FORT MYERS—Starting pitching was supposed to be abundant on this Twins team, but there have been a number of starters we have yet to see in a game. Pablo López is undergoing Tommy John surgery, Joe Ryan is dealing with a sore back, Bailey Ober has been limited to live batting practice sessions, and we haven’t seen David Festa in a game yet, either. So Wednesday’s home game versus the Red Sox had Kody Funderburk take the mound in an “opener” type move.
To prepare, he tried to replicate the role of a reliever.
“Just tried to keep it as close to a relief appearance as we could," explained Funderburk. “Try to time it out where warm up, in the bullpen, you know, finish up at 1:04. Take the field at 1:05.”
It went well enough. Facing three batters who hit left-handed and two who bat right-handed, Funderburk threw a scoreless inning.
His spot on the depth chart has become a lot more crowded, as Anthony Banda and Andrew Chafin were both late additions to camp and Taylor Rogers signed earlier as a free agent.. Funderburk doesn’t have the experience either of them has. But he finished last year strong, and unlike other lefty specialists, his five-pitch mix may allow him to keep right-handed batters off-balance, or at least off-balance enough to get by (.751 OPS against in 2025). Funderburk sounds like he’s trying not to think about it—because he messed that up before.
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