When remembering the numerous pitchers throughout the history of the New York Yankees, it’s easy to recall plenty who spent only a couple of seasons with the club. Some names were excellent throughout their careers before finishing with the Bombers; others found themselves with the Yankees earlier on and then moved on to do great things with other MLB teams. Of all of these names, there’s one who has always stuck out to me (and many others within the vast array of Yankees-faithful) from the mid-2010s:
Nathan Eovaldi.
Despite not wearing the Yankees uniform for very long—and having better years following his time in New York—“Nasty Nate” remains synonymous with that odd in-between era of Yankees baseball, following one icon’s retirement and another’s ascent.
Nathan Edward Eovaldi
Born: February 13, 1990 (Houston, TX)
Yankees Tenure: 2015-16
A Houston area native, Eovaldi first caught the attention of big-league scouts as a hard-throwing righty from Alvin High School, which just so happened to also produce Nolan Ryan, arguably the most famous hard-throwing righty in MLB history. In fact, he and Ryan are the only two Alvin High graduates to make the majors.
The Dodgers picked up Eovaldi in the 11th round of the 2008 MLB Draft, forgoing a commitment to Texas A&M. Promoted fairly aggressively for his age, Eovaldi made his big-league debut against the Diamondbacks on August 6, 2011, at 21 years old. He pitched five innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. He came away with the win as well. As an added bonus, he singled off Joe Saunders in his first career at-bat and scored a run — and it all came with the legendary Vin Scully behind the mic.
Eovaldi made 10 appearances during that inaugural campaign, starting six of them, and then spent the first couple months of 2012 at Double-A Chattanooga before returning to the majors. His Dodgers career would only last 10 more starts though, as LA made a Trade Deadline splash by landing three-time All-Star Hanley Ramirez and lefty specialist Randy Choate. Eovaldi was off to the Marlins, as was fellow pitcher Scott McGough.
After getting his feet wet in Miami with a so-so second half, Eovaldi suffered shoulder inflammation that put him on the shelf to begin 2013. But at age 23, he took off upon returning to health, recording a 3.39 ERA and 3.59 FIP across 18 starts. Eovaldi had his most durable year yet in 2014, starting 33 games and tossing 199.2 innings. However, he also led the National League in hits allowed with 223.
It was in wake of the 2014 campaign that Eovaldi’s career would change course, and he would head north to the Bronx. Spotting Eovaldi’s potential and hoping to land another fine young starter to join Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda at the front of the rotation, the Yankees traded Martín Prado and David Phelps to Miami in exchange for Eovaldi, Garrett Jones, and prospect Domingo Germán. Eovaldi would pitch in the first game of his Yankees career against the Red Sox in what would turn out to be a chaotic 19-inning contest that Boston would take 6-5.
Through 27 starts in his first season as a Yankee, Eovaldi would finish with the highest winning percentage in all of MLB at .823. His 14-3 record, 4.20 ERA, and 121 strikeouts in 154.1 frames made for a very nice start to his Yankees career. Eovaldi’s finest day came on August 24th, when he dialed his heater up to 100 mph in blanking the future playoff rival Astros for eight (yes “just” eight, sorry to to reporter Nate) innings in a 1-0 victory.
Elbow inflammation had him on the shelf from September 6th onward, however, and the Yankees never recaptured the AL East lead from Toronto. Consigned to the Wild Card Game, they were shut out by Houston and quickly eliminated.
2015 could have been the launching pad to a strong career in pinstripes for Eovaldi, but the barking elbow turned out to be a portent. He was inconsistent and often frustrating for an unimpressive Yankees team in the first half of 2016, ending it with an unsightly 5.18 ERA and a demotion to the bullpen. Eovaldi briefly returned to the rotation beginning July 19th. He left his start at Fenway Park on August 10th with elbow discomfort and ultimately had to undergo Tommy John surgery.
Eovaldi’s season was over, and soon enough, his Yankees career was over as well. With the news that Eovaldi was expected to miss the entirety of the 2017 season due to the procedure, which would have put him into free agency at the end of the year, the Yankees elected to release him rather than working out a rehab-focused extension. So Eovaldi continued his career elsewhere.
In 2018, Eovaldi joined the Tampa Bay Rays and was then traded to the Red Sox following some more injury news, and pitched in just 10 games. With the Sox, he pitched well down the stretch and helped them win a World Series in five games against the Dodgers. That October was when he really began to turn the narrative of his career around, as he notched a 1.61 ERA in 22.1 innings. He got vengeance against the Yankees with seven sterling innings in his playoff debut, ALDS Game 3 in the Bronx. Boston eliminated New York the next day, and Eovaldi beat the Astros in ALCS Game 3 as well. The Game 3 that everyone remembered though was in an 18-inning Fall Classic marathon in LA, when despite a loss, Eovaldi earned moxie points with six gutsy innings of relief on just one day’s rest.
Eovaldi re-signed with the Red Sox and would spend another four full seasons with Boston, posting a 4.15 ERA and 111 ERA+ in 407.2 innings pitched. He tallied 420 strikeouts in those innings, and in 2021, he came in fourth in the American League Cy Young voting and 15th in AL MVP voting while earning his first All-Star nomination. Oh, and he got to tweak the Yankees’ nose once more in postseason play, outpitching Gerrit Cole in the 2021 AL Wild Card Game at Fenway Park.
After his time in Boston, Eovaldi became a free agent and joined the Texas Rangers in 2023, and has had the three best years of his career numbers-wise at ages 33-35. His ERA in those three seasons sits at 3.14 with an ERA+ of 125 and 427 strikeouts in 444.2 innings pitched. Eovaldi also stood out in October again while helping lead the Rangers to their World Series victory in 2023, winning at least one game in every series for them (beating the nemesis Astros twice) en route to the first title in franchise history.
Eovaldi’s 14-year career has been full of injuries and moving from place to place, but it’s hard to deny that he and his game have aged well. His fastball shape improved upon leaving the Bronx and his secondaries got a boost as well, including a cutter that wasn’t added until just before he went under the knife in 2016. Could he have fared better under a better Yankees pitching infrastructure? We’ll never know. A two-time champion and major part of those two World Sereis teams, Eovaldi may have only spent two seasons in New York of his soon-to-be-15-year career, but they put him on the path to bigger and better things.
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
