The Twins announced they’ve acquired reliever Justin Lawrence from the Pirates for cash. Pittsburgh designated the right-hander for assignment last week. Minnesota already had an opening on the 40-man roster and doesn’t need to make a corresponding move tonight.

Lawrence is out of minor league options, so the Twins will need to add him to the MLB roster. They’ll need to demote a pitcher once he reports to the team. Taylor Rogers, Anthony Banda and Yoendrys Gómez are Minnesota’s three in-house relievers who can’t be optioned.

It’s the latest dart throw for a patchwork Minnesota bullpen. Twins relievers are 25th in ERA and 29th in strikeout rate (above only the Nationals). They also had one of the highest walk rates in May. That was expected given the personnel, as the Twins have done very little to replace the various relievers they shipped out at last year’s deadline.

Lawrence is a 31-year-old sinkerballer who carries a 5.32 earned run average across 22 innings this season. He has a league average 23.6% strikeout rate against an elevated 11.3% walk percentage. Lawrence sits in the mid-90s with his fastball and has a swing-and-miss breaking ball. He has been held back by below-average command and missed the bulk of the 2025 season due to elbow inflammation.

Minnesota assumes the approximate $800K remaining on Lawrence’s $1.225MM arbitration salary. He’d be under club control for another two seasons if he pitches well enough to hold his roster spot.