Paredes Out Before First Pitch; Twins Forced Into Game-Day Pivot

Mike Paredes never made it to the mound Saturday. The 25-year-old right-hander, scheduled to start for Minnesota against Oakland, suffered a left oblique strain during warmups and was scratched minutes before first pitch. Left-hander Kendry Rojas took the ball in his place—the rookie's fourth start of the season.

Paredes' injury is a clinical footnote in what's already been a difficult season for the young arm. Through nine career appearances (five starts), he's been tagged for at least one run in every outing, carrying a 4.72 ERA with 19 strikeouts against 13 walks. The 0-3 record isn't the full story—he's been consistently hittable, which matters more for projection purposes than win-loss ledger noise. An oblique strain, however, reshuffles the timeline. These injuries typically sideline a pitcher for 4-6 weeks depending on severity; the team hasn't disclosed exactly where this one sits on that spectrum, but a roster move is already being floated.

The injury clears a path for Connor Prielipp, a left-hander who's been out since July 9 with a blister. If Paredes lands on the IL—not yet official as of Saturday evening—Prielipp's activation becomes the natural fill. The Twins are 15 days into what will be a compressed timeline to the August 1 deadline; every rotation slot and bullpen arm carries magnified value. Rojas, who worked the game Saturday as a short-notice replacement, represents Minnesota's in-house depth. He's shown promise as a fourth/fifth starter candidate, but the durability question lingers.

For prop bettors, the immediate angle sits with Rojas and the Twins' pitching line Saturday. A rookie thrust into an emergency start against a live Oakland offense (Oakland has shown competence in recent weeks) typically trades at a premium for strikeout unders. Rojas' career strikeout rate sits below league median for starters; expect his K prop to land 2-3 strikes lower than Paredes' would have been priced, but bookmakers are already aware of the swap. The real edge lies in team total unders for Minnesota. A bullpen-heavy outing from Rojas (shorter leash, more frequent leverage situations) combined with lineup fatigue and the organizational distraction of roster construction late in a close race creates modest downside friction on Twins run projection. Oakland's pitching staff, while not elite, isn't a free-win matchup. Minnesota's team total likely sits 3.5-4.5 runs; lean under if it's posted at 4.0 or higher.

Paredes' timeline matters less for betting purposes than the cascading roster effects. This injury is the domino that forces Prielipp back into action and locks Rojas into the rotation sooner than Minnesota may have intended. That acceleration is priced into neither the Twins' rotation strikeout props nor their team totals yet—not fully. The market adjusted for the swap, but not for the secondary ripple.