The New York Yankees knew their offense would be in good shape, but the pitching staff has been more of a surprise.
After adding former Most Valuable Player Award winners Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger alongside superstar Aaron Judge, the team seemed to be capable of replacing Juan Soto and marching on with one of baseball’s stronger batting orders. But after it lost Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil during spring training, the rotation faced some serious questions.
The staff has answered those questions as it holds a top-10 ERA and the third-most strikeouts of any team in Major League Baseball. And while the likes of Max Fried, Carlos Rodon and Will Warren deserve a lot of credit, one of the most surprising reasons for the success has been Ryan Yarbrough.
Despite throwing one of the slowest fastballs in the majors, Yarbrough maintained a 2.08 ERA in his first five starts for the Yankees after moving out of the bullpen. He has pitched for five different teams in the last eight seasons without any clear-cut success, but when he was pushed off the opening day roster by the division rival Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees rushed to snatch him up.
“When Yarbrough became a free agent March 23, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman immediately contacted the pitcher’s agent,” Ken Rosenthal reported for The Athletic. “The next day, Yarbrough was a Yankee.”
Given the premium on effective starting pitchers and the questions the Yankees faced at the beginning of the season, Cashman’s move has been one of the year’s savviest acquisitions for the first-place club. And the general manager underscored that impact with a four-word response on acquiring Yarbrough: “He’s just been exceptional,” Cashman said, per Rosenthal.
“We knew he was a strike thrower, knew he wasn’t afraid and he could give us protection and length,” Cashman added. “Obviously, what he has turned into is a helluva lot more than that.”
As the Yankees look to turn a hot start into another World Series run, that move for Yarbrough might keep paying dividends.
