Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported that the Yankees and Tyler Matzek were close on a Minor League free-agent deal, as New York added another left-handed arm for their bullpen.
While he won’t be guaranteed a spot on the team’s 40-man roster entering Spring Training, the next two months are the time of year when pitching injuries are most common. A veteran reliever who spent the last few seasons as a reliever on a Braves team that contended for a title year in and year out, Matzek has plenty of experience pitching in big regular season games and in even bigger playoff games.
Last season he had a 9.90 ERA and pitched in just 11 games though, as injuries and inconsistency have reduced him to a depth arm instead of a high-leverage weapon. The Yankees are one of the best organizations in baseball when it comes to pitching development though, and Tyler Matzek could revitalize his career in 2025 thanks to a new sinker he’s developing.
Tyler Matzek’s New Weapon Fits the Yankees’ Bullpen Identity Perfectly
One of the biggest reasons for Tyler Matzek’s regression from a high-leverage weapon to a pitcher signing a MiLB deal has to do with his injuries. Matzek dealt with multiple elbow injuries over the last few seasons, tearing his UCL and needing Tommy John Surgery during the 2022 postseason and missing the entire 2023 season.
He also had elbow inflammation in 2024 that sidelined him for the entire season essentially, as the Braves and Giants kept him in the Minor Leagues whenever he was healthy. His four-seamer sat between 93-94 MPH after TJS which is a massive step back from where it was before the injury, as signs of elbow problems appeared when his fastball velocity declined by 1.9 MPH from 2021 to 2022.
From 2020-2021, Tyler Matzek’s four-seamer sat at 95.6 MPH with a .279 wOBA and 23.6% Whiff Rate, but from 2022-2024 it averaged just 94 MPH with a .321 wOBA and 20.5% Whiff Rate. Getting some of the velocity he lost on that pitch back has been one of his primary objectives over the offseason, and he did an interview with MLB Network Radio where he discussed some of the strides he’s made there:
The velo, I’ve been trying to tick it up and I’m pleased with whereit’s at right now. It’s back to or very very close to where it was going into the Spring Training of ’21, I’m very pleased with where that’s at.
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If Tyler Matzek is sitting around 95-96 MPH with his four-seamer, he could attack the top of the zone again and get whiffs, setting up his nasty slider that drops out of the zone and causes hitters to chase a ton. What the Yankees might do is also dial down that four-seam usage rate, as Matzek uses his four-seamer between 60-70% of the time, and pitchers have moved more and more away from relying heavily on one fastball that much.
They might not even have to approach him about that change since it seems that Tyler Matzek himself is aware of the need to diversify his arsenal, adding a new pitch to his repertoire which he talked about in the same interview.
“This year I’ve been working on learning a new sinker…everything on the Trackman data is showing it’s gonna be a good pitch”
A new sinker from his high arm slot could be devastating to face if his word is true on the pitch shape, and the Yankees might get a new and improved version of the lefty veteran. Higher slot release points can create a more downhill angle for a ball’s flight path toward the plate, which results in more groundballs and poor swing decisions, something that made Clay Holmes’ sinker really good although he has a much higher release point.
We could also see Matt Blake push the usage of Tyler Matzek’s cutter, which he used briefly in 2020 where it generated a 50% Whiff Rate and had a 115 Stuff+ before he randomly decided to scrap the pitch for good. The addition of a sinker with the return of Matzek’s cutter could result in a pitcher having three fastballs they can utilize in any count, and that creates some tough looks for hitters to deal with.
Tyler Matzek might be a Minor League signing, but the upside here is that he puts up a high strikeout rate and becomes a key part of this bullpen. The Yankees don’t have a left-handed reliever with his profile on their roster, and it’s another arm with swing-and-miss stuff that can change the identity of this bullpen.
Adding an infielder should remain a priority for the Yankees, but their pitching staff should be good enough to rank near or at the top of the sport in 2025.