Yankees' delayed corresponding roster move may represent last chance for this pitcher

The New York Yankees' most important series of the season will begin on Thursday when the Boston Red Sox come to the Bronx for a four-game series. Right now, the Yanks are one game up in the AL Wild Card picture and the Sox are right on their tail. Establishing some distance is extremely important.

New York's demolition of the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night to follow up their weekend sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals has the vibes riding high, but the main concerns have not dissipated by any means.

Though the offense is rocking (as it usually does in spurts), the pitching staff is going through it. Max Fried has been bad for two months and the bullpen is just not where it needs to be to endure a highly-contested stretch run (plus the playoffs).

The latter was further emphasized on Wednesday evening when the Yankees recalled pitcher Allan Winans from Triple-A as their corresponding roster move for placing Brent Headrick on the injured list on Tuesday.

The right-hander has been sterling with Scranton, but has allowed nine earned runs on 13 hits and three walks in nine innings at the big-league level. If he can't help the team in this time of need with the bullpen thin (Jonathan Loaisiga might be injured again while Fernando Cruz and Ryan Yarbrough are working through their rehabs), then he might be staring down the barrel of the end of his run with the Bombers.

Yankees recall Allan Winans after placing Brent Headrick on injured list

At Triple-A, Winans has a 1.20 ERA and 1.05 WHIP with 82 strikeouts in 75 innings of work. He's mostly served as a starter, but that won't be what he's asked to do on the active roster. Aaron Boone will need him to effectively erase multiple innings at a time to preserve the rest of the bullpen. In some instances, he may be tasked with keeping some games within reach.

If he's unable to do that at this juncture of the season, the Yankees may have no other use for him. He'll remain Triple-A fodder and nothing else. This could very well make or break his status with the team in 2026 and beyond.

Unfortunately, it was much of the same story for him with the Braves. Winans was dominant at Triple-A in 2023 (2.85 ERA) and 2024 (3.30) and terrible in MLB (5.29, 15.26). So there's a good chance this may be his fate.

Yankees fans have no choice but to hope for the best, though, because there are limited/dwindling options. Now's the time for Winans to prove his worth before rosters expand on Sept. 1.