Confirmed deal : Yankees sign former Cleveland star pitcher to last chance minor-league deal
With just about a week to go before pitchers and catchers report to spring training, the Yankees have extended an invitation to a familiar name looking to make one last go at it.
Prioritizing experience and mentorship, New York has inked former Cleveland right-hander Carlos Carrasco to a minor-league deal. If all goes well, Carrasco will turn 38 while he’s still in camp with the team on March 21.
Though Carrasco was somehow never an All-Star during the peak of his powers in Cleveland, he finished fourth in the American League Cy Young balloting in 2017, throwing 200 innings, striking out 226, and posting an 18-6 record with a 3.29 ERA. He also finished 13th in the Cy Young chase in 2015, finishing the year with a sterling 2.84 FIP.
That version of Carrasco seems long gone, after he posted a 5.64 ERA in 2024 while struggling to harness his diminished stuff and adjust. Ironically, the Yankees have now employed several members of that vaunted 2010s Cleveland pitching staff, signing Corey Kluber (and receiving a no-hitter from him) and bringing Danny Salazar into the system in 2022.
Carrasco’s prime in Cleveland was sadly interrupted by a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia in 2019. He was awarded with the team’s Roberto Clemente Award for incredible courage at the end of that campaign, and stayed in Cleveland through the end of the 2020 season, leaving for a three-year pact with the New York Mets.
Carrasco flourished in 2022 after a diminished first year in Flushing, soaking up 152 innings and posting an invaluable 3.97 ERA from the back of the rotation, behind stalwarts like Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom. The righty sputtered in his final season in Queens, as well as his heartwarming return to Cleveland, but the Yankees will now give him one more chance to keep his personal dream alive.
There is no risk here and, at worst, Carrasco provides the Yankees’ young pitching staff with invaluable tweaks and coaching. With their Triple-A rotation thinned out, there’s certainly a chance of Carrasco making spot starts in the Bronx as well — especially if a Marcus Stroman trade ever comes to fruition.
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