Ryan makes final start, Duran closes out old team as Twins lose to Phillies

The 29-year-old Ryan finishes the year 13-10 with a 3.47 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, and 194 strikeouts in 171 innings. He was worth 4.5 Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball Reference, which ranks seventh among American League pitchers and 16th among all MLB pitchers. He limped to the finish line a bit — he had a 2.72 season ERA in mid-August and then had a 6.75 ERA in his final seven starts — but it was still a career year for Ryan, who made his first All-Star team this summer.

After the game, Ryan deflected when asked if he'd thought about the possibility of Friday's start being his last one in a Twins uniform, per The Athletic's Dan Hayes. The Twins didn't get close to trading Ryan during their pre-deadline fire sale (despite a couple botched tweets that suggested otherwise), but after shedding so much salary at the deadline, they could theoretically consider moving Ryan and/or Pabló Lopez this winter to further lean into a rebuild.

Ryan took a diplomatic approach to questioning about his future.

"At the end of the day, I see the big picture and the decisions they’ve made, and I think they’re good decisions and the trajectory of the organization is positive," Ryan said, via Hayes. “(My future) is so far out of my control."

The Twins didn't have a baserunner through 5.2 innings against Phillies starter Aaron Nola on Friday, but light-hitting catcher Christian Vázquez broke up the perfect game with a solo homer to left. It was just his third big fly in 210 plate appearances this year.

Down 3-1, the Twins stranded Kody Clemens after a leadoff triple in the seventh. In the top of the ninth, Nola gave way to a familiar face to Minnesota fans. Jhoan Duran got his signature entrance in front of a packed house in Philadelphia and came in to close out the game against his former team. He gave up singles to Vázquez and Ryan Jeffers, but struck out Byron Buxton and Clemens and got Trevor Larnach to fly out weakly to end the game. Duran has 32 saves this season, including 16 on 19 tries since being traded to the Phillies two months ago.

Afterwards, Duran described his reaction to the Twins' wild deadline day and said "I wanted to be there for a long time.”

The Twins are 69-91 with two games to play. One part of their return for Duran, righthander Mick Abel, will start against his former team on Saturday at 5:05 p.m. CT.