Game 161 brings a familiar kind of late-season uncertainty to the Twins’ final Saturday, with Bailey Ober set to take the mound against Nathan Eovaldi in the afternoon after last night’s Joe Ryan-Jacob deGrom matchup.
After that veteran duel turned into a rough night for deGrom and a win for the Twins, there’s not much left to do but wait and see what this one gives us. As the source put it, after another full season of Saturday previews, there’s no clean way to predict what happens next.
For Ober, this is his final start of 2026 unless a half-dozen American League teams disappear from the timeline before the postseason begins. He’ll be trying to finish with an ERA+ of 100 or better, which would lock in a statistically league-average season across 25 starts. It would also cap a year in which he reached double-digit career bWAR in his sixth season with Minnesota, a marker that reinforces the value of being a reliable mid-rotation arm.
At the same time, there’s a real possibility this could be one of Ober’s last turns in a Twins uniform. The winter roster crunch could leave the physically declining right-hander vulnerable to a non-tender if the club decides his short-term outlook doesn’t justify the cost of one more arbitration year. That possibility brings back the same uneasy feeling from last September, when the organization’s direction was wide open and every game carried the sense that it might be the last one you’d see from a given Twin.
For now, though, Ober gets one more start on a gloomy final Saturday of the 2026 season.
In Other News...
Twins Just Turned Their Final Two Games Into A Bigger Debate
With two games left in the regular season, the Twins made a late shuffle that says as much about their present as their future. Minnesota activated shortstop Kaelen Culpepper from the injured list after a left hamstring strain sidelined him since September 16, bringing back one of the organizations most closely watched young players as the calendar runs out. Culpepper, the clubs No. 3 overall prospect, gives the roster another inflection point at a time when every move feels layered with both immediate and longer-term meaning.
Jeff Hoffmans trip to the injured list, this time because of right forearm inflammation, only adds to the uncertainty around the closing stretch. Even with the postseason picture and the final games still to sort through, the Twins are now weighing health, depth and the very real question of how much they want to see from Culpepper before the year is done. [Read more 🡒]
Former Twins Catcher Is Suddenly At Center Of A Tough Red Sox Decision
Mickey Gaspers rise has become one of the more interesting side stories for a former Twins catcher, but the Red Sox are now facing a difficult postseason call because of it. Gasper has been a meaningful part of Bostons season, batting .251 with 10 home runs in 67 games and carving out a real role after arriving as a depth option. For a player who once belonged to Minnesotas catcher mix, the leap into that kind of value has been a notable development.
Now, though, a right biceps injury suffered against the Cubs is expected to keep Gasper out of the American League Wild Card Series against the Yankees, leaving Boston to sort through a hole at exactly the wrong time. The Red Sox finish their regular season against Chicago at Tropicana Field, but the bigger focus is what comes next and whether they can account for losing one of their more productive surprise contributors when the games start to matter most. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Fans Got The Jacob deGrom Start They Never Expected
Jacob deGroms latest trip to the mound in Minneapolis turned into the kind of matchup Twins fans could hardly have imagined, even with one of baseballs biggest names on the other side. Texas came in expecting a normal night from its ace, but Minnesota jumped on him early and kept building from there, turning a marquee start into a lopsided 10-2 win.
The damage was mostly done by the second inning, when the Twins broke through for six runs, then added two more in the fourth to chase deGrom through four rough innings. Luke Keaschall kept the pressure on with four hits and three RBIs, while Joe Ryan gave Minnesota exactly the sort of steady outing that made the rest of the night feel even more surprising, working six innings and allowing two runs. [Read more 🡒]