Twins add Justin Lawrence, option Kody Funderburk to St. Paul

The Twins made a move for velocity, and St. Paul paid the price. Minnesota acquired right-hander Justin Lawrence from the Pirates for cash considerations and opened a 26-man roster spot by optioning left-hander Kody Funderburk to Triple-A St. Paul. It was a clean reminder that one bullpen upgrade at the big-league level can trigger an immediate ripple all the way down the ladder.

Lawrence is not a stopgap arm. He arrives with two fastballs that both sit above 95 mph and a swing-and-miss sweeper, the kind of fastball-heavy mix Minnesota had been missing for much of the season. The Twins’ bullpen had been mostly short on power arms, even if Yoendrys Gómez had recently started to change that, and Lawrence gives manager Rocco Baldelli another reliever who can miss bats without needing perfect sequencing.

The numbers explain why Minnesota took the shot. Lawrence, 31, owns 11 career saves, all with the Rockies in 2023, when he logged career highs with 69 appearances, 75 innings and 78 strikeouts. His major league ledger is uneven, with a 5.05 ERA in 222 appearances, but there is upside in the profile: he posted a 0.51 ERA in limited work for Pittsburgh last year, and in 2026 he made 23 appearances for the Pirates, going 0-2 with a 5.32 ERA over 22 innings. Statcast listed his pitch mix at roughly 43 percent sinkers, 40 percent sweepers and 17 percent four-seam fastballs, a classic power-relief package built for leverage.

For St. Paul, Funderburk’s assignment is more than a routine transaction. He made the Twins’ Opening Day roster for the first time in his career this season, then got optioned to St. Paul on May 1, recalled on May 3 and sent back down again on June 2. That kind of movement turns the Saints into the last stop before the next call-up, and Funderburk now re-enters that queue as Minnesota searches for the right mix of lefties and power arms.

There is also a personal layer to the move. Funderburk’s 2026 has already carried extra weight after his wife, Alicia, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma while pregnant, and the couple welcomed their daughter, Murphy Jo Funderburk, on April 21. The roster churn has felt especially familiar around him, but the baseball consequence is clear: Lawrence strengthens the Twins right now, and Funderburk goes back to St. Paul as one of the first names on deck if Minnesota needs a fresh arm again.