Left-hander Thomas Pannone has signed a minor league deal with the Yankees and has been assigned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had previously been with the Cubs on a minor league deal but was released earlier this week.
Pannone, 30, was working out of the rotation for Triple-A Iowa prior to his release and was putting up decent numbers, so it’s possible that he triggered some kind of opt-opt. After signing a minor league deal with the Cubs in the winter, he logged 90 2/3 innings over 19 starts with a 4.37 earned run average, 22% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 42% ground ball rate. The run-scoring environment in the International League has been pretty strong this year, with pitchers in the IL having a combined 4.90 ERA. Pannone’s 4.37 mark is 12th out of 29 qualified pitchers in that league.
The Yanks have a strong rotation at the major league level right now but their depth has taken a few hits. Though Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Nestor Cortes, Marcus Stroman and Luis Gil have the five big league spots, guys like Clarke Schmidt, JT Brubaker, Cody Poteet and Clayton Beeter are all injured. Schmidt went on the injured list in late May due to a lat strain and still hasn’t begun a rehab assignment. Poteet landed on the IL about a month ago due to a right triceps strain and he hasn’t started a rehab assignment yet either. Brubaker was rehabbing from last year’s Tommy John surgery but was recently shut down with an oblique strain. Beeter has some kind of shoulder issue and might be done for the season, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post on X.
Since Pannone has been in decent form this year, the Yanks will bring him aboard to replace some of that missing depth. He has 118 2/3 innings of major league experience with the Blue Jays and Brewers with a 5.46 ERA in that time. He also spent parts of 2022 and 2023 in Korea, tossing 165 innings for the KBO’s Kia Tigers with a 3.49 ERA. If Pannone is added to New York’s roster at any point, he is out of options.
He’s been Iowa’s best pitcher all year. Glad he’s getting a chance from somebody. Cubs are dumb.
Paesan
Has some of the best stuff you will ever see when he’s on.
Wikipedia: “On March 16, 2018, Pannone was suspended for 80 games after testing positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone, a banned performance-enhancing substance.”
Still hurts you over 6 years later?
Sadly, the writer of that portion of wikipedia had to go on the 15 day IL after spraining his fingers typing dehydrochlormethyltestosterone.
@Canuckleball
I’m off to the optometrist just trying to read it.
The Yankees BP continues to be a problem, especially when the starting pitchers give Yankees zero length. IMO if Yankees were truly all in this season in getting Soto the Yankees needed a real closer. Holmes is better to set up, and Hader should have been in Pinstripes. It’s time for Yankees to trade Torres before Deadline and release DJL. I don’t care who get back in return. I want him off my team. Vivas, Pereza, Arias, Durbin, Lombard, etc can’t play any worse than Torres and DJL.
Cashman is going to trade Jasson, Jones, Vivas, Peraza, Beeter, Hampton, Warren for Mason Miller. Miller will tear UCL on first pitch as a Yankee and never pitches again. There’s ZERO chance that he unloads Torres and the rest of the dead weight on the roster. Cashman prefers to lose 162 games a year than to do ANYTHING to confirm that the fans were right all along. That alone is why he should be FIRED along with Boone.