{"id":637273,"date":"2026-03-22T14:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/637273\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T14:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:42:16","slug":"kody-funderburk-might-be-the-minnesota-twins-best-reliever-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/637273\/","title":{"rendered":"Kody Funderburk Might Be the Minnesota Twins’ Best Reliever – Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\tOn Friday, the Minnesota Twins released veteran relievers Liam Hendriks<\/a> and Andrew Chafin<\/a>, providing clarity on how the club\u2019s eight-pitcher collective will be constructed as the team travels to Baltimore to begin its 2026 campaign on Mar. 26. Cole Sands<\/a>, Kody Funderburk<\/a>, Taylor Rogers<\/a>, Justin Topa<\/a>, and Anthony Banda<\/a> are all but guaranteed bullpen spots.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\tFringe major league relievers Eric Orze<\/a>, Zak Kent<\/a>, Cody Laweryson<\/a>, and Dan Altavilla<\/a> appear to be the four remaining arms competing for the final three spots. Possessing 40-man roster spots, Orze and Kent have the inside track over non-roster invitees Laweryson and Altavilla. Still, how the end of Minnesota\u2019s bullpen will be constructed remains unknown, with Opening Day less than one week away.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\tProjected to be the 20th-best relief group in baseball according to Wins Above Replacement at FanGraphs (fWAR), Minnesota\u2019s bullpen could reasonably end the 2026 season as a bottom-five collective, with the 25th-ranked team (Los Angeles Angels) expected to net only 0.8 fWAR less than Twins relievers. The club\u2019s bullpen is in dire straits, and no amount of copium can fix that, not even for the proudest of Twins apologists like myself. But glimmers of hope persist in this lackluster octet, most notably in the aforementioned Funderburk.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\tThrough 6 \u2154 innings pitched this spring, the 29-year-old has generated a 1.35 ERA, 2.47 FIP, and 21.9% strikeout rate. The lefty has excelled this spring on the heels of being the club\u2019s best reliever post-Aug. 1 last season, netting a 0.75 ERA, 2.87 FIP, and 28% strikeout rate over 24 innings pitched. Funderburk\u2019s late-season renaissance was the product of missing barrels and generating weak contact, particularly against left-handed hitters. His ability to suppress hard contact has only progressed this spring, with the southpaw dominating both left- and right-handed hitters, getting lefties to produce an average exit velocity (EV) of 80.6 MPH and righties to produce an average EV of 86.3 MPH, both of which are well above league-average results for Funderburk.\u00a0\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\tHaving been able to suppress runs at a near-elite rate for three consecutive months, Funderburk profiles as one of Minnesota\u2019s most effective relievers entering the 2026 regular season. Banda is the only reliever who held a candle to Funderburk\u2019s dominance late last season, generating a 2.12 ERA, 4.43 FIP, and 29% strikeout rate over 17 innings pitched after Aug. 1, 2025. Again, it cannot be overstated how ineffective the Twins’ bullpen could be in 2026 if trends from late last year persist.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\tStill, if we are to squint hard enough through our rose-tinted glasses (which I fear no longer exist in Twins Territory, but alas), one could see Funderburk excelling early this season, quickly solidifying himself as one of the club\u2019s preferred high-leverage arms.\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday, the Minnesota Twins released veteran relievers Liam Hendriks and Andrew Chafin, providing clarity on how the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,7666,822,60,3190,4,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-637273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kody-funderburk","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-twins","12":"tag-minnesotatwins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116273358057298940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}