Yankees lose potential pitching depth option ahead of series vs Red Sox

After sweeping the Kansas City Royals, the New York Yankees are set to take on the Boston Red Sox for a three-game set a Fenway Park this weekend. They'll look to avenge their series loss last week at Yankee Stadium.

But New York is having some issues with their pitching depth that they're hoping won't be tested again versus their chief rival. They had to shuffle the deck on Thursday to accommodate some departures.

After demoting Brent Headrick in favor of Scott Effross (yeah, we'll see how that goes), the Yanks also lost Anthony DeSclafani, who opted out of his contract to sign with the Diamondbacks. The Yankees took a chance on the veteran right-hander who hadn't pitched in MLB since 2023, but were holding out hope he could save them a few times throughout 2025.

DeSclafani is a former starter who logged 20 innings over his five starts at Triple-A Scranton, but the time came to opt out of his contract and the Yankees didn't deem it necessary to void his decision by calling him up to the big league roster.

He will now head to Arizona, where the D-backs are mired in pitching injuries. He'll be getting a big league opportunity there.

Yankees News: Anthony DeSclafani opts out of contract to sign with Diamondbacks

DeSclafani's last successful MLB season came back in 2021 with the Giants when he logged a 3.17 ERA and 1.09 WHIP over 31 starts. But ever since then he's struggled with injuries and has been unable to find a rhythm.

He allowed 10 earned runs on 24 hits and nine walks in his 20 Triple-A innings with the Yankees, which obviously didn't have them jumping at the opportunity to add him to the MLB roster. Then again ... they just gave Effross another chance and he's been absolutely terrible. Not only has he pitched in just 16 games since July of 2022, but he's allowed 10 earned runs on 19 hits and three walks in his 10 minor league innings this year.

Neither decision was "right" ... but at least DeSclafani could have provided length while Effross will just be tossed to the back end of the bullpen with a number of other underperformers at the big league level. Let's just hope we don't revisit this discussion for one second throughout the weekend.