Reusse: Twins and pitcher Matt Canterino agree his full major league opportunity is worth waiting on

Organized baseball.

That‘s what we old-timers still have a tendency to use to describe the major league and its affiliated minor league teams, even if a check online is quick to deride organized baseball as an “outdated term.”

Thus, it was the minor league of organized baseball that shut down completely for the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The major leagues started an abbreviated 60-game schedule mostly without fans on July 24.

This lack of playing opportunity for the minor leaguers led to a roster modification for spring training in 2021:

The Twins had the rostered players (40), the traditional invitees (21) and then “depth players” — primarily prospects deprived of game competition in 2020. There were 14 such players that spring with the Twins, including a pair of righthanded pitchers in whom the team imagined big futures as starters:

Matt Canterino, 23, a second-round draftee from Rice in 2019, and Josh Winder, 24, a seventh-rounder from VMI in 2018.

Describing their presence, manager Rocco Baldelli said: “These are two very different personalities, but also with big, big ability. We’re watching those young guys down here and we’re impressed.”

Canterino and Winder saw little exhibition action, yet the Twins made adjustments to see more of them against quality hitters. In mid-March, a half-dozen regulars stayed back from a road game. They took batting practice intended to simulate game conditions for several innings for Canterino and Winder.

One pitcher would face five hitters for a total of 20 pitches, then go sit in the dugout, while the other righthander took the mound. Canterino sought feedback after almost every pitch from Josh Donaldson and other batters; Winder hardly said a word.

Which was the personality difference to which Baldelli referred when asked about the pair.

Big hopes for both on that sun-splashed day 50 months ago … but these were pitchers.

You never know.

• • •

As a post-pandemic protection for pitching, the 2022 season opened with 28-player rosters (two over the norm). Winder was a rookie and made his first start May 1 at Tampa Bay. He went six innings, with no runs, two hits and seven strikeouts. He was the first pitcher in Twins history to go at least six shutout innings and allow two hits or fewer in an initial big-league start.

Which became the highlight of Winder‘s time with the Twins.

Winder had 11 starts that rookie season and was sent back to Class AAA St. Paul twice. He pitched 19 games in relief in 2023 and then was in only four Twins games in 2024. He had a variety of injuries, was released after last season and signed a minor league deal in Arizona.

In late February, it was announced by Arizona manager Torey Lovullo that Winder would require Tommy John surgery and miss this season.

Which would allow Canterino, Winder‘s pal from their early days in the Twins organization in Class A Cedar Rapids, to offer some long-distance advice as a member of baseball’s T.J. Recovery World.

As well as most arm injuries known to pitching, in Canterino’s case …

He was the higher draft choice, he was the tall righthander with a touch more life on his pitches, high on strikeouts, low on baserunners.

There was such potential seen in Canterino’s brief moments of availability that it has continued to make him a unique pitching prospect in the 65 years of Twins baseball:

He pitched 23 innings in 2021 because of a forearm strain. He pitched 34 ⅓ innings for Class AA Wichita in 2022 before the elbow problem shut him down again — leading to Tommy John surgery.

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He missed the 2023 season rehabbing from that.

In late January 2024, Canterino sat for a long interview at the Twins complex in Fort Myers, where he had spent most of the past year. He was feeling healthy and filled with enthusiasm for the season ahead.

And then came the shoulder problems. He was shut down for a strain and missed his third straight full season.

Canterino pitched one inning in this spring training, felt the shoulder pain again a few days later and went to see Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, Texas, in mid-March.

“He’s the same doctor that did my Tommy John surgery,” Canterino said. “He performed surgery on the labrum to tighten up the shoulder and prevent all these strains. It means another season without pitching, but Dr. Meister is confident this can be the solution.”

Canterino was talking last week on his way from Fort Myers to Venice, Fla., to visit his parents. And the surprise of it to many is that he was doing that as still a member of the Twins organization.

He was released by the Twins on April 22 to make room on the 40-man roster. Year 7 in the organization, 85 total innings pitched in minor league competition, last game pitched July 30, 2022, five outs for the Fort Myers rookie team.

This had to be it for Canterino and the Twins, right? Five days later, he had cleared waivers and the Twins re-signed him to a two-year minor league contract, covering this season of recovery and to pitch in 2026.

Perhaps.

Twins General Manager Jeremy Zoll was asked for an explanation of this continuing commitment to Canterino.

“Through his many injuries, any time Matt was able to pitch, he was close to dominant,” Zoll said. “He has a high-end fastball, very good off-speed pitches. We wanted to go through this process with him, if he cleared waivers and chose to sign with us.”

Canterino said: “The Twins let me know when I was released that they were interested in this and told me to think about it. All of the people in the organization I’ve worked with through the years, all the time I’ve spent with them in Fort Myers, I decided if I was going to go through this again, the Twins were the organization to do it with.”

Canterino and Kylie Swiekatowski — from Green Bay, no less — were married last November. They met years ago at Rice. She is now a fourth-year medical student in Houston, on her way to becoming a plastic surgeon.

It‘s a strong possibility she will be out of medical school before her husband is pitching again.

“That‘s true,” Canterino said. “And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it has been frustrating, but I know if I stay motivated, it all can be worth it.

“I like the person I’ve become through this. I don’t sit around and feel sorry for myself. There are so many different stories in major league baseball, and I still can become one of those.”