Just about an hour ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates added reliever Justin Bruihl as a major league free agent. He has been added to the team’s 26-man roster, and a corresponding move will take place soon.

Update: per Alex Stumpf, the Pirates have placed starter Quinn Priester on the 15-Day IL (retro to June 3) with a righ lat muscle injury. In addition, reliever Ryan Borucki has been transferred to the 60-Day IL.

Bruihl joins a reeling Pirates bullpen that opened the year as the team’s projected strength, but has plummeted to being their greatest weakness.

They are coming off a horrific month of May as a relieving staff, and in June have been inconsistent at best. In their series opener vs the Dodgers, the bullpen shut down LA for three straight innings to win 1-0, but last night, they surrendered 3 runs to hang on for a 10-6 win.

Bruihl, meanwhile, is very familiar with the Dodgers. He made his debut with Los Angeles back in 2021, where in 21 games (18.2 innings) he recorded a 2.89 ERA.

Over three seasons in the Dodgers’ organization, he pitched 66.2 innings at the major league level with a 2-2 record, 3.65 ERA, 1.200 WHIP, and 2.05 strikeout to walk ratio.

He was purchased by the Colorado Rockies on August 1st of last season, but things didn’t go all that well for him within the Rockies organization. He pitched 9.2 innings for Colorado’s Triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque, but to a 5.59 ERA.

In the majors for the Rockies, he only got into 3.2 innings and giving up 6 earned runs.

He was released by Colorado, and after some time as a free agent found a minor league deal with the Cincinnati Reds organization. The deal offered an invitation to spring training, but Bruihl did not make the Reds out of camp and was assigned to the team’s Triple-A affiliate.

In Louisville, he really found his stride again. In 23.1 innings, Bruihl went 4-0 with a 2.31 ERA and 1.114 WHIP.

On June 3rd, he was released by the Reds organization. His release from Cincinnati was not well reported, but it’s speculated that he had an out clause in his contract that allowed him to pursue a different opportunity, perhaps one at the major league level.

Bruihl is an interesting pickup for the Pirates. The fact that he was added directly to the team’s active major league roster is a pretty big indicator of how confident they are in him.

His rebound is Louisville is impressive; his ERA was sixth best on the team, and he was tied for the team lead in credited wins.

Bruihl has been a bit all over the map in his strikeout numbers. In his early days in the Dodgers’ minor league teams, Bruihl hit as high as 6.67 in Double-A and 4.29 in Triple-A in 2021. Since then, however, he has not reached higher than 2.50 at any level of play, including the major leagues.

Bruihl will become the second reliever in the Pirates bullpen with playoff experience, joining Aroldis Chapman. Bruihl pitched 2.0 innings for the Dodgers in the NLCS back in 2021; he faced 7 batters, striking out 5 of them.