MINNEAPOLIS, MN: The Twins announced Monday that they’ve claimed lefty Cole Irvin off waivers from the Orioles, who’d designated him for assignment last week.
Randy Dobnak, a right-hander, was designated for assignment by Minnesota in order to create a 40-man roster place. According to Dan Hayes of The Athletic, Irvin will be added to the roster tomorrow. Since the veteran lefty was acquired after September 1st, he would not be eligible to be included on the Twins postseason roster.
Irvin, 30, can be controlled for two more seasons via arbitration if the Twins so desire. He will provide some depth to the Twins rotation in the last few weeks of the season. After being acquired from the A's in the 2022–2023 offseason in a trade that sent Oakland infield prospect Darell Hernaiz, he has had an ups and down time with the Orioles.
Irvin was first brought in to support the O's rotation stabilization. He provided the A's with 62 starts (359 1/3 innings) of 4.11 ERA ball from 2021 to 2022, striking out a very respectable 16.8% of batters while walking a very respectable 5.2% of them.
Irvin had obviously profited somewhat from the Athletics' enormous home park as a homerun-prone lefty who could hit for an average of 91 mph with his fastball, but his time in Baltimore got off to a far worse start than anyone could have predicted.
After just three appearances, Irvin was optioned to Triple-A by the O's after being blasted for 15 runs in his first 12 and a third of innings. He was a swingman who came and went for the most of the rest of the '23 campaign.
A slew of injuries to the Baltimore crew in 2024 presented Irvin with a new opportunity. He took it and ran with it for the better part of the season, making 16 starts and nine relief appearances, several of which lasted three or four innings.
This season, Irvin has a 4.86 earned run average over 107 1/3 frames. In contrast to a 5.3% walk rate, he has struck out 16.2% of his opponents, numbers that are consistent with his peak Oakland days. Once more, home runs have been a problem (1.43 HR/9), but for the Twins, who are now depending on three rookies due to injuries.
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