MINNEAPOLIS -- Buried furthest down in the Twins¡¯ flurry of roster moves ahead of Tuesday¡¯s game against the Braves was perhaps the most consequential news for the ultimate trajectory of the season: Joe Ryan will not pitch again this regular season.

Ryan was moved to the 60-day injured list as part of the transactions that created roster spots for Caleb Boushley (selected from Triple-A St. Paul) and, eventually, Michael Tonkin, who was claimed off waivers from the Yankees and will likely join the active roster on Wednesday.

Because Ryan¡¯s IL placement for the Grade 2 teres major strain behind his right shoulder was dated to Aug. 8, the 60-day placement means he would be eligible to return on Oct. 7 at the earliest, well beyond the final day of the regular season on Sept. 29.

¡°I haven¡¯t picked up a baseball,¡± Ryan said. ¡°I have been working out, crushing the legs, which has been pretty fun. Getting good cardio in. Yeah, doing a lot of shoulder stuff and strengthening and maintenance, and trying to heal everything up properly and eating a lot of food, and trying to maximize the time that I can to get some extra training in and use everything at my disposal.¡±

That earliest possible return date would be halfway through the American League Division Series, were the Twins to advance that far -- but that would obviously require Ryan to be physically able to pitch at that point, which is an altogether different consideration.

As of Tuesday, Ryan did not have a sense of any potential timeline, or if there was even any path for him to return to pitching this season -- and, reflective of that, most of his discourse surrounding the injury was focused on the long-term and how he felt good that this injury would not linger to impact him moving forward into future seasons.

Ryan said he might know more after seeing the progress in his recovery gauged by his next MRI exam, but he didn¡¯t have a sense of when that exam would be, noting that the only real timeline consideration is ¡°letting this kind of heal on its own,¡± he said.

¡°I really don¡¯t know, and I don¡¯t want to get anyone excited or get anyone down too deep,¡± Ryan said. ¡°It is what it is.¡±

The downside risk of pushing Ryan in his recovery could be something like a capsule tear, which would obviously be a much more significant setback that could impact Ryan¡¯s future.

The Twins have certainly seen noteworthy examples of lingering factors related to nominally healed injuries affect players this season. Such as when Royce Lewis¡¯ compensation for his quad perhaps played into his adductor strain in July, or when Brock Stewart¡¯s compensation for shoulder issues perhaps played into his season-ending re-injury.

Ryan did feel heartened in that he did not need any injections or procedures to the area, and he has been encouraged by his strength exercises with team physical therapist Christian Hintz.

Imaging done as part of his second opinion with Dr. Neal ElAttrache revealed, besides this teres major injury, that Ryan¡¯s shoulder is very clean as compared to many pitchers -- also cause for optimism. The injury did not seem to present Ryan too much pain in its immediate aftermath, and that has continued, he said.

¡°Every exercise feels really good and my shoulder feels strong, so that¡¯s encouraging,¡± Ryan said. ¡°Just time at this point, which kind of sucks.¡±

Not that such long-term encouragement does much in the short term for the 2024 Twins.

With Ryan seemingly out of the picture, that puts all the more pressure on Pablo L¨®pez and Bailey Ober -- coming off a career-worst nine-run blowup against the Braves -- to anchor a potential playoff rotation. And even more pressure will be on rookies Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa and Zebby Matthews to prove they can factor into those biggest games.

Ryan had been crucial to any playoff equation for the Twins, overcoming occasional home run issues to pitch to a 3.60 ERA with 147 strikeouts in 135 innings across 23 starts this season.

Most significantly, Ryan¡¯s fastball velocity and offspeed execution were maintaining into the second half in ways previously unseen in his career. He noted in the week leading into his Aug. 7 injury that he¡¯d been feeling better than he had all season.

But the Twins have had to navigate nearly a month without him -- and it looks like they¡¯ll need to continue to do so, perhaps until 2025.