Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year - 2023

[Seth Stohs]

The 2023 Twins Daily Minor League Reliever of the Year is familiar to Twins fans since he's been in the big leagues for about a month. Learn more about lefty Kody Funderburk and other top relievers this year in the Minnesota Twins organization. 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

We started this week by naming the Twins Daily short-season minor league award winners. Infielder Dameury Pena was named the hitter and Juan Cota was named the top pitcher. 

Today, we start handing out the full-season awards. Relief Pitchers are often overlooked in the big leagues, much less in the minor leagues, but not here at Twins Daily. Relievers need to be recognized too! We have seen the value of having a lock-down bullpen in the big leagues. Unfortunately, the times that relievers get talked about are when they have a bad day. So let's discuss several relievers that had good days most of the 2023 season. 

Past Winners of the Twins Daily Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year Award
2021: Jovani Moran
2019: Anthony Vizcaya
2018: Andrew Vasquez
2017: John Curtiss
2015 & 2016: Trevor Hildenberger

Honorable Mention

• RHP Patrick Murphy (St. Paul): 42 G, 4 GS, 85.1 IP, 83 H, 50 BB, 97 K, 3.69 ERA, 1.56 WHIP, 5.3 BB/9, 10.2 K/9. 
• RHP Oliver Ortega (St. Paul): 24 G, 34.2 IP, 24 H, 10 BB, 44 K, 1.82 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 2.6 BB/9, 11.4 K/9. 
• RHP John Stankiewicz (Cedar Rapids): 37 G, 66.2 IP, 51 H, 15 BB, 66 K, 3.11 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 2.0 BB/9, 8.9 K/9. 

Others Receiving Votes
Jordan Carr, Jackson Hicks, Isaac Mattson, Hunter McMahon, Samuel Perez , Cole Sands, Ricardo Velez. 

Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year
Here are the top three Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year vote-getters.

3. RHP Miguel Rodriguez, 24 (Cedar Rapids/Wichita)
46 G, 54.2 IP, 51 H, 15 BB, 66 K, 3.13 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 2.5 BB/9, 10.9 K/9
Rodriguez has been in the organization for a long time, and in 2023, we started getting a strong feel for why. The Twins signed Rodriguez in 2017, and he has slowly worked up the organization's ladder. He spent a season in the DSL and one in the GCL. He missed the 2020 season. He pitched for Fort Myers in 2021, and in 52 innings, he struck out 58 batters. In 2022, he pitched in 39 games in Cedar Rapids and posted a 3.36 ERA. He had 67 strikeouts in 56 1/3 innings. For whatever reason (likely a numbers game, and too many walks), he returned to the Kernels in 2023. He went 2-3 with a 2.85 ERA and 14 saves. He was quite dominant in the closer's role. In 41 innings, he had 11 walks to go with 42 strikeouts. He was promoted to Wichita in early August and struggled a bit. However, in his 13 2/3 innings, he had 24 strikeouts and four walks. He was hurt by unearned runs (just 6 of 14 runs allowed were earned). 

2. RHP Regi Grace, 23 (Cedar Rapids/Wichita)  
44 G, 73.2 IP, 52 H, 28 BB, 83 K, 3.18 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 3.4 BB/9, 10.1 K/9
Regi Grace took some positive strides forward in 2023. He was the Twins 10th round draft pick out of high school in Mississippi in 2018. He spent 2018 and 2019 in the GCL, and then after missing the 2020 season, he appeared in the FCL in 2021 before ending that season with the Mussels. He spent most of the 2022 season in Ft. Myers, where he shifted to the bullpen. In doing so, he struck out 74 batters in 56 2/3 innings. He ended the season with three games in Cedar Rapids. That is where Grace began the 2023 season. In 17 games, he posted a 1.16 ERA and a 0.73 WHIP. In his 23 1/3 innings, he gave up just 12 hits, walked five, and struck out 30 batters. He posted a 4.11 ERA in 27 games with the Wind Surge, but a handful of games certainly inflates it. In his 50 1/3 innings, he had 23 walks, but he struck out 53 batters. At 23, Grace remains a very intriguing bullpen arm. He works hard and is very strong. 2024 could be an exciting season for him. 

1. LHP Kody Funderburk, 26 (Wichita/St. Paul)
42 G, 2 GS, 61.0 IP, 42 H, 27 BB, 89 K, 2.36 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 4.0 BB/9, 13.1 K/9
Not all prospect development is linear. It very rarely is. And that is true for several reasons beyond just that baseball is tough. Funderburk was the Twins' 15th-round pick in 2018 and has slowly moved up the organizational ladder. He finally got The Call to the big leagues in late August, and you have to feel good for him considering the journey. 

Funderburk is from Arizona and was an All-State performer his senior season. He went to Mesa Community College. As a freshman, he was 8-4 in 15 games (13 starts) and hit .324 with four homers. As a sophomore, he hit .400/.504/.651 with eight home runs and 55 RBI. He pitched in eight games and just 12 2/3 innings. He then went to Division I Dallas Baptist and hit .304/.429/.584 (1.013) with 19 doubles and 13 home runs in 63 games. He had 47 walks and just 53 strikeouts. He pitched in 15 games (14 starts) on the mound and went 1-3 with a 6.84 ERA. In 50 innings, he struck out 53 batters and walked 31. 

However, the Twins scouting staff saw something they liked when watching him on the mound. It's easy to understand why he fell to the 15th round, but as we have seen from Sean Johnson's drafts, their ability to find little characteristics in a pitcher to take a shot. Player development deserves a ton of credit, too. 

Despite putting up huge offensive numbers in college, he has zero plate appearances in his professional career. Instead, the southpaw has been developed on the mound. He finished the summer of 2018 at Elizabethton. He pitched at Low-A Cedar Rapids in 2019 and ended the season with one game in Fort Myers. Like most others, he didn't pitch in 2020. He was the Kernels' (now High-A) Opening Day starter in 2021 and made ten starts. He moved to Wichita and pitched 21 2/3 innings over seven relief appearances. He was 3-0 with a 1.25 ERA in that stretch. He ended that year with six starts in the Arizona Fall League. 

In 2022, Funderburk began the season making starts for Wichita. In total, he pitched in 32 games and made 17 starts. He went 10-5 with a 2.94 ERA over 107 innings. 

And that brings us to the 2023 season. Funderburk began the season back at Wichita but gave up one run over nine innings and was quickly promoted to the Saints. In St. Paul, he went 4-1 with a 2.60 ERA with a 1.06 WHIP. In 52 innings, he gave up just 37 hits, walked 21, and struck out 75. 

He has worked on his fastball and has gained velocity. Earlier in the season, he hit 96 on the radar gun. Since joining the Twins, he has been in the 91-94 range. However, his breaking ball has become very good. He's got a sharper slider/cutter, but he also sometimes slows it down with more of a slurve. Both have been good strikeout pitches. In nine games with the Twins, he had given up one run on four hits and four walks over nine innings. He has 13 strikeouts. 

Twins Director of Player Development Drew MacPhail touted Funderburk and his makeup, "Few players have improved as much year in and year out as Kody Funderburk, and that's a total testament to his buy-in and work ethic." 

For example, MacPhail added, "Kody had a tough assignment going back to Double-A to start the year. He didn't complain once. Instead, he proved he was better than the level by dominating and moving quickly through the minor leagues this year." 

What is clear is that if Kody Funderburk continues to develop and throw more and more strikes, he can be a reliable late-inning reliever for years to come.

Congratulations to Kody Funderburk and the other relievers mentioned today. 

For more Twins Daily content, click on the below links: 
Kody Funderburk, Regi Grace, Miguel Rodriguez, Patrick Murphy, Oliver Ortega, John Stankiewicz. 

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[mikelink45]

Looking at the careers of past winners I am not sure how much honor this award presents!  But then all honors are good honors.

 

 

[roger]

Thanks for the report, Seth.

Have been intrigued by Grace since he was drafted.  Certainly perked my interest while in Cedar Rapids this year as it seemed like every outing was a 1-2-3 clean appearance.  Noticed that he didn't do as well in AA, but that could be expected.  Is he someone the Twins may find in their bullpen later next year?

Seems like every time I see Funderburk pitch for the Twins he isn't all that sharp.  Yet, he seems to settle down and get thru the inning without giving up any runs.  As you point out, however, his numbers the last two years in the minors have been very, very good.  To be honest, don't know what to think about his future?

[FlyingFinn]

I believe Regi Grace is Rule 5 eligible. I didn't look but being Miguel Rodriguez has been with the Twins for awhile, he may be as well. I don't see the Twins adding them to the 40 man roster. Teams like pitchers in the Rule 5 draft. Do we think we could lose one or both of these guys like we did Tyler Wells?

[Dman]

I have been a big Funderburk backer since his really good year at AA in 2022.  His numbers weren't that far off from Varlands the main difference between the two was fastball velocity and K rate.  Louie was better on both counts.  Still the rest of the stats had Funderburk right with him.  The one real nice stat for Funderburk was the lack of HR's allowed. from High A on his FIP xFIP and ERA have been really good and since moving to the pen his K rate has been excellent as well.

He has been an under rated player since he signed but has been a consistent good to excellent performer all the way up.  He has things to learn at the MLB level but given what he has done so far I wouldn't bet against him.  Happy to see him finally get some well deserved recognition after all those years in obscurity.

[AceWrigley]

2 Funderburks in MLB history; exclusive property of the Minnesota Twins. 🙂

[jimmyc]

4 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Looking at the careers of past winners I am not sure how much honor this award presents!  But then all honors are good honors.

 

 

Also, look at past honorable mention winners.  There are virtually no names that ever made it to a cup-of-coffee let alone a reasonable MLB career.  

[2wins87]

4 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Looking at the careers of past winners I am not sure how much honor this award presents!  But then all honors are good honors.

 

 

Of the guys to pitch at least 20 innings in relief for the Twins this year, only Pagan, Thielbar, and Moran were never starters at at least AAA.  Being a minor league reliever is definitely not the best path to sustained success as a MLB reliever.

To be fair, most of those guys have had at least a little success as major league relievers, just not very sustained success. 

Hildenberger is probably the biggest cautionary tale for those of us that are excited about Funderburk.  I really thought he was going to be a fixture of the bullpen after 2017.

It's an even smaller sample for Funderburk, and maybe he gets exposed by midseason next year, but he's certainly looked the part of a major league reliever so far. 

 

[Dman]

24 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

Hildenberger is probably the biggest cautionary tale for those of us that are excited about Funderburk.  I really thought he was going to be a fixture of the bullpen after 2017.

It's an even smaller sample for Funderburk, and maybe he gets exposed by midseason next year, but he's certainly looked the part of a major league reliever so far. 

 

I was super high on Headrick after he had some early success and he came crashing down pretty hard.  Too early to tell on Funderburk, but I am hopeful he is the real deal.

[2wins87]

8 minutes ago, Dman said:

I was super high on Headrick after he had some early success and he came crashing down pretty hard.  Too early to tell on Funderburk, but I am hopeful he is the real deal.

I was pretty high on Headrick too, there's still some time for him to turn into something.

What has encouraged me about Funderburk moreso than Headrick early on is how his fastballs have played at the major league level.  Funderburk does have slightly better velocity than Headrick, but it seems like he has some secondary characteristics that have really worked so far.

I think I saw his 4-seam described as a cutter a few times.  Baseball savant still classifies it as a 4-seam, but it has basically no arm-side fade, so it is a little bit of a hybrid with 4-seam "rise" along with more of a cut action.  It is fairly unique and is actually very similar to Justin Steele's 4-seamer that's propelled him into the NL Cy Young conversation, so that's pretty interesting

I'm guessing his cut/4-seam and sinker tunnel very well until the late movement in different directions.  It seems to have really kept hitters off balance so far.

[jorgenswest]

1 hour ago, Dman said:

I was super high on Headrick after he had some early success and he came crashing down pretty hard.  Too early to tell on Funderburk, but I am hopeful he is the real deal.

Too early to tell on Headrick also.

[mikelink45]

3 hours ago, jimmyc said:

Also, look at past honorable mention winners.  There are virtually no names that ever made it to a cup-of-coffee let alone a reasonable MLB career.  

Being a relief pitcher in the minors is not a role anyone should want.  Who did we bring up - starters Winder, Headrick, Sands. 

[twinstalker]

On 9/27/2023 at 2:33 PM, jimmyc said:

Also, look at past honorable mention winners.  There are virtually no names that ever made it to a cup-of-coffee let alone a reasonable MLB career.  

Yeah, it's not terribly common for a minor league relievers to be among the better major league relievers (most are minor/major league starters).

So having horrible relief in the minors (I mean, look at the meh numbers other than KF) is not all that important if you can get one good one, and the Twins might have.