Yarbrough was with the Toronto Blue Jays earlier this spring, but he opted out of his contract because he wasn’t going to make the Opening Day roster. The Yankees are having some major issues with injuries to starting pitchers at the moment — Gil is, of course, hurt and Gerrit Cole is out of the 2025 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery — so it appears that they were more than happy to pick Yarbrough up.
With that said, Yarbrough is expected to be used as a reliever, per Castillo.
Yarbrough is a veteran pitcher who has been around since 2018. He has 68 starts in his career but is known as a long reliever. In 44 games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Blue Jays last season, he notched a 3.18 ERA in 98 2/3 innings.
He has a fastball that topped out at 86.2 mph last season, but it comes from a strange arm slot.
Yarbrough sees it as a weapon, and he’s right about that.
“I think it’s just a weird look, something they’re not used to seeing,” Yarbrough said, via ESPN. “Especially from my slot and from the left side. And then I think the biggest thing has just been keeping guys off balance, multiple pitches, being able to throw them at any time. Just keeping guys guessing up there. Attacking guys and staying ahead.”
The numbers back up the fact that Yarbrough can be a weapon of a pitcher out of the bullpen when he’s on one.
Due to the low speed of his fastball, his average exit velocity in 2024 was 86 mph, which according to Baseball Savant was in the 97th percentile against MLB pitchers. Even better, his hard-hit percentage rate was 29.4%, which was in the 99th percentile of all MLB pitchers.
Yarbrough has five pitches, but not surprisingly, he’s best when he’s getting movement. He went to his sinker the most last season but that’s followed closely by his curveball.
The Yankees might have something in Yarbrough if they can utilize him correctly.
