The New York Yankees are adding some veteran depth to the pitching staff just before pitchers and catchers report for spring training.
According to Jack Curry of YES Network, the Yankees signed former New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco to a minor-league deal.
The contract includes a major-league base salary of $1.5 million with a chance to reach up to $2.5 million in performance bonuses, per Joel Sherman of The New York Post.
Though the Yankees already have a pretty stout starting rotation — and have been looking to offload the contract of Marcus Stroman — it seems there’s some hope they can get one last push from the 38-year-old.
The American League wins leader in 2017, Carrasco has spent the majority of his 15-year MLB career with Cleveland (2009-2019, 2024). He missed three months during the 2019 season after being diagnosed with Leukemia.
He also spent three seasons with the New York Mets (2021-2023).
Carrasco has been far from the pitcher who finished fourth in the American League Cy Young voting in 2017, but he did show some life in 2022 when he posted a 15-7 record with a 3.97 ERA with the Mets.
Even with that solid campaign, however, Carrasco owns a 5.32 ERA since the start of the 2021 season and is coming off a season with a 3-10 record and a 5.64 ERA in 103.2 innings with the Guardians.
A part of Carrasco’s first stint in Cleveland overlapped with Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake, who held a developmental role in the organization in 2016 and 2017.
