The Twins announced they’ve selected southpaw Kody Funderburk onto the major league roster. Minnesota optioned Bailey Ober to Triple-A St. Paul to clear an active roster spot. In order to open 40-man space, the Twins transferred Oliver Ortega to the 60-day injured list.
It’s a bit surprising to see the Twins send Ober down. The 6’9″ righty has been an effective starter over the course of the season. He owns a 3.67 ERA through 122 2/3 innings, striking out a solid 24.1% of opponents against a tidy 5.2% walk percentage. Ober now carries a 3.75 ERA with better than average strikeout and walk marks in 53 big league starts over parts of three campaigns.
That said, Ober’s performance has tailed off recently. He hasn’t topped five innings in any of his past six starts, allowing multiple runs in each. Ober was tagged for five runs in four frames by the Rangers yesterday, bringing him to a 6.75 ERA over his past 28 innings. It’s possible fatigue has played a role. Ober is up to 140 1/3 innings between Triple-A and the majors. His previous high as a professional was 108 1/3 frames during the ’21 campaign.
Optioning him allows the Twins to keep an eye on Ober’s workload down the stretch. Minnesota is six games clear of the Guardians in the AL Central, putting them in great position to secure a division title. They’re far enough behind the AL West and East leaders that a first-round bye is almost certainly not viable. The very likely outcome at this point is that Minnesota will get into the postseason as the #3 seed. Ober seems likely to be a factor in the playoffs, with the club using the intervening month to try to keep him fresh. Dallas Keuchel can step back into the rotation behind Joe Ryan, Sonny Gray, Pablo López and Kenta Maeda.
Funderburk, meanwhile, gets his first major league look. A 15th round selection from Dallas Baptist in the 2018 draft, the 6’4″ left-hander is a pure reliever. Funderburk has spent the majority of the season in St. Paul, working 52 innings over 37 appearances. He owns a 2.60 ERA and is striking out nearly 36% of batters faced at the top minor league level. Funderburk’s 10% walk rate is a little higher than ideal, but the missed bats and strong run prevention earn him a major league crack.
The Twins had been using Caleb Thielbar as the only southpaw in their bullpen. While Funderburk has posted reverse platoon splits in the minors this season — he’s stifling righties to a .184/.258/.234 line, while lefty hitters have posted a .195/.292/.254 slash — he’s been excellent against hitters of both handedness. He’ll give Rocco Baldelli a second left-handed option out of the ’pen.
Ortega’s season is almost certainly over. The righty just landed on the injured list with a left lumbar strain a few days ago. An offseason waiver claim, Ortega allowed seven runs in 14 2/3 innings with Minnesota this season.
Am I missing something, or has Ober been pretty good this year? He’s got decent numbers… has he need bad lately, or what?
Really bad in August. Might be gassed, he’s thrown twice as many MLB innings as last year. Not much detail here in the article.
He has not been “really bad” in August. To starts ago he gave up two hits and two runs and got pulled after 5 by Rocco and the Twins went on to lose. 3 pretty good starts with 1 so-so and one not so good. Rocco has limited him to five more than Ober has limited himself. AndyG has it right.
He pitched yesterday and has options. Probably need an arm and will be back shortly
Just the fact that he’s the 6th best SP at the moment for a 5-man staff. And it sucks for Ober, because he probably is top-5 for 29 other teams.
Ober’s fine. His xFIP has been steady in his recent starts. Since the All Star break, Ober is 4.44 xFIP vs. 4.40 overall on the year. Ober’s a nice #4-5 type rotation arm and while his results looked great, the underlying metrics never suggested he was mid-rotation or better.
Honestly, this feels like the Twins treating Ober like a 22 year old budding ace prospect than a 28 year old veteran at this point.
Baldelli seems to have a viewpoint that more rest prevents injury. It seems to stem from his desire to explain to himself why he his career was potentially limited by health woes. Personally, I think he projects his own situation onto other players.
I suppose Baldelli isn’t the one ultimately making roster decisions, though.
He’s been good. He has already topped his career high in innings. Let him rest up for a couple weeks.
That has to be a top 3 name in the majors right now
BRINGING THE FUNDER(burk)
He gets the win today!
Why does the wording make it seem like he’s a liability against left handed hitters? Righties are definitely a little better (.492 OPS) but a .546 OPS allowed against lefties is still pretty dominant.
Didn’t mean to imply that but I can see how it came off that way. Moved too quickly through the back half of this post to get to the Gonsolin article, quite frankly. I reworked that sentence. Thanks for the note.
Not a problem, thanks for the reply. I had to read it a few times because usually if that’s the case I just assume I misinterpreted it lol
Wow. No better way to motivate a player having a good year than to take away tens of thousands of dollars
How does it take away tens of thousands of dollars? He’s signed to a MLB contract – it’s not like hockey or basketball with two way contracts.
Those with major league contracts who are in the minor leagues on optional or outright assignments have a minimum salary this year of $57,200 for the six-month season if playing under a first major league contract, and $114,100 if playing under a second or later major league contract. The vast majority of players in this category are playing at Triple-A, many of them shuttling back and forth to the major leagues. If called up to the majors, the minimum salary is $700,000 — which comes to $3,846 for each day in the big leagues.
Bailey is very Oberrated.
Your dad liked that one
“Meanwhile” can’t come in the middle of the sentence. It needs to be at the start.
Meanwhile is a conjunctive adverb. Feel free to study up on what a conjunctive adverb is, and how it may be used without starting a sentence. Perhaps you need to go back to the Grammar Police Academy to get a new certification?
I don’t need to. Chicago Manual of Style describes it as unfit to start a sentence because it interrupts the flow. Don’t separate subject and verb if you don’t have to.