Twins’ Matt Canterino, 900 days after he last pitched in a game, keeps it optimistic

FORT MYERS, FLA. – Matt Canterino just wants a uniform, a pitcher’s mound and a baseball.

Your pity? Leave it in the dugout.

“I don’t think the last five years have been a waste by any means, even though I haven’t been able to pitch,” said the 27-year-old righthander, once one of the Twins’ top prospects. “I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me. I have no regrets about any of this. I’ve tried my best, I feel really good now, and I’m still enjoying playing baseball.”

It’s a remarkably positive attitude, considering he hasn’t actually played baseball for 929 days and counting. Canterino is entering his seventh professional season, after pitching only 85 innings, total, in his first six.

The COVID-19 pandemic canceled all minor league baseball in 2020. Canterino suffered a forearm strain in 2021 that essentially ended his season in May. His elbow gave out two months into the 2022 season, so he had Tommy John surgery that cost him all of 2023, too. A year ago, a rotator cuff strain he suffered during spring training lingered all summer.

“Nobody likes to have a season-ending injury, and nobody likes to have four of them. I haven’t pitched a full season since 2019,” the summer the Twins drafted him in the second round, Canterino pointed out. “The COVID season was bad luck, because I honestly felt the best I’ve ever felt. But I feel like I’m really fortunate because each time I’ve come back, I’ve been able to get to where I was and where I felt good.”

That moment came again last October, shortly after the 2024 season ended. The shoulder had finally healed, Canterino was throwing without pain, and he was able to commit to a normal offseason program.

“It was a good mental hurdle to clear. I started facing hitters, and the stuff was coming out normal,” Canterino said. “I had a good offseason, got married, traveled a little bit and worked toward building myself up for camp. Now I’m hoping to show [the Twins] that their patience is going to be worth it.”

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli hopes so, too. Canterino’s return — his fastball hit 95 mph in his first live bullpen session of camp — could pay off for the Twins later this summer, even though Canterino has yet to play above Class AA.

“He’s got a really good arm. You get a guy like that healthy and on a roll, you don’t have to squint too hard to see him getting a ton of swing-and-misses at the big-league level,” said Baldelli, whose own playing career was frequently paused by lingering injuries. “I know the feeling. You have to prove to yourself that you’ve regained all your skills, regain all that muscle memory, before you can truly become whole again and become yourself again. He’s a guy we have very, very high hopes for.”

To avoid putting too much pressure on his arm and shoulder, Canterino will work out of the bullpen, at least for this season. Which is fine with him — just being able to pitch at all is a milestone he’s eager to reach.

“I’m in love with baseball, not in love with rehabbing. It’s kind of like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit — I can taste it at this point,” Canterino said. “If I keep trusting my process and working hard, hopefully I’ll get a break here this year. There have been steps along the way that have given me confidence that it’s all going to be worth it.”

Jhoan Duran hit 99 mph with his fastball in his first bullpen session of camp, and that wasn’t even the part that impressed observers.

“I lost 12 pounds,” the righthander said of his physical conditioning. “I feel like 90 percent better” than last year.

That’s because his oblique muscle, a nagging minor annoyance throughout 2024, has healed. Now Duran, who also got married over the winter, is determined to follow his 2023 workout schedule, in hopes it returns his 2023 velocity. Duran topped out at 102 mph last year, after occasionally reaching 104 mph a year earlier.

The entire roster of pitchers and catchers was in camp as scheduled Thursday, the Twins said, and Baldelli marveled at the shape they’re in.

“We have a new game that we’re playing today. The way these guys work their bodies and their minds to prepare for spring training looks so different from the way it did 10, 15, 20 years ago,” Baldelli said. “These guys are coming in in the kind of shape [that would make you] say they are, physically, ready to throw. Their pitches would match up with many of their regular-season pitches.”