The Twins were already scraping to piece together a rotation, and now the news is about as bad as it gets. Mick Abel and David Festa are both likely finished for the 2026 season, according to MLB Trade Rumors, turning what was already a shaky pitching outlook into a full-blown crisis in Minneapolis.
MLB Trade Rumors broke the news that both young righties are likely done for the year.
Abel's saga has been a slow-motion disaster. He came out of the gate strong before elbow inflammation shut him down just four starts into the year, then a triceps issue extended the absence further. The Twins thought they had him lined up to rejoin the rotation after a couple of clean rehab starts at Triple-A St. Paul, but soreness after a bullpen session in late June scrapped that plan for good. A second opinion led him to arthroscopic elbow surgery on July 1, and even in the best-case scenario, he's not expected to get a real checkup until late August, leaving no realistic runway to build back up before the season ends.
Festa's situation is a different flavor of bad. He never got going at all this year after a shoulder impingement popped up during spring training. He tried a stem-cell injection to jump-start the healing, but he hasn't been able to take part in any game action since. It's also not the first time he's had a scare with thoracic outlet syndrome, which only adds to the concern as he heads to see a specialist for more answers.
Losing both arms at once is a brutal blow for a Twins rotation that was leaning on them as building blocks for the present and future. Abel was part of the return in the Jhoan Duran-Christian Cairo trade with Philadelphia last summer, brought in as a controllable, projectable arm to help stabilize the staff for years to come. Festa, a homegrown prospect, had flashed enough in his rookie season to look like a rotation piece Minnesota could count on. Now both are shelved indefinitely, and the front office is left scrambling to fill innings with what's left in the system and whatever they can scrounge up before the trade deadline.
For a team that's spent the summer trying to stay in the mix, this is the kind of news that reshapes everything from the deadline calculus to next year's payroll priorities. Expect Minnesota to lean harder into the trade market for pitching help, and expect the props and odds on their second-half outlook to shift accordingly. Two live young arms just went from assets to question marks, and there's no quick fix for that.