MINNEAPOLIS -- Ideally, obviously, the Twins would rather not have to do without Bailey Ober at all. But given the range of possibilities, it seems the news they received on Monday regarding Ober’s right elbow was more good than bad.
Ober has been diagnosed with a mild right flexor strain, general manager Jeremy Zoll said. Perhaps most notable is that an MRI exam revealed that the graft on the UCL in Ober’s elbow is intact. He underwent Tommy John reconstructive surgery when he was in college.
“He’s going to be shut down for 10 to 14 days, [get] anti-inflammatories and see where we're at from there,” Zoll said. “Hopefully, get him going at that point. We got his MRI this morning. We are going to have Dr. [Keith] Meister evaluate it for a second opinion. But the graft he has in his UCL looks fully intact -- no issues or concerns there. So obviously a bummer for Bailey. But we'll hopefully be able to get him going after a couple weeks’ shutdown, go from there.”
No timetable has been given for Ober’s absence, but it does sound like it could be a matter of weeks rather than months.
“Anytime someone that has a [previous] Tommy John [surgery] in there, when the graft is intact and it's in the flexor area and relatively mild, [you] obviously feel encouraged,” Zoll said. “In a perfect world, none of this happens. But in the spectrum of [possible] outcomes, feeling encouraged.”
In the meantime, the Twins have a rotation spot to fill, and that won’t be easy. Right-hander Mick Abel is progressing toward a return to action but still seems to be weeks away, rather than days. Abel, returning from right elbow inflammation, is expected to throw live batting practice on Thursday, after which he could go on a rehabilitation assignment soon. Still, he’d likely need more than one rehab start, so even optimistically, it’s difficult to envision him being back in less than two weeks.
The Twins could go with a bullpen game on Thursday, when Ober’s rotation turn comes up, perhaps with rookie Mike Paredes serving as a bulk pitcher after his solid debut on Sunday. Travis Adams and Kody Funderburk are also among the current members of the bullpen who are able to go more than three or four outs, so if they can get through the next three days without using any of those pitchers too extensively, they could go with the options on hand on Thursday against Kansas City -- pushing the rotation decision back.
After that game, the next time the Twins would need a fifth starter would be Saturday, June 13, against the Cardinals. And by that time, rehabbing rookie lefty Kendry Rojas could be back. Rojas, who has pitched as both a starter and reliever this year, was scratched from a scheduled start last week due to elbow left soreness and placed on the injured list. But he’s progressing well, Zoll said, and could have a quick return to the active roster.
“He's already feeling markedly better,” Zoll said. “He's going to get evaluated tonight by our docs, and possibly start throwing either tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on where we're at from there. But [we] need to get the sign-off from the docs before we start on that, so more to come. And if so, it would ultimately be hopefully a pretty short ramp-up there, given how short of a time he was down.”