{"id":98063,"date":"2025-03-24T18:24:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T22:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=98063"},"modified":"2025-03-24T18:24:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T22:24:03","slug":"yankees-sign-lefty-reliever-ryan-yarbrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/24\/yankees-sign-lefty-reliever-ryan-yarbrough\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Yarbrough Signs with the New York Yankees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The timing could not have been better for the New York Yankees and their pitching staff, as the club has reportedly signed veteran left-handed pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/y\/yarbrry01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Yarbrough<\/a> to a major league contract. Yarbrough last pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yarbrough was on a minor league deal with Toronto. The club had not selected him for the 26-man roster, in which he executed a release through being an XX(b) free agent. An XX(b) free agent needs to have a minimum of six years of MLB service while previously being on a major league roster.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His options were to force the hands of the Blue Jays to add him to the roster in addition to adding $100,000 in retention pay, or to be outright released to free agency. The Yankees eventually pounced on a much-needed reliever going into the season.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Welcome to Pinstripes, Ryan Yarbrough! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FTwQbRRIL9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/FTwQbRRIL9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 New York Yankees (@Yankees) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Yankees\/status\/1904200764056023277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 24, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ryan Yarbrough Becomes Available at the Right Time for the Yankees\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Yankees have lost two huge pieces of their <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/17\/yankees-carlos-carrasco-starting-rotation\/\" target=\"_self\">pitching staff<\/a> already. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/09\/yankees-gerrit-cole-likely-needs-tommy-john-surgery\/\" target=\"_self\">Gerrit Cole<\/a> is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/09\/yankees-gerrit-cole-likely-needs-tommy-john-surgery\/\" target=\"_self\">out until 2026<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gillu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Gil<\/a> is out until at least June of this year. This will shuffle the staff, specifically the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/23\/yankees-jonathan-loaisiga-comeback-ben-rice-first-full-season\/\" target=\"_self\">bullpen<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The southpaw Yarbrough has shown a great deal of experience and capability out of the bullpen. The Blue Jays retained him to a minor league deal, where in reality his profile fits the show in some capacity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He joined Toronto last season, while outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kiermke01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Kiermaier<\/a> was sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yarbrough will easily slide into a short-long relief role. His repertoire on the mound will bring depth to the Yankees&#8217; bullpen during a pitching shortage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Background\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yarbrough is a seven-year MLB veteran, primarily in a relief role. He started his career in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rays, where he spent five seasons. He split the 2023 season between the Kansas City Royals and the Dodgers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024 was also a split season for the left-handed pitcher, as he was dealt at the deadline to the Blue Jays. The 33-year-old was a non-roster invitee to spring training this year, in hopes of making the big club.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So far, he was left off the 26-man roster, and his opt-out was executed well after 10 days of the signed minor league deal. Yarbrough has found himself with another AL East team, where he can play a more substantial role.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Statistics<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last season between the two teams, Yarbrough pitched 98 2\/3 innings total. He finished with a 3.19 ERA, recording 398 batters faced in 44 games played.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yarbrough struck out 65 hitters, walking 32, and allowed 35 earned runs on 70 total hits. The left-hander has a five-pitch mix with heavy off-speed, but questionable fastball velocity. His current pitch style resembles <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/romose01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-03-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sergio Romo<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The left-handed pitcher will be tasked with eating innings on the back end or mid-end of the fifth starter spot. He will have a hybrid role, with expectations of entering for strategic matchups and\/or long-term relief. <\/span>This is a great sigh of relief for the Yankees ahead of Gil&#8217;s eventual return.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The timing could not have been better for the New York Yankees and their pitching staff, as the club has reportedly signed veteran left-handed pitcher Ryan Yarbrough to a major league contract. Yarbrough last pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays.\u00a0 Yarbrough was on a minor league deal with Toronto. The club had not selected him [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5126,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1071,35],"tags":[611,383,2860,887],"class_list":["post-98063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-yankees","category-mlb","category-news","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-kevin-kiermaier","tag-luis-gil","tag-ryan-yarbrough"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98063"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98093,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98063\/revisions\/98093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}