what you read above. You’ll want to take a listen. But it was also great to see the excitement on his face and hear it in his voice as he talked about looking ahead. 

I’ll leave you with a few final quotes that are exciting. 

“I feel strong. I feel ready. This is the moment to prove it now.”

“I just want to be the best teammate I can be. I just want to get back there and play baseball with the boys.”

“I love baseball. I want to be able to contribute. I want to be a part of that winning culture that the Twins are establishing.”

Matt Canterino was previously a guest on Episode 2 of Twins Spotlight back in October of 2020. That episode was more of a Get to Know 'em show, and as you can imagine, Canterino is fantastic at that. 

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