The Yankees were a busy ballclub at the MLB Trade Deadline, taking several steps to improve their lineup, bench, and bullpen from the group that had them in a playoff position through the end of July but had glaring holes. On the pitching front in particular, the additions of David Bednar, Camilo Doval, and Jake Bird should give fans more confidence in the team’s ability to hold leads. Although no ‘pen is perfect and there will be pain points at times, the personnel is better.
Of course, MLB rosters
have limits, so New York had to make some moves to accommodate the additions. Two came last night, when Ian Hamilton and Yerry De los Santos were optioned to Triple-A. That was easy enough, even though Hamilton in particular had been a member of the big-league bullpen since the start of 2023, prior to enduring some tough times this year. The options at least meant that the Yankees could keep both in the organization in the event of future pitching injuries.
One more shoe had to drop for the third pitcher, however, and the Yankees waited until Friday afternoon to reveal it. Starter Marcus Stroman has been released.
Prior to tonight’s game, the Yankees made the following roster moves:
— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) August 1, 2025
•Added RHP David Bednar (#53), RHP Jake Bird (#59), RHP Camilo Doval (#75) and INF/OF José Caballero (#72) to the active roster.
•Released RHP Marcus Stroman from the roster.
Thus ends a strange, disappointing tenure for Stroman. He was signed to a two-year, $37 million deal prior to the 2024 season with the intention of him being a productive mid-rotation starter. Few were expecting him to match his 2023 All-Star form with the Cubs (earned prior to a very bumpy second half on the North Side), but it was reasonable to think that he could pitch around league average.
That did not happen. It wasn’t long before it became clear that Stroman’s stuff was quite lacking. After a decent first couple months of ‘24, he had a 5.70 ERA from June onward and was so bad that he not only missed out on the Yankees’ pennant-winning playoff rotation, but also wasn’t used even once all October. The team just had no trust in what Stroman could provide.
The Yankees shopped Stroman on the trade market this past offseason and didn’t find any takers. So they accepted having him around as starting pitching depth. That unfortunately came in handy (to an extent) when Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, and Clarke Schmidt all missed the start of the 2025 season. About that parenthetical, though — the 34-year-old Stroman was just bad with a 6.23 ERA in nine starts, so it was hard to claim much benefit from his presence. It was a sad state of things that it was almost a relief when a knee injury forced him to the IL for two and a half months. Since that nightmare start of the season and his return in June, Stroman’s results were at least a bit better (4.55 ERA since June 29th), even if his stuff remained poor.
The Yankees had a choice to make for this weekend’s series in Miami, with Gil finally ready to make his season debut on Sunday. Ace Max Fried and All-Star Carlos Rodón held down two other spots, so the Yankees were tasked with choosing who from the trio of Stroman, Will Warren, and Cam Schlittler to keep around. The easy choice would have been optioning Warren or Schlittler, even though they had higher potential than Stroman.
Credit to the Yankees for doing the right thing here. Stroman only provided so much confidence at age 34 with a fading repertoire. So it’s worth rolling the dice on the rookies rather than crossing fingers and hoping that the veteran can finesse his way through a lineup at the expense of Warren and Schlittler’s possible development. The Yankees also have Ryan Yarbrough working his way back from injury to provide superior rotation depth to what Stroman could offer. It might be a short-term loss of a spot-starter option, but that’s the business.
Note that the Yankees will still need to make another transaction to activate Gil on Sunday, but that can be a more standard bullpen decision between optioning Brent Headrick or cutting JT Brubaker. They chose to release Stroman now just so they could have the extra arm around for Friday and Saturday.
More from pinstripealley.com:
- Yankees acquire Doval, Caballero at Trade Deadline buzzer
- Yankees get both quantity and quality in upgrading bullpen
- Yankees Trade Deadline Coverage
- Aaron Judge heading to the IL with a flexor strain
- Yankees 2025 draft tracker: 18 of 19 draftees sign
- Pinstripe Alley’s Top 100 Yankees
- 2000 Yankees Diary: The 25th Anniversary of MLB’s Last Three-peat
