Maeda skips turn in rotation with lingering fatigue

NEW YORK -- The Twins skipped Kenta Maeda’s turn in the starting rotation, with Louie Varland recalled from Triple-A St. Paul making Friday night’s start at Yankee Stadium, manager Rocco Baldelli previously announced following Minnesota’s 11-2 victory in the series opener on Thursday.

Though Maeda will not be placed on the injured list, Baldelli noted the decision stemmed from “general fatigue” being experienced by the 35-year-old right-hander, who has made two starts in his return from September 2021 Tommy John surgery.

Maeda said on Friday that they came to a mutual decision because the typical post-start soreness in his arm was taking longer to subside than before his surgery, which he attributed to the increased intensity of regular season games as compared to Spring Training games.

"Every day I’m feeling better, significantly better," Maeda said through interpreter Dai Sekizaki. "So giving an extra five more days will definitely get rid of the soreness."

Tyler Mahle, Friday’s originally scheduled starter, was pushed back a day to Saturday. Pablo López is slated to pitch Sunday’s series finale as expected.

Maeda was pulled from the sixth inning of his season debut on April 4 in Miami after he reported feeling fatigue in his throwing arm, which the Twins considered to be an expected byproduct of his first meaningful game action in more than 19 months.

All of his pitches ticked down in velocity in Monday's start against the White Sox, when his four-seam fastball averaged 89.2 mph.

In his two starts, Maeda allowed five runs in 11 innings (a 4.09 ERA) but did not walked a batter while striking out 12.

"I guess it’s part of coming off of a Tommy John to feel more soreness or lingering tightness than usual," Maeda said. "So at some point, I knew this was going to happen for the team to give me an extra couple of days. Did I expect it to be this early? No, but it just happened to be."

Varland was scratched from his expected start for the Saints on Thursday roughly an hour before first pitch. Though Bailey Ober has publicly been noted as the Twins’ next man up in the rotation after a roster crunch pushed him off the roster, he was unavailable for the outing because he threw six innings in a Triple-A start on Wednesday.

Varland, the Twins’ No. 10 prospect per MLB Pipeline, had a 3.81 ERA in five starts for Minnesota at the end of last season. He’ll return to the site of his Major League debut, which happened at Yankee Stadium last Sept. 7.

“We just think it’s prudent and wise and the right thing to do this,” Baldelli said. “This is something that we knew would happen one or two or three times this year [with Maeda]. This is not an unexpected thing. Did we know it would be this week? No. We made the decision today to do that because we think it’s the right thing to do.”