Twins make smart roster move after surprisingly placing Brock Stewart on IL

There was no shortage of injury news for the Minnesota Twins on Friday afternoon, but some of it was more surprising than others.

Byron Buxton was the one that everyone was watching, as we hadn’t heard much about his knee injury since he left Wedensday’s game. It turns out that a potential nightmare scenario was avoided, as Buxton will be placed on the 10-day IL but is only dealing with knee inflammation rather than anything more serious.

Austin Martin was called up to replace him, and that roster move came just hours after the Twins announced that Jorge Alcalá would be re-joining the bullpen and taking up the roster spot created by Caleb Boushley getting optioned to Triple-A.

That wasn’t where the action stopped, though.

Surprisingly, the Twins announced that reliever Brock Stewart would be hitting the IL with an arm injury. It wasn’t something that anyone expected, but it provided the opportunity for someone else to return to teh 26-man roster.

Twins place Brock Stewart on IL, recall Kody Funderburk from St. Paul

With Stewart hitting the IL, Kody Funderburk will be getting recalled to the big league roster.

Funderburk was among the first in a series of moves the Twins made this week. He was sent down to make room for Boushley in the bullpen, which came after Matt Bowman was traded to the Diamondbacks to free up space for Jhoan Duran to return to the roster.

Alcalá filled Boushley’s spot, but now Funderburk is back with the Twins with Stewart hitting the IL.

It’s been a strange season so far for Funderburk in terms of getting called up at unexpected times. He started the year on the Opening Day roster after Duran, Justin Topa, and Calen Thielbar all hit the IL. He was pegged as a guy who could get optioned to make room for Duran, and there’s reason to believe he’s on borrowed time since there will need to be room for Topa in the near futur.e

Funderburk getting demoted for Boushley was still surprising, and there was a belief that he could have proved himself and earned a roster spot if given enough time. That might be the case now, as he’s back with the Twins and can string together some good outings to prove he belongs in the bullpen and not in a taxi back-and-forth between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

More Minnesota Twins news and rumors