The New York Yankees announced on Monday that they called up right-handed relief pitcher Yerry de los Santos to the major leagues to shore up their bullpen ahead of their series with the Detroit Tigers. The team made the announcement via X.
The hard-throwing sinker-changeup specialist takes Elmer Rodríguez’s place after his spot start on Sunday. De los Santos beats Yovanny Cruz, who was
also in contention for a spot on the major league roster.
De los Santos has already been called up twice this year, pitching in a couple of games and completing 5.1 innings with a solid 1.69 ERA. He has walked three and struck out six hitters.
The 28-year-old has enjoyed a fairly successful campaign in Triple-A so far with the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, posting a 3.41 ERA and a 3.14 FIP in 31.2 frames. He boasts a 27.7 percent strikeout rate and a 6.2 percent walk rate.
Cruz has also been solid in Triple-A this year with a 3.46 ERA and a 31.3 strikeout rate, but has been crushed to the tune of a 5.68 ERA this month and has pitched just five games in June. Perhaps he’s dealing with an undisclosed and minor issue, or just going through a bit of a slump.
During his career in the majors, de los Santos has shown a live arm and has always been seen as a promising pitcher, but an inability to get lefties out has limited his ceiling. So far, he has a 5.01 FIP vs. lefty hitters and a 3.12 mark vs. righties in MLB.
However, he appears to have made some strides in that department this year in the minor leagues, where he boasts a .164 batting average against while facing lefties and a .253 mark vs. righties. Whether he can keep up those gains against some of the most talented hitters in the world remains to be seen. If he pitches well, de los Santos could have a chance to stick around for a while.
