Will Zebby Matthews Make the Minnesota Twins Rotation in 2027?
· Yahoo Sports
Zebby Matthews spent most of 2026 trying to prove he belonged in the Minnesota Twins rotation. The question heading into 2027 is whether he actually did.
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The 26-year-old right-hander made 23 starts this past season, posting a 4.90 ERA over 130 1/3 innings. He went 9-11 with a 1.258 WHIP and struck out 116 batters. By raw numbers, it was a middle-of-the-road season. His FIP came in at 4.70, which tracks pretty closely with his ERA.
Matthews was certainly one of the most inconsistent pitchers in MLB. He had a 4.63 ERA in May, dropped it to 3.82 in June, then watched it balloon to 7.66 in July. He turned it around in August with a 2.90 ERA, only to finish September at 6.87. That kind of month-to-month variance does not make roster decisions easy.
The issue is not stuff and it is not command. Matthews walked just 7.2% of batters, well within an acceptable range, and he mixed six different pitches. His slider and curveball are his two best offerings, both generating plenty of swing-and-miss.
The fastball is the problem. He averaged 95 miles per hour on it, down from 96 the year before, and hitters crushed it this year. He lives in the strike zone but too often misses with hittable pitches when he gets ahead in counts, giving hitters a chance to work back into at-bats they should not be winning.
Matthews also dealt with an injury in July, exiting a start against the New York Yankees with a right-foot laceration. He was optioned to Triple-A St. Paul twice during the season, once in March before the season started and once in August, just days after striking out 10 Seattle Mariners in five innings. Rotation decisions in Minnesota this year were reactive, built around need more than plan.
The Twins finished 77-85 and third in the AL Central, eight games behind Cleveland. Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Taj Bradley and Pablo Lopez are going to likely be in the picture in 2027. The open questions are who fills out the back end of that rotation.
If Matthews can shore up the fastball, keep the ball in the park and string together consistent months rather than alternating between dominance and disaster, he keeps his job.
If he cannot, the Twins will have a decision to make about whether he does more damage as a reliever who can trim his arsenal and focus on his two best pitches. He is in the conversation for 2027. But he is not a lock.