diff --git a/pandas/core/nanops.py b/pandas/core/nanops.py
index fe88622a04bb4..eb442e8bf3486 100644
--- a/pandas/core/nanops.py
+++ b/pandas/core/nanops.py
@@ -97,17 +97,21 @@ def f(values, axis=None, skipna=True, **kwds):
                 for k, v in self.kwargs.items():
                     if k not in kwds:
                         kwds[k] = v
-            try:
-                if values.size == 0 and kwds.get("min_count") is None:
-                    # We are empty, returning NA for our type
-                    # Only applies for the default `min_count` of None
-                    # since that affects how empty arrays are handled.
-                    # TODO(GH-18976) update all the nanops methods to
-                    # correctly handle empty inputs and remove this check.
-                    # It *may* just be `var`
-                    return _na_for_min_count(values, axis)
-
-                if _USE_BOTTLENECK and skipna and _bn_ok_dtype(values.dtype, bn_name):
+
+            if values.size == 0 and kwds.get("min_count") is None:
+                # We are empty, returning NA for our type
+                # Only applies for the default `min_count` of None
+                # since that affects how empty arrays are handled.
+                # TODO(GH-18976) update all the nanops methods to
+                # correctly handle empty inputs and remove this check.
+                # It *may* just be `var`
+                return _na_for_min_count(values, axis)
+
+            if _USE_BOTTLENECK and skipna and _bn_ok_dtype(values.dtype, bn_name):
+                if kwds.get("mask", None) is None:
+                    # `mask` is not recognised by bottleneck, would raise
+                    #  TypeError if called
+                    kwds.pop("mask", None)
                     result = bn_func(values, axis=axis, **kwds)
 
                     # prefer to treat inf/-inf as NA, but must compute the func
@@ -116,18 +120,8 @@ def f(values, axis=None, skipna=True, **kwds):
                         result = alt(values, axis=axis, skipna=skipna, **kwds)
                 else:
                     result = alt(values, axis=axis, skipna=skipna, **kwds)
-            except Exception:
-                try:
-                    result = alt(values, axis=axis, skipna=skipna, **kwds)
-                except ValueError as e:
-                    # we want to transform an object array
-                    # ValueError message to the more typical TypeError
-                    # e.g. this is normally a disallowed function on
-                    # object arrays that contain strings
-
-                    if is_object_dtype(values):
-                        raise TypeError(e)
-                    raise
+            else:
+                result = alt(values, axis=axis, skipna=skipna, **kwds)
 
             return result