Ryan

Yarbrough

He’ll make $100,000 extra for 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120 innings thrown. Blackburn will probably compete with Ryan Yarbrough for the fifth rotation spot coming out of spring training, with the loser of the battle going to middle relief. However, Carlos Rodón could be back to claim the rotation spot before the end of April.

The deal, which had been reported on Monday, is now official after the 33-year-old southpaw passed his physical. Yarbrough will also have the ability to make an extra $250,000 in performance bonuses. He’s likely to reprise his role as a swingman for the Yankees after posting a 4.36 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and a 55/19 K/BB ratio across 64 innings in 2025.

The swingman threw 64 innings for the Yankees in 2025, posting a 4.36 ERA and 20.8 percent strikeout rate. In eight MLB seasons, Yarbrough has posted a 4.22 ERA and 654 strikeouts in 832 innings.

Yarbrough, who was in the rotation when he was hurt in June, will return from his oblique strain as a middle reliever. He has a 3.90 ERA in eight starts and eight relief appearances.

Yarbrough, on the IL with a strained oblique, is ready to be activated for a middle-relief role whenever. The Yankees aren’t going to bring him back as a starter unless someone gets hurt.

He struck out three. The Yankees could activate Yarbrough this weekend if they want; he’s not going into the rotation immediately anyway, so he doesn’t need to be stretched out any further than this. He’s been out since June 20 with an oblique strain.

Yarbrough has been out since late June with an oblique strain. The most interesting aspect of his recovery update is that the Yankees “plan to build Yarbrough to the area of 50 pitches before activating him.” This would seem to confirm earlier suspicions that Yarbrough will come back as a multi-inning reliever, and that means we could see him activated sooner than he would have been if he were building up to a starter’s workload.

Yarbrough was slated to take the ball for Monday’s series opener against the Reds. Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters it’ll be Allan Winans coming up from Triple-A to start in his place. He also added that the soft-tossing southpaw is dealing with a low-grade oblique strain that began bothering him back in mid-June. The 33-year-old wound up requiring a trip to the injured list when he was unable to complete a bullpen session earlier this week. He’s likely to only miss a couple weeks given the relatively mild severity of the strain.

Yarbrough struck out three and walked one on the day. All of the damage against him came on two solo home runs, one to Nolan Schanuel in the first inning and then another to Jo Adell in the fifth. The left-hander posted an underwhelming 16 percent whiff rate and 25 percent CSW on the day and is a risky bet on the road against the Reds next week.

The crafty Yarbrough turned into another fine outing here all things considered. Despite constant traffic over the first few innings, he did well to limit damage and not let the Red Sox get the big hit they were looking for. His resurgence has been fueled by some alterations to his changeup and that pitch accounted for five of his nine total swings-and-misses in this start and was incredibly important against the Red Sox’s right-handed heavy lineup. He’s lined up to face the Angels at home in his next start.