Bailey Ober’s return to the Twins is starting to look close.
The right-hander threw a bullpen session Tuesday before Minnesota’s game against the Guardians, and the club is now weighing what comes next after a stretch of rehab work that has already included two Minor League starts. Ober most recently pitched Saturday for Triple-A St. Paul, where he struck out five over five innings while giving up four runs.
“I talked to him yesterday, saw him yesterday and everything was good coming out of that outing,” manager Derek Shelton said Tuesday afternoon. “He threw a bullpen today. I think after the bullpen, we’ll make the assessment on what the next step is, but everything is trending towards him being close to rejoining us.”
Ober has been sidelined since the end of May with right elbow inflammation. Before landing on the injured list, the 30-year-old was 6-3 with a 4.59 ERA in 12 starts.
His stretch from April 8-May 12 was much sharper, as he put up a 2.86 ERA across seven starts and averaged more than six innings per outing. His last start in Pittsburgh was rough before the shutdown.
Minnesota also got more movement on the rehab front with catcher Ryan Jeffers and reliever Cole Sands. Both are with St. Paul on its road trip to Iowa this week.
Sands, working back from a right forearm strain, is scheduled to throw one inning Tuesday. He had already begun a rehab assignment last month before hitting a setback, and he is expected to need multiple appearances before the Twins activate him.
Jeffers, meanwhile, is still rebuilding after a fractured left hamate bone. He’s being brought along gradually on both sides of the ball, and the Twins are not putting a hard date on his return. Shelton said Jeffers likely won’t be back in Major League games before at least this weekend’s series against the Angels, and it would not be surprising if he remains out until after the All-Star break.
“I would very much guess he’s going to be with them for at least the next three or four days,” Shelton said. “And then we’ll make an assessment off that.
He’s caught five innings. I think tonight he’s catching seven [innings] and then he’ll catch seven again in two days.
We just have to build him back up. Part of the buildup is making sure his legs are in shape, along with the percussion of his hand, and we can’t replicate that without game reps.
But everything so far has been encouraging.”
There was also a setback in the minors for one of Minnesota’s top prospects. Infielder Kaelen Culpepper, the club’s No. 2 prospect and No. 32 overall in MLB, is headed back to the injured list because of a glute issue.
He had already missed time with the injury, returned, and then was sidelined again after being hit by a pitch. The HBP did not cause a fracture, but the glute problem remains.
“Unfortunately, not in a spot where he’s going to be ready to go,” general manager Jeremy Zoll said. “So he’ll be back on the IL as of today and we’ll go from there. Still hopeful that it’s certainly more on the minor side than not, but we’ll get a better sense in the days to come of an exact timeline.”
Outfielder Emmanuel Rodriguez, Minnesota’s No. 4 prospect and No. 57 overall in MLB, is making progress after a left thumb injury that has kept him out since May 1. He is throwing from 105 feet and also hitting off a tee and taking soft toss. Zoll said Rodriguez remains on track for a mid-August return.
Minnesota also made a roster move Tuesday, activating right-handed reliever Woo-Suk Go and optioning Cody Laweryson to St. Paul. Go, acquired from the Tigers on Sunday, had to be added because of an assignment clause, though he now has three years of Minor League options remaining.
Go closed for the LG Twins in Korea, where he had three seasons with at least 30 saves, and this year he posted a 1.96 ERA in 27 appearances across two Minor League levels in the Detroit organization.
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