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Yankees Outright Carlos Carrasco

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The Yankees announced that Carlos Carrasco went unclaimed on waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The veteran righty has more than enough service time to decline the assignment in favor of free agency, though the team did not provide any indication that he’ll do that. He’d been designated for assignment on Tuesday.

Carrasco, 38, signed a minor league deal a couple weeks before the opening of Spring Training. He posted a 1.69 ERA over 16 innings in March. Between the strong camp and injuries to Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil, Carrasco opened the season in Aaron Boone’s rotation. He couldn’t carry the spring success into the regular season. Carrasco surrendered nearly six earned runs per nine across 32 innings. His 17.6% strikeout rate was a few percentage points below league average, while he gave up seven home runs (1.97 per nine).

That’s more or less a match for Carrasco’s 2023-24 production. He held rotation spots with the Mets and Guardians, respectively, for the bulk of those two years. He hasn’t missed bats and has struggled to keep the ball in the park. Carrasco allowed a combined 6.18 ERA in 41 starts over that stretch. His 1.75 HR/9 rate over the past three seasons is the highest among active pitchers who have logged at least 200 innings.

Carrasco has been an upper mid-rotation starter for the majority of his career. He’s now a depth arm as his velocity has declined into his late 30s. He’s still a solid strike-thrower and a highly-respected veteran, so the Yankees would presumably be happy to keep him in the organization at Scranton. Brandon Leibrandt and Jake Woodford are the most experienced non-roster depth starters with the RailRiders.

Looking Ahead To Club Options: AL East

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MLBTR wraps our division by division look at next year’s team/mutual option class with the AL East. Virtually all of the mutual options will be bought out by one side. Generally, if the team is willing to retain the player at the option price, the player will decline his end in search of a better free agent deal.

Previous installments: player options/opt-outs, NL West, AL West, NL Central, AL Central, NL East

Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore signed Kittredge to a one-year, $10MM free agent deal over the winter. He’s making $9MM this season and has a matching club option or a $1MM buyout for 2026. Kittredge was supposed to be a key setup man in front of Félix Bautista, but he suffered a left knee injury early in camp and required a debridement surgery. He began a rehab stint at High-A Aberdeen on Sunday. While there’s plenty of time for Kittredge to turn things around, it hasn’t been the start to his O’s tenure that he envisioned.

Laureano, who was non-tendered by the Braves, signed a $4MM contract with Baltimore in February. That came with a $6.5MM team option without a buyout, giving the Orioles an extra season of club control. Injuries to Tyler O’Neill and Colton Cowser have pressed him into everyday work, mostly in left field. He hasn’t provided much through his first 24 games. Laureano is hitting .185 with a .237 on-base percentage through 59 plate appearances. He has hit a trio of home runs but struck out 18 times while drawing only four walks. Laureano has generally been a below-average hitter since being suspended following a positive PED test in 2021. He’ll need much better production over the next few months for the Orioles to exercise the option.

Boston Red Sox

Buehler signed a one-year, $21.05MM free agent deal to match the price of the qualifying offer — which the Dodgers had declined to issue when he hit the market. It’s a relatively expensive pillow contract. Buehler was coming off a dismal regular season, in which he’d posted a 5.38 ERA with a career-worst 18.6% strikeout rate over 16 starts. He finished his Dodger tenure on a high note, though, closing out the World Series while pitching to a 3.60 earned run average in 15 playoff innings.

An ace-caliber pitcher early in his career, Buehler hasn’t looked the same since undergoing the second Tommy John surgery of his career in August 2022. His stint in Boston has gotten out to a shaky start. While his 4.28 ERA through 33 2/3 innings is serviceable, he’s striking out just 20.7% of opponents while averaging a personal-low 93.5 MPH on his fastball. Shoulder inflammation sent him to the injured list last week. The mutual option was always an accounting measure designed to push the $3MM buyout to the end of the year rather than disbursing it throughout the season as salary. The team seems likelier to decline its end than the pitcher does.

Giolito signed a two-year, $38.5MM deal during the 2023-24 offseason. He negotiated an opt-out clause after the first season and hoped to retest the market after one strong year. Instead, Giolito’s elbow gave out during Spring Training and he required UCL surgery that cost him the entire season. The veteran righty made the easy decision to stick around for year two.

By exercising his player option, Giolito unlocked a 2026 option for the team. It’s valued at $14MM and comes with a $1.5MM buyout. If Giolito pitches 140 innings this year, it’d convert to a $19MM mutual option (still with the $1.5MM buyout). That’d give him a chance to test free agency if he wants. Giolito has an uphill battle to 140 frames. A hamstring strain cost him the first month of the season. He finally made his team debut last week, working six innings of three-run ball with seven strikeouts in a no-decision against Toronto. The Rangers tagged him for six runs on 10 hits in just 3 2/3 frames tonight.

The Red Sox added Hendriks on a two-year, $10MM deal over the 2023-24 offseason. They knew they wouldn’t get much in year one, as Hendriks had undergone Tommy John surgery the prior August. He attempted to make a late-season return last year but was shut down after a minor flare-up of elbow discomfort. Elbow inflammation shelved him for a couple weeks to begin this season, though he made his team debut in mid-April.

Hendriks allowed two runs on three hits in one inning during his first appearance. He has rattled off five straight scoreless outings since then, albeit with four walks in five frames. His 95 MPH average fastball is solid but below the 97-98 range at which he sat during his elite seasons with the White Sox.

Note: Jarren Duran’s arbitration deal contains a ’26 club option with an $8MM base salary. He’d remain eligible for arbitration if the Sox decline the option.

New York Yankees

  • Tim Hill, LHP ($3MM club option, $350K buyout)

Hill finished last season with the Yankees after being released by the White Sox in June. He’d allowed nearly six earned runs per nine with Chicago but managed a tidy 2.05 ERA over 44 frames for New York. He’s out to a similarly productive start to the ’25 season. Hill has surrendered five runs through 17 1/3 innings (2.60 ERA).

While the soft-tossing lefty has managed just 11 strikeouts, his game has always been built around ground-balls. He’s getting grounders at a massive 81.6% clip thus far. Only nine of the 40 batted balls he’s allowed have been hit into the air. It’s easily the highest grounder rate in the majors. The Yankees value this skillset as much as any team, and the $2.65MM option decision is a drop in the bucket for them.

Loáisiga is still working back from last April’s elbow surgery. The righty has generally been a productive reliever when healthy, but he’s only once managed even 50 MLB innings in a season. He’s on a rehab stint with Low-A Tampa and will need another few weeks before he’s built into MLB game shape. Loáisiga is making $5MM this season. The option has a matching base value and could climb by another $500K if the Yankees exercise it. He’d earn $100K each at reaching 50, 55, 60, 65 and 70 innings in 2026.

Tampa Bay Rays

Fairbanks is in the final guaranteed season of the three-year, $12MM extension that he signed before the 2023 campaign. That includes a $1MM buyout on a club option that comes with a $7MM base value. That’s a bargain for a quality high-leverage reliever, but the deal includes various escalators that could push the option price above $12MM.

The option value would climb by $500K if he gets to 125 combined appearances between 2023-25 and another $1MM apiece at 135, 150 and 165 combined outings. Fairbanks made it into 95 games over the first two seasons. He’d trigger the first $500K escalator at just 30 appearances this year and would max it out if he makes it into 70 games. He can boost the option price by another $2MM based on this year’s games finished total: $500K apiece at 25, 30, 35 and 40.

Fairbanks has never reached 50 appearances in a season because of various injuries, but he’s already at 14 games through this season’s first six weeks. Fairbanks has finished 11 of those contests while working as Kevin Cash’s primary closer. He has recorded 13 strikeouts against six walks while allowing three runs over 13 1/3 innings. The option price should remain solid value, though the escalators might eventually push it to an area where Tampa Bay would rather explore deadline or offseason trades rather than having a reliever projecting as one of the highest-paid players on the roster.

Jansen seemed to be pulling away from the rest of a weak free agent catching class early last season. His production tanked from June onwards, leaving him to sign an $8.5MM pillow contract with Tampa Bay. He’s making an $8MM salary and will collect a $500K buyout on a $12MM mutual option at year’s end. Last summer’s offensive drought has carried into 2025. Jansen has only one home run with a .147/.301/.221 batting line through 83 plate appearances. He remains a very patient hitter, but the Rays would have an easy decision to decline their end of the option if he doesn’t find the double-digit home run power he showed during his best seasons in Toronto.

Lowe has had a rare extended run with a Tampa Bay team that is almost always willing to trade any player. He’s in his eighth big league season and in year seven of the extension he signed in Spring Training 2019. Lowe collected $24MM for what would have been his standard six seasons of team control. The Rays exercised a $10.5MM option for this year and can retain him once more at an $11.5MM price. It’s an $11MM decision after accounting for the $500K buyout.

While injuries have been a recurring issue, Lowe has been one of the better offensive middle infielders in the sport when healthy. His 39-homer season in 2021 is an outlier, but he has tallied 21 longballs in each of the past two seasons. He’s out to a much slower start this year, batting .203/.258/.305 with four homers across 128 plate appearances. The batted ball metrics are still solid, but his career-worst 20.1% swinging strike rate is the fifth-highest among hitters with at least 50 PAs.

This one can still go a few different ways. If Lowe hits like this all season, he’d be bought out. If he finds something like his 2023-24 form (.238/.319/.458), then $11MM is reasonable. It’d keep him as one of Tampa Bay’s highest-paid players, though, so there’s a decent chance he’ll be traded at some point this year. The 16-18 Rays look like fringe Wild Card contenders for a second consecutive year. They could again try to walk the line between buying and selling come deadline season.

The Rays signed Waguespack to a restructured deal early last offseason. He’s making $1.3MM this season and has a $1.5MM club option for next year. That’d escalate to $2MM if he reaches 20 “points” this season. Waguespack would receive one point for each MLB relief appearance and two points per big league start. He has spent the ’25 season to date on optional assignment to Triple-A Durham.

Working as a pure reliever for the Bulls, Waguespack has reeled off 14 innings of two-run ball. He has fanned 15 hitters against three walks while getting ground-balls at a lofty 60% clip. It hasn’t earned him a major league call yet, but he should be up before too much longer if he keeps performing at that level. Waguespack spent the 2022-23 seasons with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan. He made four MLB appearances with Tampa Bay last year but lost a good portion of the season to a rotator cuff injury.

Note: Taylor Walls’ arbitration deal contains a ’26 club option with a $2.45MM base salary. He’d remain eligible for arbitration if the Rays decline the option.

Toronto Blue Jays

  • None

Yankees Designate Carlos Carrasco For Assignment

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The Yankees announced today that they have recalled right-hander Yerry De los Santos to the active roster. Righty Carlos Carrasco has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

Carrasco, 38, signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in the offseason. The Yankee rotation took a number of hits during spring training, with Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and JT Brubaker starting the season on the IL with significant injuries. That allowed Carrasco to crack the Opening Day roster. He has made six starts and two relief appearances so far this year, allowing 5.91 earned runs per nine innings. His 7% walk rate is good but he only punched out 17.6% of batters faced.

The health situation hasn’t improved much for the Yankees and has in fact gotten worse. Since Opening Day, Marcus Stroman has joined Cole, Gil and Brubaker on the IL. Clarke Schmidt also battled some flank soreness last week, though he managed to avoid the IL.

However, the Yanks feel they no longer need Carrasco on the roster. It’s possible that’s due to the schedule, as they have four off-days over the rest of this month, including two in the next nine days. That might put a little less pressure on the staff. It’s also possible that Carrasco has been jumped on the depth chart by Ryan Yarbrough. The lefty has been working a long relief role for the Yankees, with 19 1/3 innings over nine appearances. He has a 3.72 ERA, 22.2% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate in that time.

The current rotation consists of Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Will Warren and Schmidt. With the off-days, they may be able to ride with a four-man group for a while, perhaps with Yarbrough making a spot start. Allan Winans is also stretched out in Triple-A and could be recalled to contribute at some point.

The club’s plans should become more clear in the coming days. Regardless, Carrasco is bumped off the roster today. Carrasco’s numbers this year haven’t been great but it’s possible he can still find interest from a club looking for a veteran to eat innings. Players like José Ureña, Casey Lawrence and Ian Anderson have been bouncing around the league recently, with some with gassed pitching staffs looking for relief.

Carrasco has a lengthy track record of big league success but hasn’t been at the same level in recent years, which is why he had to settle for a minor league deal coming into 2025. Dating back to the start of 2023, he has logged 225 2/3 innings for the Mets, Guardians and Yankees. In that time, he has a 6.14 ERA and 17.9% strikeout rate, though his 8.1% walk rate and 44.9% ground ball rate in that span are close to average.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Yankees Notes: Schmidt, Volpe, Chisholm, Lombard

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The Yankees were expected to send right-hander Clarke Schmidt to the mound against the Rays yesterday, but the right-hander wound up scratched from his start. MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch notes that Schmidt told reporters that he’s dealing with some soreness in his left side, but fortunately it appears to be fairly minor. Hoch adds that Schmidt even told the Yankees he would be able to take the ball yesterday, but the club opted to scratch him and push his start back to this coming Tuesday. Chris Kirschner of The Athletic notes that, per manager Aaron Boone, Schmidt underwent an MRI that came back clearn, suggesting the issue is a minor one.

That Schmidt’s soreness appears to be fairly manageable is surely a huge relief for New York. With Gerrit Cole out for the year and both Luis Gil and Marcus Stroman currently shelved with injuries of their own, losing Schmidt just three starts into his 2025 season would be a brutal blow for the Yanks. Allan Winans remains in Triple-A as a potential spot starter option, but the club’s depth is largely being used in the rotation already with Carlos Carrasco and Will Warren currently getting regular starts.

Schmidt’s 14 2/3 innings of work so far this year have hardly been inspiring, but it’s worth remembering that he’s just one year removed from posting a sterling 2.85 ERA and 3.58 FIP across 16 starts. That strong performance in 2024 suggested front-half of the rotation potential within Schmidt, and perhaps being careful with the side issue he’s currently dealing with is the best way to tap into as much of that potential as possible in a season where little is working within the club’s rotation aside from Max Fried.

Turning to the other major Yankees injury news from yesterday, Anthony Volpe had a bit of an injury scare in the eighth inning of yesterday’s game. Hoch writes that Volpe heard a “pop” in his left shoulder while attempting to field a grounder.

“It happened quick and it was scary, but after that, I felt OK and I felt like I had my strength,” Volpe said, as relayed by Hoch. “I’ve never really had anything else pop or dislocate or anything like that, so I have nothing to compare it to.”

As Hoch notes, those encouraging early comments can’t necessarily be taken as gospel just days after Volpe’s double play partner Jazz Chisholm Jr. expressed optimism that his injury was a fairly minor one just before being placed on the injured list for what figures to be a four-to-six week absence. An MRI of Chisholm’s oblique revealed three high-grade tears in the area, though fortunately the volume of tears does not appear to have significantly altered Chisholm’s timetable for return as the second baseman still expects to return in that four-to-six week time frame.

Chisholm’s injury is already testing the club’s middle infield depth and forcing a combination of Jorbit Vivas and Pablo Reyes to handle the keystone for the foreseeable future. That makes the idea of an injury for Volpe all the more concerning, but Hoch suggested that the shortstop will likely be sent for an MRI before he’s fully cleared to play again despite the fact that he finished yesterday’s game and already underwent an x-ray that revealed no structural damage. (UPDATE: Manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Hoch) this morning that Volpe is day-to-day after the club received “good news” from his MRI exam.)

Even if the Yankees weren’t already suffering from a dearth of infield depth, losing Volpe would be a serious blow given that he’s putting up such encouraging numbers on offense. After Volpe’s first two years saw him post well-below offensive numbers buoyed by Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop, the 24-year-old is actually hitting an impressive .233/.326/.442 with ten doubles, five homers, and a 10.6% walk rate in 33 games. That’s good for a 121 wRC+ so far this year, and Volpe’s excellent batted ball data suggests he may actually be producing less than his underlying performance would suggest he should be. It’s an exciting potential breakout performance for the Yanks, and the fans in the Bronx are surely waiting with bated breath for their potential budding star at shortstop to return to the lineup.

All the injuries piling up for the Yankees in the rotation and around the infield likely have many fans operating with one eye on the July 31 trade deadline. There’s plenty of room for improvement on this Yankees club, but there’s at least one prospect the club is expected to keep out of trade talks this summer as they pursue back-to-back World Series appearances after losing in five games to the Dodgers in last year’s Fall Classic. According to Brendan Kuty of The Athletic, that prospect is young infielder George Lombard Jr.

As relayed by Kuty, the club does not expect Lombard to help in the majors this year but nonetheless he’s viewed by some evaluators as the club’s only “untouchable” prospect, with Kuty suggesting that it would require a “Godfather” offer to convince the Yankees to part with the young infielder. Still just 19 until next month, Lombard was the club’s first-rounder back in 2023 and is so far hitting an excellent .329/.496/.488 at the High-A level this year, with a promotion to Double-A at some point in the near future potentially in the cards.

Given that the Yankees (per Kuty) viewed Lombard as untouchable last season, when he slashed just .231/.338/.334 across two levels of A-ball, it’s hardly a shock that they aren’t inclined to trade him now that he appears to have broken out in such a substantial way. Still, with controllable aces like Pablo Lopez already seeing their names swirl in the rumor mill, refusing to part with Lombard could make it difficult for the Yankees to land a top-flight starter this summer in what figures to be a very competitive market for pitching talent.

Yankees Place Jazz Chisholm Jr. On Injured List

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3:05pm: Boone says Chisholm’s strain is of the high-grade variety and he might miss four to six weeks, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.

8:51am: The Yankees announced this morning that infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. is headed to the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain. The move is retroactive to April 30. Fellow infielder Jorbit Vivas has been recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take Chisholm’s spot on the active roster.

Chisholm exited Tuesday’s game with discomfort in his side and sat out Wednesday’s contest. Manager Aaron Boone revealed earlier this week that Chisholm would undergo an MRI on Thursday’s off-day. That imaging clearly revealed enough for the Yankees to sit Chisholm down for the next week-plus. The team hasn’t formally provided a timetable for Chisholm’s return yet, though even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for upwards of a month. There are instances of players making it back from very mild strains sooner than that, of course. Boone will surely provide more information on Chisholm’s injury outlook prior to tonight’s game.

The 27-year-old Chisholm has hit for plenty of power this season but has been far more strikeout-prone than he was in 2024. He’s slashing .181/.304/.410 with seven homers, three doubles, six steals (in seven attempts) and a career-best 12% walk rate. He’s also fanned in what would be a career-high 31.2% of his plate appearances and been dinged by a .200 average on balls in play — hence the low batting average.

Even with the basement-level batting average, Chisholm’s approach at the plate doesn’t look as alarming as one might expect. He’s actually chasing pitches out of the strike zone at the lowest clip of his career. His 21.1% chase rate sits nearly seven percentage points lower than league-average. In general, Chisholm is seeing more pitches than ever before. He’s swinging at a career-low 41.1% of the pitches he sees, and his 4.27 pitches per plate appearance is both a career-high mark and the 24th-highest among 168 qualified hitters.

The driving factor behind his strikeouts is easier to explain than to fix: Chisholm’s contact rate on pitches within the zone has cratered from 80.7% last year to 72.5% this season. (League average is just over 85%.) Chisholm’s strikeout rate had actually begun to come down in recent weeks; he’s fanned in one-quarter of his plate appearances over his past 80 trips to the plate — right in line with his 2024 levels — so perhaps the spike in punchouts can be chalked up to some early-season white noise. Time will tell.

In the meantime, Vivas will get his third recall to the majors and hope to finally be plugged into to the lineup this time. He’s been summoned to MLB two times in the past, but Boone has yet to write the 24-year-old’s name on the lineup card or even send him into a game as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner or defensive replacement.

Vivas is doing his best to force the issue in Triple-A. He’s had a superb start to his 2025 season, batting .319/.426/.436 (139 wRC+) with a pair of home runs, five doubles, six steals (in 10 attempts) and more walks (12.9%) than strikeouts (6.9%). The lefty-swinging Vivas, acquired from the Dodgers in the 2023-24 offseason, can play both second and third base.

Yankees Claim Bryan De La Cruz

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The Yankees have claimed outfielder Bryan De La Cruz from the Braves, according to announcements from both clubs. The Yanks optioned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and transferred Giancarlo Stanton to the 60-day injured list as the corresponding 40-man move.

There was no previous indication that Atlanta had designated De La Cruz for assignment, but it appears they quietly put him on waivers in recent days in an attempt to get him off the 40-man. It didn’t work, with the Yanks scooping him up. Atlanta’s 40-man roster count drops from 39 to 38.

Atlanta signed BDLC to their roster in the offseason and he started the season in the majors with the Atlanta outfield in flux this year. Ronald Acuña Jr. is still working back from last year’s ACL tear. Jurickson Profar tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug early in the season and received an 80-game suspension. The club signed Alex Verdugo to help out but that deal got done so late that Verdugo had to start the season on optional assignment as a sort of delayed spring training.

De La Cruz got 50 plate appearances with Atlanta but was punched out in 36% of them as he produced a dismal .191/.240/.213 line. He was optioned down to Triple-A Gwinnett when Verdugo was ready to join the big league club. The team later signed Eddie Rosario and optioned Jarred Kelenic. With Acuña slated to be back in the next month or so and Kelenic available in Triple-A, De La Cruz didn’t have great odds of getting back to the majors, which is surely what prompted the club to push him onto the waiver wire.

For the Yankees, they effectively had an open roster spot. Stanton has been on the 10-day injured list all year due to problems in both elbows. He has been trying to get healthy but still isn’t ready for game action. Even once cleared to get into a lineup somewhere, he will need a rehab assignment of a few weeks to get into game shape. His 60-day count is retroactive to his initial IL placement, so he will be eligible to be reinstated later this month if he’s able to get healthy by then.

For now, they have used Stanton’s roster spot to add some extra outfield depth. Their big league outfield group is currently strong, consisting of Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger and Jasson Domínguez. But De La Cruz has options and there’s little harm in stashing him in Triple-A to see how things go.

As mentioned, his 2025 is out to a brutal start, but he’s been better in the past. He stepped to the plate 574 times for the Marlins over 2021 and 2022 with a combined .269/.318/.430 line and 103 wRC+ over those seasons. However, a .333 batting average on balls in play helped him out a lot there and his production has tailed off since. Since the start of 2023, he has a .243/.285/.390 line and 81 wRC+. Strikeouts have become a growing problem, with a 28% rate of punchouts since the start of 2024.

Even as he was struggling last year, he was still able to be useful in a platoon setting. A right-handed hitter, he put up a .285/.309/.425 line and 99 wRC+ versus lefties, so perhaps that is part of the appeal. Grisham and Bellinger are both lefties, though Grisham has reverse splits in his career. Domínguez is a switch-hitter but has been vulnerable to southpaws so far. He has a .277/.353/.529 line against righties but just .100/.239/.150 against lefties.

For now, De La Cruz can get regular playing time with the RailRiders and try to get in a good groove. If he succeeds or if the Yankees suffer an injury, he could get find himself getting another crack at the majors.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Poll: Can Ben Rice Keep This Up?

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Yesterday, Yankees slugger Ben Rice enjoyed a three-hit game that saw him slug two homers. It was a great game, but that’s become almost commonplace for the 26-year-old through the season’s first month. After making his big league debut at first base while filling in for Anthony Rizzo last summer, Rice entered Spring Training this year in the mix for a bench spot as a pinch-hitter and backup catcher behind Austin Wells. An injury to Giancarlo Stanton created an opportunity for regular playing time, however, and Rice was chosen to take those regular reps.

He’s certainly making the most of the opportunity, having done nothing but rake since the season began. In 106 plate appearances this year, Rice has slashed an incredible .278/.387/.611 (184 wRC+). Rice has clobbered eight homers already, leaving him tied for the ninth-most long balls in the majors and just two behind Eugenio Suarez and Cal Raleigh for the major league lead. Sandwiched between those two and Rice with nine homers is Aaron Judge, for whom Rice’s emergence has created the sort of protection in the lineup that Juan Soto offered him last season. If comparing the 26-year-old’s early season production to Soto’s 2024 campaign sounds hyperbolic, it isn’t; Rice’s aforementioned 184 wRC+ currently makes him the fourth-best qualified hitter in baseball and second only to Judge in the AL. Soto’s 180 wRC+ last year made him the third-best qualified hitter in baseball and second only to Judge in the AL.

The question for Rice, however, is how sustainable this hot start will prove to be. The Yankees would surely love for Rice to emerge as star-level bat both for this season and the long-term, when he could take over for Paul Goldschmidt as the club’s regular first baseman. This isn’t the first time Rice has come out of the gates with a hot start, however, as his cup of coffee last year started with a 24-game, 92-PA stretch where he hit an impressive .228/.315/.494 with six homers. That start proved to be unsustainable for him, as he hit a paltry .110/.209/.192 the rest of the way to finish as a well below-average hitter overall across his 50 games in the majors.

In that 24-game stretch of success last year, Rice struck out at a 22.8% clip, walked 12.0% of the time, and posted an incredible 20.0% barrel rate. Those are all solid peripherals, though his 38.3% hard-hit rate was somewhat concerning and helped to explain his lackluster .222 BABIP. That’s especially true when combined with his 50% fly ball rate over that stretch; while elevating the ball often helps with homers, leading to the aforementioned massive barrel rate, softly-hit fly balls are the worst type of contact a hitter can make. That weak contact in the air led to very few balls dropping in for hits, and once the home runs stopped coming his overall production cratered.

How does Rice’s start to 2025 measure up to last year’s hot start? The signs are mixed in that regard. His strikeout rate (24.5%) has actually gotten worse, and his walk rate (12.3%) is mostly stagnant. The real story here can be found in his batted ball data. Rice’s 21.9% barrel rate is phenomenal, but not a massive change from the 20.0% figure he put up during last year’s hot streak. However, Rice is making loud contact much more consistently so far this year. His hard-hit rate has jumped up to a phenomenal 62.5%, good for second in all of baseball this year behind Oneil Cruz’s 62.7% and slightly ahead of Shohei Ohtani’s 62.3%.

Hitting the ball hard that consistently is obviously a good thing, but the hard contact has come at the cost of Rice elevating the ball much less than he was last year. His 15.6% line drive rate is down five points from last year and his 35.9% fly ball rate is down eight points; consequently, that’s led to a 13-point spike in his ground ball rate, which now sits at 48.4%. That huge grounder rate may seem like it would limit Rice’s power, and that’s true to a least some extent. Even so, plenty of hitters have emerged as legitimate power threats over the years despite hitting the ball on the ground a lot as long as they hit the ball hard enough to send it out when they do elevate. Gunnar Henderson, Ketel Marte, and Teoscar Hernandez are among the players who posted big seasons last year despite ground ball rates in a similar range as Rice. What’s more, advanced metrics generally seem to buy that Rice has earned his production so far. His .428 wOBA this year is virtually identical to his .425 xwOBA.

How much do MLBTR readers believe in Rice’s offensive explosion to open the season? Have the Yankees found another star slugger to pair with Judge in the middle of their lineup, or will this hot start prove to be a flash in the pan like last year? Have your say in the poll below:

Yankees Remove Devin Williams From Closer Role

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TODAY: Boone confirmed to reporters this morning that Williams is being removed from the ninth inning, as relayed by multiple reporters, including Jack Curry of the YES Network. Curry adds that Boone suggested he wants Williams to get into some lower leverage situations to “build momentum” after his difficult first month. William Ladson adds that Weaver is likely to take over as the club’s closer for the time being while Williams attempts to right the ship.

April 26: Devin Williams’ first month in the pinstripes could hardly have gotten off to an uglier start, as the former NL Rookie of the Year has an 11.25 ERA over his first eight innings of the season.  The Yankees’ 4-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Friday saw Williams record his first blown save of the year, as he was charged with three earned runs after failing to retire any of the three batters he faced in the ninth inning.

In the aftermath of that rough outing, Yankees manager Aaron Boone indicated that the team may be considering a change to the closer role.  When asked if the Yankees might move Williams to lower-leverage work, Boone told The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner and other reporters “we’ll see,” adding that “We’ll kind of talk through that stuff.  This is raw right now.  We want to do everything we can to get him right because we know how good he is and how valuable he’s going to be for us.”

The Yankees were rained out in today’s scheduled game with the Jays, but Boone still met with the media (including the New York Post’s Greg Joyce), and said that he hadn’t yet gotten a chance to speak with Williams about the situation.  The skipper also framed Williams’ struggles as just temporary, saying that Williams has “been one of the dominant closers in the league.  I know the results haven’t been great yet.  A lot of the stuff is still there, the profile of the changeup is still there….He hasn’t gotten swung and miss.  He’s been behind in the count a little bit.  Once he starts flipping that and starts getting some count leverage, I expect him to go back to being the dominant closer he’s been.”

Boone isn’t wrong in noting that eight innings shouldn’t erase the six seasons of elite work that Williams delivered with the Brewers from 2019-2024.  Starting as a set-up man and then as Milwaukee’s closer once Josh Hader was traded, Williams posted an eye-opening 1.83 ERA and 39.4% strikeout rate in 235 2/3 innings in a Brewers uniform.  An inflated 11.8% walk rate was the only question mark in an otherwise spectacular run for the right-hander, whose “Airbender” changeup became one of the sport’s deadliest pitches.

This season, the Airbender has only led to crooked numbers on the scoreboard, as Statcast ranks Williams’ changeup as a below-average pitch (a -1 in Run Value in 2025 following a +15 RV in 2024).  This one of several metrics that have fallen off the cliff for Williams, as his strikeout rate is down to 18.2% and he is allowing far more hard contact than usual.

The lack of production was obviously not at all what the Yankees expected when they acquired Williams from the Brewers in December for a trade package of Nestor Cortes, Caleb Durbin, and $2MM to help cover the $7.6MM that Cortes is earning for the 2025 season.  Since Cortes is on the 60-day injured list due to a flexor strain and Durbin has only just made his Major League debut, the deal has basically been a lose-lose for both teams thus far — a shocking outcome for what was one of the winter’s biggest trades.

The deal was intended to reinforce the back end of New York’s pen, even though Luke Weaver blossomed after becoming the closer in the wake of Clay Holmes’ struggles last year.  Weaver has continued to look great this season, and would be the logical choice as the top saves candidate if Williams was temporarily removed from the closer role.  With Williams as the glaring exception, the Yankees’ relief corps has largely pitched quite well in 2025, as a less-heralded trade acquisition in Fernando Cruz has delivered the type of shutdown work New York expected from Williams.

While Williams still pitched well in 2024, his output came over only 21 2/3 innings, as a stress fracture in his back kept him on the injured list until late July.  Williams’ year then ended on the sour note of an infamous blown save in Game 3 of the NLDS, as a 2-0 lead in the ninth inning for the Brewers turned from a probable series victory to devastation, as Williams allowed the Mets to score four runs in an eventual 4-2 win for the Amazins.

With still just eight innings of a sample size to gauge, it is too simplistic to say that Williams is still dwelling on that brutal loss, or that he isn’t adjusting well to the change of scenery from Milwaukee to the Bronx.  The move to the higher-pressure environment, however, does come with a larger spotlight that tends to magnify any slump, and the fact that such slumps have been so rare for Williams in his career tend to raise questions, and invite the possibility of a role change.  It could be that this is just a bump in the road and Williams will be back in his old form soon, though every rough outing could hamper Williams’ earning potential in free agency this coming winter.

Dodgers Claim Yoendrys Gómez

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April 26: The Dodgers have formally added Gómez to their active roster. In a corresponding move, the team optioned right-hander Noah Davis.

April 25: The Dodgers have claimed right-hander Yoendrys Gómez off waivers from the Yankees, according to announcements from both clubs. The Yankees designated him for assignment earlier this week. The Dodgers have had an open 40-man roster spot since designating outfielder Eddie Rosario for assignment on the weekend. Since Gómez is out of options, they will need to open an active roster spot for him once he reports to the club.

Gómez, 25, joins a new organization for the first time. The Yankees signed him as an international amateur out of Venezuela back in 2016. As he climbed the ladder, he worked his way into being one of the top 30 prospects in the system. The Yankees added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2020 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

Since then, he has hardly been given a chance to face major league hitters. He used up three option years in the 2021-2023 seasons. Tommy John surgery in 2021 played a role there, as he wasn’t able to pitch much in that year or in 2022. The Yankees were given a fourth option for 2024, but he came into 2025 out of options and with just 13 1/3 innings of major league pitching under his belt. He held a long relief role for the first few weeks of this season, tossing 10 innings over six appearances.

Overall, Gómez has a 3.09 earned run average in 23 1/3 big league innings to this point. That’s not much to go on, but his minor league numbers are presumably intriguing to the Dodgers. Across 2023 and 2024, he tossed 148 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.63 ERA. His 12.3% walk rate was on the high side but he struck out 27.7% of batters faced.

The Dodgers are generally willing to bet on talented but injury-prone pitchers and often find themselves rotating through various arms over the course of a season. At the moment, they have 12 pitchers on the injured list. Many of those underwent major surgeries last year, meaning the club wasn’t counting on them to contribute in 2025. However, they have also seen guys like Blake Snell, Blake Treinen and Tony Gonsolin get hurt in the past few weeks.

Right now, their rotation is down to Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. The club is trying to keep Yamamoto and Sasaki on a weekly pitching schedule, which is customary in Japan. As such, they have been doing the occasional spot start or bullpen game. Guys like Landon Knack, Justin Wrobleski and Bobby Miller have made spot starts this month. On Wednesday, Ben Casparius started a bullpen game, with six relievers coming in after him. They also used seven pitchers in Tuesday’s extra-innings game at Wrigley.

The Dodgers had an off-day yesterday but have leaned heavily on their staff. Gómez will give them a fresh arm whenever he meets up with them. He tossed three innings for the Yanks on Monday, so he should be able to be deployed as a multi-inning guy in some capacity. The Dodgers have Yamamoto, Sasaki, Glasnow and May scheduled to pitch the next four games but might need another sport start and/or bullpen game by Tuesday. Gonsolin tossed five innings in a rehab start on Wednesday, so he might be a factor in the club’s plans as well.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images

Yankees Select Tyler Matzek, Designate Yoendrys Gómez For Assignment

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The Yankees announced that they have selected left-hander Tyler Matzek to their roster. Right-hander Yoendrys Gómez has been designated for assignment to open space on the active and 40-man rosters.

Gómez, 25, was once a notable prospect for the Yankees. However, he came into 2025 out of options and with limited experience. Even though the Yankee rotation has lost Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, Marcus Stroman and JT Brubaker to the injured list, Gómez never seemed to get much consideration for a rotation spot.

Instead, he’s been kept in a long relief role, having tossed ten innings across six appearances this year. That includes three innings last night after Clarke Schmidt only lasted four frames against the Guardians. Gómez was likely going to be unavailable for a few days after that and the Yanks have another long relief option on hand in Ryan Yarbrough, so Gómez has been bumped off the roster and into DFA limbo.

The righty now has a 3.09 earned run average in a small sample of 23 1/3 major league innings in his career. He could perhaps garner interest from other clubs based on his past prospect pedigree and work in the minors. Years ago, he put up some good numbers in rookie ball and A-ball, leading Baseball America to have him as the club’s #12 prospect in 2020 and #8 in 2021. Tommy John surgery in 2021 reduced his workload for a while. In 2023 and 2024, around occasional major league call-ups, he tossed 148 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.63 earned run average. His 12.3% walk rate in that time was high but he also struck out 27.7% of batters faced.

Since Gómez is out of options, any acquiring club would have to keep him on the active roster. If he does find a landing spot and succeeds, there would be long-term benefits for that team. Gómez has just a handful of service days, meaning he can be cheaply retained for years to come. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Yanks will have as much as five days to explore trade interest.

His departure makes room for the veteran Matzek. Now 34 years old, he has a strong track record but is a few years removed from his best work. He underwent Tommy John surgery late in 2022 while with Atlanta and then missed the entire 2023 season. He returned to the mound last year but posted a 9.90 ERA in ten outings before landing on the IL in early May due to elbow inflammation. He was traded to the Giants as part of the Jorge Soler deal but was released and ended up back with Atlanta on a minor league pact to finish out the year.

He had a strong run prior to that. From 2020 to 2022, he posted a 2.92 ERA in 135 2/3 innings. His 13.4% walk rate in that time was certainly on the high side but he punched out 27.4% of batters faced. The Yanks gave him a shot to bounceback by signing him to a minor league deal this winter. He suffered an oblique strain during spring and therefore didn’t have a chance to crack the Opening Day roster. He recently returned to the mound and has thrown 5 2/3 minor league innings with two earned runs allowed, issuing two walks and punching out seven opponents.

The Yanks have Yarbrough and Tim Hill as lefties in their bullpen but Yarbrough is a long man while Hill is a soft tossing ground ball guy. Matzek will give manager Aaron Boone more of a swing-and-miss option from the left side.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

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