Zebby

Matthews

Matthews gave up two runs to the Royals in the first inning on a walk and two doubles. He then settled in nicely, going six more scoreless innings. He scattered two more hits and three more walks, striking out two. The 26-year-old right-hander will take a 4.15 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and a 26/8 K/BB ratio across 30 1/3 innings into a start against the Tigers in Detroit on Wednesday.

The young right-hander struck out seven and walked two, raising his ERA from 2.37 to 4.63 on the year. Matthews had pitched well across three starts in his return to the big leagues, continuing to throw strikes and not allowing many free passes. Home runs have been an issue, and he allowed two more on Sunday to Ryan O’Hearn and Nick Gonzales. Matthews had been throwing his curve more than last year, and he’s an important pitcher to track for any adjustments. He next lines up for a home start against the Royals.

He struck out six and walked one. All three runs came on homers from Munetaka Murakami and Drew Romo in the first two innings. Very encouraging was that Matthews averaged 96.2 mph with his fastball today. He was at 94.8 mph in his season debut 11 days ago, but he boosted that to 95.8 mph last time out and got it even higher today. If he stays in this territory, he should offer some mixed league value, though he’ll contribute more in WHIP and in strikeouts than in ERA. He’ll next face the Pirates on Saturday.

Matthews also struck out six and didn’t walk a batter while throwing 66 percent of his pitches for strikes. His four-seamer was one mph faster than we saw in his first outing, and his vertical movement seems to be up from last season. He also seems to have tweaked all of his secondary pitches. His curveball seems brand new, coming in three mph slower than last year with six inches more horizontal movement. It had just a six percent swinging strike rate, so it might not have been the best change. His slider and cutter are both also slower this year, but the cutter has less break, so he may be creating more differentiation between the two. The results have been good, but the arsenal remains questionable. We’d be OK adding him, but it’s a bit of a stiffer test against a surging White Sox lineup next week.

Matthews’ 2026 debut couldn’t have gone much better, as he struck out five and walked one in a breezy 83-pitch outing. That his velocity is still down about 1.5 mph from last year makes him quite a bit less intriguing as a fantasy option. Still, his new, intentionally slower curveball worked well today, generating a 46 percent CSW and one very weak groundout the 13 times he threw it. He should stick around and face the Astros next week.

This was announced yesterday and is now official. Matthews will get a chance to hold down Taj Bradley’s spot in the rotation while Bradley is out with a pectoral strain. Matthews was a fantasy darling last season, but he struggled in 16 starts for the Twins and has posted a 4.72 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, and 33/11 K/BB ratio across 34 1/3 innings over seven starts for Triple-A St. Paul this season. We’d leave him on waiver wires for now.

The Twins are going to push rookie Connor Prielipp’s next start back a couple days in an effort to manage his workload. Matthews will get the call to fill the spot in Minnesota’s rotation vacated by Taj Bradley (pectoral) after he hit the injured list last weekend. The 25-year-old has compiled an inflated 4.72 ERA, 1.52 WHIP and 33/11 K/BB ratio across 34 1/3 innings over seven starts for Triple-A St. Paul this season. He struggled to a bloated 5.56 ERA over 79 1/3 innings across 16 starts with the Twins last year. He’s an intriguing talent, but the results haven’t been there consistently enough for fantasy managers to trust him as a streaming option, even against a relatively weak Marlins lineup.

It’s a significant loss for Minnesota, and fantasy managers, since Bradley has been pitching extremely well, allowing two earned runs or fewer in seven of his eight starts this season. He’s posted a strong 2.87 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 52/17 K/BB ratio across 47 innings during that span. There is no timetable for 25-year-old former top pitching prospect yet, but he’s likely facing a multi-week absence, even in a best-case scenario. It’ll likely be Zebby Matthews coming up from Triple-A to take his rotation spot next week.

Given the injury to Pablo Lopez, Matthews seemed like a lock to open the season in the starting rotation, but he didn’t have a great spring, allowing nine runs (seven earned) on 12 hits in 11 innings while striking out nine and walking four. The strikeout upside he showed in the minors has not really carried over to his 117 career MLB innings, so he will head back to Triple-A to try and work on his pitch sequencing or shapes in the hopes of unlocking that next level of production. This move likely means that Mick Abel has won a spot in the Twins’ starting rotation.

Matthews’ velocity declined last time out in a rough start against the Braves and was down a little further today; his fastball was off by 1.5 mph from last year and his slider was down by 2.5 mph. It still might be a temporary dip, but between that and the possibility that he opens up in Triple-A, there’s no recommending him in mixed leagues right now.