Yankees sign ex-dominant Royals reliever after mysterious post-Astros downfall

There was certainly a time when reliever Dylan Coleman was a hot commodity. You didn't have to squint too hard to be fearful of the Houston Astros acquiring him prior to the 2024 season, seeing a clear "buy low" opportunity after his 2023 struggles with the Royals (split between Triple-A and the MLB level) had become too much to bear.

Coleman posted a 2.78 ERA in 68 innings with the 2022 Royals, striking out 71. Unfortunately, he then became a fervent argument for reliever variance rather than reliever dominance. He walked an unsightly 37 men even in his best season, then posted an 8.84 ERA in 18 1/3 big-league innings the next season (and a 4.70 mark in 30 2/3 frames after being exiled to Triple-A Omaha).

If anyone could fix him, though, it was the Astros and their Brent Strom-inspired pitching lab. Bizarrely, they got just about the least out of him that any team plausibly could; he threw just a single inning with the big club (of the shutout variety), pairing it with an unsightly 6.50 ERA in 36 games at Triple-A Sugar Land. He limped through 11 games across the Orioles' minors last season, entering the campaign with diminished fastball velocity and ending it with deep-rooted uncertainty.

Over the weekend, Coleman once again took action into his own hands, announcing that he'd be joining the Yankees on another minor-league deal, and revealing two things at once:

1. He's excited to get another MLB chance, and he's excited it's with the Bombers. So much so that he broke it himself.

2. The man can do a mean Google Image search.

Yankees sign reliever Dylan Coleman, formerly of the Kansas City Royals and Houston Astros

Expecting a bright light or an impactful surge out of Coleman would be foolhardy, especially since his once-98 MPH fastball became 95.7 at Triple-A in 2024, and certainly didn't get any better in Baltimore's system last season.

Still, the Yankees are wisely collecting arms to soak up Triple-A innings and potentially impress from within the walls of their lab. Odds are the only time you'll see Coleman this season is when the Yankees have a 7-2 lead in the seventh inning of a meaningless spring training game, and you're still oddly stressed about protecting it when he walks the first two batters he faces.

It wasn't long ago that Houston saw a spark, though, and the Yankees will now get a delayed chance to pick up where they left off. It's certainly not like the Yanks' bullpen is otherwise settled. The door is swinging open.