With Clarke Schmidt making his first start for the Yankees in three months today, he was activated off the injured list alongside Ian Hamilton. The two of them would require 40-man roster spots since they were returning from the 60-day injured list, and that means the Yankees have to make some tough calls. Designating a pitcher for assignment is never easy since you want to have as much depth in your organization as possible, but Nick Burdi and Phil Bickford were considered expendable enough to find themselves on the waiver wire.
Bickford, who was with the team in Chicago and on their 26-man roster, was expected to be a DFA candidate, but Burdi comes as a bit of a surprise given the excitement around him in Spring Training. His stuff hadn’t rebounded the way they hoped after two hip injuries, and now he finds himself off of their 40-man roster in place for two impact arms.
Phil Bickford and Nick Burdi Designated For Assignment By the Yankees
Nick Burdi’s velocity hadn’t rebounded the way they hoped it would, with his fastball averaging under 95 MPH since the start of August. His results in Triple-A were solid, with a 3.65 ERA and 3.97 FIP in a very run-heavy environment, but his lack of command would make it hard to overcome a massive drop-off in fastball velocity. The Yankees had a wave of arms returning from injury, with Lou Trivino still working his way back to the big leagues in Triple-A.
It’s a logical roster move since there wasn’t much of a chance that the team would call him up, and given his track record of injuries, a sharp decline in velocity isn’t encouraging. He was a standout in Spring Training, striking out 41.9% of batters faced with a 2.45 ERA across seven outings, but he wasn’t healthy often and walked a lot of batters. His 1.86 ERA across 12 appearances is misleading as he also had a 5.46 FIP and 3.57 xERA, but that was while he was averaging nearly 98 MPH on the heater.
Hopefully, he can land on another 40-man roster and get a chance, but with the way the stuff was trending the Yankees had to make a difficult decision. As for Phil Bickford, this is his second time being designated for assignment by the Bronx Bombers this season.
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The Yankees brought back Phil Bickford after he elected free agency in July, and he was called up in place of a struggling Michael Tonkin, who was swiftly claimed by the Twins for a second time this season. In eight appearances with the team, Bickford posted an 8.64 ERA and 4.02 FIP, striking out six of the 39 batters he faced. He looked a lot better in his most recent stint with the team, firing 3.1 innings of scoreless baseball, but the overall body of work wasn’t impressive.
His stuff translated well at Triple-A with the Scranton RailRiders, where he had a 3.00 ERA and 30.1% strikeout rate, but those results just haven’t translated to the big leagues since breaking out in 2021 with the Dodgers. Still 29 years old, teams will likely still try and take a flier on a pitcher who has a unique fastball and can at the very least serve as organizational depth.
Ron Marinaccio was optioned last night to clear an extra spot on the Yankees’ 26-man roster, and they’ll have Nestor Cortes shuffle into the bullpen for this game as he’s likely to piggyback Clarke Schmidt. The Yankees will take on the Cubs for the second game of this three-game series at 2:20 PM EST where they look to capture their first series win in September.