{"id":601883,"date":"2026-03-02T16:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/601883\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:51:16","slug":"david-festa-was-making-up-for-lost-time-before-latest-setback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/601883\/","title":{"rendered":"David Festa Was Making Up For Lost Time Before Latest Setback"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Festa<\/a> entered spring training a little behind schedule compared to the rest of the starting rotation. He needed a bit more time to build his shoulder strength back up following a Botox injection in mid-September, which helped to treat a compressed nerve between his shoulder and neck.<\/p>\n

He was finally able to get in his first live batting practice on the back fields of Lee County Sports Complex last week. However, he started to feel discomfort in his shoulder again during his last bullpen session on February 24.<\/p>\n

An MRI revealed some good news. The discomfort in the back of Festa\u2019s right shoulder is unrelated to his neurological thoracic outlet syndrome last fall. However, there was a rotator cuff impingement, which has now pushed Festa\u2019s return timetable back to mid to late April.<\/p>\n

Festa\u2019s injury brings Minnesota\u2019s starting rotation options down from eight to six just two weeks into camp. However, Festa isn\u2019t out for the season like<\/a> Pablo L\u00f3pez<\/a>. He completed a good portion of his rehab before being shut down with a separate injury this past week.<\/p>\n

Still, David Festa had made some progress in spring training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found myself starting my off-season throwing program earlier than usual just because I had taken off a good bit towards the end of the season with being on the IL and not throwing,\u201d Festa said on February 19. \u201cSo I kind of used it to build up a little sooner and build up a little longer. So I slow-cooked the beginning, just making sure throughout the process, each time I added distance, intensity, that it was responding well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in the middle of the season, when working through normal five days off between starts, Festa rarely takes more than the first day off after a start to keep his arm moving. The second day after, he\u2019s usually doing some form of soft tossing and building up for his next start.<\/p>\n

So, for Festa to have to shut things down on July 23, pitch only 2 \u2154 innings in a rehab start in late August, then not pick up a ball again until mid to late October, threw off his body\u2019s rhythm at the start of the off-season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes time to build that familiarity back, to build strength and just overall motion. So, for me, I think it was important to start the throwing program, even if it was light toss, earlier than usual. Just so it would allow me to take more time to front-end.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the first half of his off-season throwing program focused on building back his rhythm as a starter, Festa didn\u2019t spend too much time mixing around his pitch arsenal or focusing on one pitch to add or change within his arsenal. After so much time off, he focused on his mechanics. Depending on how he felt this spring, he might have gone deeper, retooling or reshaping his pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it was the mechanical reason why I didn\u2019t feel good, but obviously, when you don\u2019t feel good, your body naturally protects itself, and you sort of compensate,\u201d he said. \u201cSo for me, it was kind of making sure I knew what those things were. Just obviously keep myself healthy and build awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things were going well for David Festa this spring until that first live BP, when the shoulder pain flared up again. His velo was reportedly down to 91 or 92 MPH on his fastball, which stat around 94.1 MPH on average last season. Pitchers occasionally throw with slower velocity at the start of camp. However, Festa\u2019s velocity was down because of pain in his arm.<\/p>\n

The Twins didn\u2019t want to rush him back into things once camp opened. They may have been down a starter on Day 1 of camp, but that didn\u2019t mean they were going to rush Festa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey keep stressing to me they want to make sure I feel good and that we\u2019re not pushing it in February,\u201d said Festa. \u201cYeah, just making sure I\u2019m responding well after every bullpen after I up the intensity going through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even before the new shoulder pain, Festa may have had a smaller workload in his starts than his teammates to begin the season. It wasn\u2019t a conversation he had yet with the Twins. However, given the unique solution to deal with a compressed nerve last fall, it wouldn\u2019t have been surprising for Festa to be limited to facing a lineup one and a half times through the order to start the season.<\/p>\n

With his season delayed until the trees are in full bloom in Minnesota, Twins fans will likely get their first look at him on a rehab assignment in St. Paul once he\u2019s ready. But for now, Festa is the first player on the 40-man roster who will be staying behind in extended spring training once the team heads to Baltimore for Opening Day.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still a disappointing setback for David Festa, who wanted to prove his strength this spring, but it doesn\u2019t mean he won\u2019t have the opportunity to make an impact on the team this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Festa entered spring training a little behind schedule compared to the rest of the starting rotation. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,3916,822,60,3190,4,148],"class_list":["post-601883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-twins","tag-baseball","tag-david-festa","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minnesotatwins","tag-mlb","tag-twins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116160619131052149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}