The Yankees announced that right-hander Carlos Carrasco, who was designated for assignment yesterday, has been sent outright to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The waiver process takes 48 hours but players can be put on the wire while still on the 40-man and that was reported to be the case with Carrasco on Monday.
Carrasco, 38, is a veteran with over a decade in the majors. That means he has the right to reject this outright assignment and elect free agency. The Yankees didn’t give any indication whether or not he would exercise that right. He also accepted an outright assignment with the club last month, so perhaps he’ll do so again.
Though he has a long list of accolades in his career, Carrasco is mostly a depth arm at this point. He posted an earned run average of 6.80 in 90 innings for the Mets in 2023. Last year, he logged 103 2/3 innings for the Guardians and got his ERA down to 5.64, though that’s obviously still not an amazing number.
He had to settle for a minor league deal with the Yankees coming into 2025. Thanks to a number of injuries, he got a spot on the Opening Day roster. He made six starts and two relief appearances with a 5.91 ERA. He was designated for assignment in early May but, as mentioned, cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment.
He pitched in Triple-A for a while and was called back to the majors this weekend after the Yanks got roughed up by the Dodgers on Saturday. He wasn’t needed in Sunday’s game and got put right back on waivers after. Assuming Carrasco reports to the RailRiders, he’ll get some innings in for that club and await his next big league opportunity.
Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images
Even “cookies” have an expiration date. This one has clearly gone bad and reached the end of it’s shelf life.
Cookie is probably just a warm body for whenever the Yankees exhaust their bullpen or don’t want to use any valuable arms.
Acoss: Agreed. If he wants to hang around triple A and be insurance fine by me. He’s only going to get emergency innings, better him than a prospect.
Similar to the same comment you make every time there is a Carrasco post.
And “similar to the same” is redundant.
Of course, Blue – mlbtr’s resident pendant.
Years working in the Department of Redundancy Department have honed his skills, in which he is skilled at.
Torpedo Bat: And I proudly wear my resident pendant on a gold chain around my neck.
We also knew that.
Thank you!
The problem for him is the same as for all older arms–even the great ones–there are only a certain amount of outs per arm. Creditable career, $85M in earnings, a 4th in one year’s CY–that’s not bad. But at this point, you wonder.
What’s there to wonder? He wants to continue his career and keep pitching.
I do. I wonder how hard it would be to give up the major league lifestyle and all my buddies from the past 15 years of my life. I wonder.
I don’t mind this at all as Cookie is a positive influence for the AAA guys.
Scranton- Wilkes Barre is beautiful this time of year.
Pablo Reyes needs to join Cookie in beautiful scenic Scranton but miraculously has remained on NY Yankees roster the entire season.
The cookie has crumbled. Some pitchers can reinvent themselves and extend their careers. Few are like Nolan Ryan and can bring it 95 mph in their 40’s. The organization needs to look at what they are doing with player development and realize they need to stockpile younger quad A arms for this purpose. Carrasco no longer is a guy that can pitch 5 competitive innings. He was not able to reinvent himself to pitch effectively with what he has left
Bopper: The team has had some serious injury issues this year. There’s only so many optionable guys you can store in the minors. At this point for an emergency arm the bar is low. Too bad Chase Hampton got hurt or he’d have gotten a chance this year…