David Festa’s Off-Speed Pitches Have Allowed Him To Take the Next Step This Season

Minneapolis – David Festa looked in his most recent start at Target Field last Wednesday. Coming off his start in Sacramento, where he allowed eight runs on six hits, including three home runs, in just 3 ⅔ innings, it was imperative that he find a way to turn things around against the Texas Rangers.

Festa delivered against Texas, throwing a season-high 86 pitches over six innings of two-run ball. And it was not without help from center fielder Byron Buxton, who had one of the best games of his career to complement Festa’s start.

“It was a long five, six days,” Festa said after his start on Wednesday. “Obviously, I didn’t pitch to the quality that I should have in my last outing. But the response, obviously, it’s very relieving for me. I didn’t lose my confidence. I know the results weren’t great last week. But I’m happy overall today.”

“The last three innings he threw were really sharp,” Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after Wednesday’s game. “He threw a lot of really good individually executed pitches, just over and over again. So he really found himself out there, gave us a really nice outing, and everyone else did their jobs.”

The key to Festa's turnaround from his last start was the better quality of his pitch mix. He totaled 17 misses on the 45 pitches Rangers hitters took a swing at against him, equal to a 37.7% miss rate and four strikeouts on the evening.

Festa threw an ill-advised changeup to Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, who sent it over the left field seats for a solo home run in the second. He erred on the side of caution in that matchup, but realized his mistake when Semien made contact with an exit velo of 104.5 MPH off the bat.

“I thought the changeup was really good today, aside from the one to Semien,” he said. “I kind of slowed my arm down a little on it. Kind of babied it a little. And I can’t do that to a hitter like him.”

The changeup landed right down the middle of the strike zone, allowing Semien to drill it into the stands. After that, Festa felt he had better control of his changeup and slider’s locations. While he’s mostly focused on developing his sinker, the improvement in his off-speed stuff, specifically his changeup, has allowed Festa to take the next step this season.

“Overall, I thought the changeup, matchup-wise, I knew I was going to throw a decent bit of them. And I thought the slider was good as well,” said Festa. “I think it improved from last outing. Honestly, the off-speed was good, but I think my fastball was really good tonight.”

It’s not just his off-speed stuff. Festa has also improved his four-seamer. This season, hitters have a .278 opponents' average and a  .444 slugging percentage in 41 plate appearances, down from .304 oBA and a .544 oSLG last season in 93 PAs.

However, his changeup has become nearly unhittable for opposing hitters. They only have a .125 batting average against it this season in 27 PAs compared to .238 in 87 in 2024. Festa has leaned on the success of his changeup as he builds up his sinker usage and gets more comfortable using it against hitters. Festa has only thrown the sinker 33 times this season, but his usage will increase with bigger leads behind him.

“I would have probably thrown more, honestly, but the matchup said maybe not so much,” he said. “I think I got two or three quick ground balls with that, which is big for me. It’s something we talked about all offseason, going into spring training, for the sinker gets me some quick outs. And it did today. That ultimately allows me to go six innings.”

“We're seeing it with a lot of pitchers in the league right now. We're seeing it with some of our guys currently,” said Baldelli. “David falls, I think, pretty cleanly into the category of a guy who can benefit from being able to regularly use two fastballs.”

Although the Twins are 2-8 in their last 10 games, Festa’s turnaround is a good sign of hope for them to turn things around in Tuesday's Cincinnati Reds series opener at Great American Ballpark. If he can replicate his results from his last start, he will balance out Minnesota’s rotation as it tries to get right before the All-Star Break.

“As he’s pitching like that, you watch him executing, he’s earning more and more outs and more and more opportunity to stay in the game,” said Baldelli. “He just did a good job. If David’s pitching like that, we’re going to want to watch a lot of him.”