Twins lose another arm right before the deadline

David Festa hasn't thrown a regular-season pitch since last July, and now we know why the wait has dragged on this long. MLB Trade Rumors confirmed Festa is headed for thoracic outlet surgery, a procedure that ends his 2026 season entirely and puts a real dent in Minnesota's pitching depth at the worst possible time.

MLB Trade Rumors

@mlbtraderumors

Twins' David Festa To Undergo Thoracic Outlet Surgery t.co/JWVUNEA1Hf

This one's been building. Festa first saw a thoracic outlet specialist back in September of 2025, when doctors found a compressed nerve but held off on cutting. He then fought shoulder problems all through spring training this year, never got right, and the Twins are now moving forward with two procedures at once: an arthroscopic surgery for a shoulder impingement and a pec release to deal with the neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. That's not a maintenance tune-up. That's a guy who's been battling his own arm for almost a full calendar year finally getting the surgical fix.

For context, Festa was one of the more promising arms in the system before his 2024 debut, and he's got 25 big-league appearances on his ledger with a 5.12 ERA over 117 2/3 innings — a strikeout rate over 25% undercut by a homer problem that never went away. GM Jeremy Zoll had already signaled Festa was likely to miss the rest of the year, so this is confirmation more than shock. The Twins are keeping him on the 40-man and betting on a healthier 2027.

The timing stings, though. Minnesota sits right at.500 and half a game back of a wild card spot, and Zoll has openly said the front office is playing buyer this deadline, with bullpen help as the stated priority. Losing a young rotation piece for the year doesn't change that stance, but it does thin out the internal options just as the front office is trying to figure out what to go get from the outside. Bailey Ober working back toward the rotation helps soften the blow, but a team that was already scraping for pitching depth just lost another body for the stretch run.

None of this torpedoes the Twins' deadline plans, but it's one more reason the front office can't afford to sit on its hands before August 3. Watch for Minnesota to lean even harder into pitching help now that Festa's name is off the board for the rest of the year.