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.
It was a nice idea and he initially did look okay enough to be a spot starter/sixth starter/swing man type but yeah, I think he’s gassed.
I think he only had a few quality starts in him- but he’s probably more fit to retire at this point.
Possible the NYY will trade for Sandy? He’s having a really ruff start and has high era. Seems like their kind of guy.
Potential Phillies legend!
I feel bad saying this but I hope he declines the option this way Cash cannot bring him back up.
He’ll probably accept it to stay ready if another team comes calling and get traded for cash considerations.
Teams need to stop signing Jake Woodford. Forget he’s a former first round pick, or at least remember it’s a cardinals first round pitcher meaning any normal team would have drafted them after the 5th round
Yeah, he’s really just not very good.
Coooookieeeeeeeee
Crisp
Rojas
The yanks took a shot and he was phenomenal in the spring. Unfortunately he couldn’t carry that into the regular season but it was worth every dollar on a minor league deal. Him electing FA makes no sense if his desire is to pitch somewhere else this season, seeing as no one claimed him. Stay fresh in Scranton in hopes of a trade or maybe helping the Yankees again down the road. He’s 38, just accept it for what it is lol
He did for a few starts
Then just cratered
In spring training, he was never pitching more than once through a lineup. That’s phenomenal relief work, not starting pitcher material.
Nice point but he was building up to continue his career as a starter in spring. All of the starting pitchers in spring do that
This was Cashman doing what Cashman does, going with the washed up veteran because it’s ‘safer’ and because he can explain it in pressers. ‘Well, he had a good spring, so…’ as if 16 innings against what on average was AA competition, was a more valid measure of where Carrasco was than the 6.80 and 5.74 ERAs he put up in 2023 and 2024 in 90 and 103 innings as one of the worst starters in MLB, along with his current lack of stuff.
Worse, he’d had one… adequate full season since 2018, and that was only a 97 ERA+ in 2022—or one adequate full season since 2020 if you bend that way. In either case he’s 38, was abysmal at 36 and 37. If the GM of a team with a to payroll can’t dig up a starter who rates to put up a 4.75 ERA practically at will, why does he have the job?
If the Yankees miss the wild card or the division by a game, or end up winning the division but land in the wild card round with the worst record among division winners, this is the kind of crap that will explain it.
Cheap flyer on a player with past success, who is liked in the clubhouse. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.