Twins option Ober to Triple-A, activate Funderburk

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota rotation saga has taken another unexpected turn.

The Twins optioned Bailey Ober to Triple-A St. Paul ahead of their 10-6 win in Monday’s series opener against the Guardians, even though the right-hander had been one of the club’s most consistent and effective starting pitchers for the majority of the regular season.

In the corresponding move, the Twins bolstered their left-handed bullpen depth by calling up reliever Kody Funderburk, who had a 2.60 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 52 innings with Triple-A St. Paul this season. They moved Oliver Ortega to the 60-day IL to make room on the 40-man roster.

Funderburk entered in relief of starter Kenta Maeda, who allowed six runs over four innings, and proceeded to toss two scoreless and hitless frames with three strikeouts to earn the victory in his Major League debut.

“Bailey is as professional a young man as you’re ever going to find in this game,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The way he conducts himself every day of his life is very impressive, and I’ve had several conversations with him over the last couple of years that were not easy. Today was not an easy conversation, but I think long term, this setup, this move that we’re making right now, is going to benefit him.”

In an indication that the move perhaps had more to do with the career-high workload than performance, Baldelli said Ober will “get a little bit of a breather” of “at least a few extra days” before they get him throwing again for Triple-A St. Paul.

This surprising move could open up a more consistent spot in the starting rotation for Dallas Keuchel, who threw five scoreless innings of relief as a piggyback starter coupled with Ober in the Twins’ series finale victory against the Rangers on Sunday. Keuchel has posted a 3.50 ERA in four appearances since his promotion to the Twins in early August.

But with rosters set to expand to 28 players on Friday, it remains unclear how the rotation will continue to fit together in the coming weeks, as Louie Varland could also perhaps emerge as an option to either give the Twins bulk innings or shorten up into relief as well.

“We're just trying to balance so many things to put ourselves in a position for today and for the rest of the season,” Baldelli said. “There's a lot that goes into it. We spend a lot of time on it. I can't tell you about Bailey and Keuchel and Joe Ryan coming back and where Varland fits in.”

Whatever the case, it’s another tough development in the big picture of the season for Ober, who will leave behind a 3.67 ERA in 22 big league starts this season. He also began the year in Triple-A despite a nearly spotless Spring Training and his having pitched to a 3.82 ERA in the Majors across his first two seasons, simply because a veteran-laden rotation didn’t have room.

And when a consistent rotation spot opened up in the Majors due to Tyler Mahle’s Tommy John surgery, Ober threw at least five innings with no more than three earned runs allowed in 15 of his first 16 starts of the ‘23 season for the Twins. He had struggled a bit more in the last month, with a six-run blowup and two five-run outings among his last six starts, though Ober saw his stuff ticking up and noted that he continued to feel good.

Amid all that, the topic of limiting Ober’s innings has, once again, come to the forefront, as he has thrown 140 1/3 innings across Triple-A and the Majors this season, well past his previous career-high of 108 1/3 innings from the ‘21 campaign. That had been the only other season in Ober’s seven-year professional career in which he’d gone over 78 2/3 innings.

“I understand what they’re doing [with limiting my innings],” Ober said after his Sunday start. “I’m at a career-high in innings pitched right now. At the end of the day, it’s about health. If that’s what their plan is, then I can respect that and I want to stay healthy as well.”

Ober had gone along with the shorter starts when he first came up as a rookie in ‘21 to limit his overall innings, and there had been talks of piggybacking or a six-man rotation in part to continue easing his workload and those of the Twins’ other starters before the Twins ultimately made Monday’s move.