Paul Blackburn

It’s the first save of the season for Blackburn, and while not guaranteed to be the last, there’s a pretty decent chance it is. The 32-year-old has done a nice job for New York in his action out of the bullpen, and the pair of scoreless frames lower his ERA to 2.22.

Blackburn hasn’t thrown more than two innings in an appearance since June 17, so he figures to get a shot at two innings today. With Max Fried and Carlos Rodon both sidelined, there is a chance that the Yankees could stretch Blackburn out to fill a starting pitching role, but that seems to be a long-shot right now.

Blackburn struck out four and lowered his spring ERA to 1.48 in 12 1/3 innings. It’d be rather odd if the Yankees employed both Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough in middle relief — a lot of teams won’t even carry one true long man — but that would seem to be the initial play. One of the two would likely sub in if a starter goes down in the short term, but if the current rotation stays healthy, things will get very cramped once Carlos Rodón and Gerrit Cole are back.

Blackburn got the lesser split-squad, so the only regular he faced today was Addison Barger. Blackburn averaged 93.7 mph with his sinker, which is one of the best marks of his career. He averaged right around 90 mph when he debuted in the majors in 2017, but he’s steadily improved in recent years and came in at 92.4 mph in his 39 major league innings last season.

The deal, which was agreed to back in late December, is finally official. Blackburn returns to New York as a versatile swingman capable of making the occasional spot start while gobbling up multiple innings in relief. The 32-year-old veteran posted a pedestrian 4.39 FIP, 1.51 WHIP and 34/12 K/BB ratio across 39 innings over 15 appearances between the Mets and Yankees this past season. He can be safely ignored in all fantasy formats.

He’ll make $100,000 extra for 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120 innings thrown. Blackburn will probably compete with Ryan Yarbrough for the fifth rotation spot coming out of spring training, with the loser of the battle going to middle relief. However, Carlos Rodón could be back to claim the rotation spot before the end of April.