The Twins have a new knuckleballer: Reliever Pierson Ohl adds pitch to repertoire

Twins reliever Pierson Ohl saw the way the Athletics’ Darell Hernaiz reacted to one of his pitches in the sixth inning Tuesday night, and he knew he had him a little surprised.

Ohl, making his sixth appearance in the big leagues, introduced a new pitch to his scouting report: a knuckleball.

“Hitters are so good nowadays, they’re picking up spin right out of the hand,” said Ohl, a 25-year-old righthander. “When I let it go and he reads ‘Rawlings,’ my guess is he’s a little bit confused why he can see that.”

Ohl threw three knuckleballs to Hernaiz across two at-bats in his four-inning outing. His first one was 81 mph and a ball, off the outside corner, in an 0-2 count. Two pitches later, he threw one that was fouled off.

In the eighth inning, again in a 0-2 count, Ohl struck out Hernaiz with a 79-mph knuckleball at the top of the strike zone.

“That’s the thing: It goes in a different direction every time,” Ohl said. “That one he swung and missed at, it had some carry on it. The other ones didn’t. You might see no spin, or less spin, and it’s like I have a good idea of where it’s going, and it ends up in a completely different spot.”

Ohl threw his first knuckleball in a game during his last start of the 2024 season at Class AA Wichita. The team was out of playoff contention, and he has never been a pitcher with a high strikeout rate, so he thought about testing it in two-strike counts.

Once teammates learn Ohl throws a knuckleball, they’re constantly telling him to throw it in games. In the minor leagues, he can’t remember giving up a hit on one, though he’s hesitant to throw it with runners on base for fear of a wild pitch.

During Ohl’s four-inning outing Tuesday, catcher Ryan Jeffers brought it up in the dugout.

“I remember before my debut, Ty France got wind of me throwing a knuckleball,” he said. “He goes, ‘Dude, your first pitch in the big leagues needs to be a knuckleball.’ I was like, ‘That’s not going to happen.’ It’s a good time.”

Ohl picked up some knuckleball pointers from Cory Lewis in Class AAA — “It was scary playing catch with him,” Ohl said — a teammate who throws it far more often with a mid-80s velocity.

Manager Rocco Baldelli thought Ohl finally throwing it in a big-league game was a sign of growing confidence. Striking out his last batter with the pitch was a nice bonus, too.

Pablo López is scheduled to pitch three innings, or roughly 45 pitches, during a Class AAA rehab start Thursday at CHS Field. It will be his first time pitching in a game since he strained a muscle in his shoulder in early June.

“He hasn’t had any issues,” Twins head trainer Nick Paparesta said. “No complaints of anything as he’s gone along. His velocities have all stayed well. His analytics stuff looks great during his outings off the mound each time, and now it’s just a matter of building him up.”

Simeon Woods Richardson is expected to follow López in the St. Paul Saints’ game with four innings or 65 pitches, which will be his second — and potentially final — rehab outing.

* David Festa is scheduled to simulate two innings in a live batting practice session Saturday in St. Paul, Paparesta announced. Assuming that goes well, it sets up Festa to begin a rehab assignment next week.