Ober breathes sigh of relief after clean return to mound

FORT MYERS, Fla -- Three up, three down and a sigh of relief for Twins starter Bailey Ober as he walked off the mound, having just gloved a weak pop up off the bat of Atlanta’s Jonah Heim to end the first inning of his 2026 Grapefruit League debut on Friday.

After a 2025 campaign that resulted in the highest single-season ERA of his career, knee and hip issues, trying to grit through discomfort and a slow start this year’s camp, Ober made his first Spring Training start in a 4-1 loss to the Braves.

Things couldn’t have gone any smoother for the 6-foot-9 Ober, who retired the side in order in two consecutive innings while throwing 19 of his 25 pitches for strikes, punching out one.

“Felt great,” Ober said of his outing. “Felt really good to be out there during game action instead of being in live BP like I have been. Felt really good to put the uniform on, have the defense behind me and be in a game atmosphere.”

His fastball lived around the 89 to 91 mph mark, with his changeup and sweeper looking comfortable and in control. Ober’s fall-off-the-table changeup is a tool he uses a lot (29% in 2025), and is quite effective when he’s healthy. Opposing hitters batted .216 and .154 in 2025 and 2024, respectively, against the pitch.

“It’s my pitch -- my highest offspeed usage pitch,” Ober said. “Just trying to get a feel of it early so I can progress [it], and put it in my back pocket.”

Ober threw a simulated inning in the bullpen after his outing, giving him another 15 pitches or so to continue to build up. He said he’s been up to 45 pitches in live batting practice sessions.

“I mean, I feel really healthy right now,” Ober said. “[I’m] happy where I'm at today, just being able to go out there, get outs, get bad swings, and looking forward to my next outing.”

While he fought through the irritations his body dealt with last season, he did show signs of the right-hander Twins fans are familiar with. From April 5 to May 25, Ober went 4-0 with a 2.28 ERA, striking out 43 across 10 starts. He ended up on the IL for the first time since 2022 in early July after a brutal June.

So, how difficult was it for Ober to voice his discomfort and come out of the rotation last season?

“As a player, sometimes you’ve got to check your ego and do what's best for yourself and do what's best for the team,” he said. “I pitched on it for the first two months of the season, and had success throwing on it, and then it just got to a point where I wasn't able to and had to look myself in the mirror and take a step back and kind of regroup and go from there. But as big leaguers, we pitch through stuff all the time.

“Now, usually those things don't last six months. Usually, maybe a start or two, and then you're right back in the groove of things. So, yeah, just learning from that. I'm gonna face something like that down the road, maybe I'm a little bit more prepared for it now.”

While it’s early March and Ober is just making his first start of spring due to early-camp precaution after working diligently in the offseason to get his body and mechanics right again, he feels he’s in a great position to be ready to start the year on time.

“Definitely taking steps forward to where I want to be,” Ober said. “I felt like the ball was coming out good. I felt like I had uncomfortable at-bats the whole time. I was throwing strikes. Didn’t seem like anyone really hit anything hard. That’s kind of what I’m looking for when I’m out there —just being able to locate. I would like to locate a little bit better with two strikes to get some punchouts instead of weak contact, but, we’ll take outs any way we get them.”

Of pitching today compared to last year dealing with his hip issue, Ober said, “It's night and day. I mean, it's like, it doesn't matter what I did out there, I was gonna have a smile on my face, just being able to feel healthy and do what I love, pain free. So, yeah, it felt amazing to be out there and just not have to worry about something on the back of my mind every throw, every step.”

Ober’s health will be crucial for a Twins rotation already without Pablo López and question marks on the back end.