It could have easily been over for Matt Festa. Despite cracking the big league roster in 2018 and again in 2019, the 2016 seventh round pick of the Seattle Mariners was at a crossroads by both dint of both his skill and his health in early 2020. The righty was the last pre-COVID Tommy John surgery patient in New York City in March of 2020, forcing him to rehab alone for all of the shortened season until he could return midway through the 2021 campaign. Even then, his fortunes were uncertain. Seattle had designated him for assignment in the winter ahead of 2021, returning him to the minors off the 40-man roster, a wounded reliever in a system flush with pitching talent.
40 in 25: Matt Festa
