Woodbury’s Max Meyer returns home pitching at his best

A day before Max Meyer was set to make his first start in his home state — and first start against his hometown team — the starter didn’t let out much excitement in a session with the media, calling it “just another day.”

So let Marlins infielder, Connor Norby, a fellow Minnesota native, do it for him.

“Obviously he still lives here. I know how much this place means to him,” Norby said. “He was excited to come back. He doesn’t ever shut up about this place.”

Meyer’s path to get to this point in his career hasn’t been linear, but now he’s finally flashing the talent that made him the third overall pick of the 2020 draft, matching hall of famer Paul Molitor, whom he chatted with on Tuesday, as the two highest-drafted players out of the University of Minnesota.

At 27, Meyer is healthy, thriving and set to face the Twins for the first time on Wednesday. He enters the matchup with 2.79 earned-run average this season through eight starts. Earlier this month, he threw seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball against the Philadelphia Phillies, a dominant effort for the once-top prospect.

“We do this little TikTok trend at the beginning of the year of your biggest predictions for the year, and I think half the team, including myself, said that if he’s healthy, he’s an all-star,” Norby said. “He’s a bulldog on the mound. He fills up the strike zone. He’s got his sweeper, he’s got his fastball. He’s got his slider. He does whatever he wants whenever he wants to. Yeah, he’s big-time for us.”

The talent was undeniable, but it has taken him a bit to reach this point.

Meyer, whom the Twins selected in the draft in 34th round in 2017, ascended relatively quickly to the big leagues. But injury after injury cut into the early days of his major league career.

After his first two major league starts in 2022, he was diagnosed with a tear in his ulnar collateral ligament, necessitating Tommy John surgery. Rehab from that wiped out all of 2023.

His 2024 season was spent between the majors and minors and finished with a shoulder injury. And last season, he was placed on the injured list in early June and later underwent season-ending surgery on his hip.

All those injuries — he was on the IL when the Twins and Marlins faced off in each of the past three seasons — made Wednesday a homecoming years in the making.