The Ryan Yarbrough Experiment is paying off

 The New York Yankees might have just found of one the rarest things in baseball in 2025 during  last weeks series against the Angels. An old-school starting pitcher.

Ryan Yarbrough is not a starting pitcher by trade. In his eight seasons in the Majors, Yarbrough has pitched in 209 games and started just 73 of them. For those not good at math, that’s about 34% of the time he’s started a game. At the beginning of his Major League career with the Tampa Bay Rays, Yarbrough was a starting pitcher. It wasn’t until injuries set in for the Tampa Bay staff and himself during the 2022 season that Rays shifted him into the bullpen. Then, he found a roll with something now known as “The Opener.” A pitcher who starts a game but doesn’t get more than nine outs.

Since then, with Kansas City, the Dodgers, Toronto, and in the beginning of this season in the Bronx, Yarbrough has been a lefty out of the pen. Because of starting pitching injuries, the Yankees have had to work Yarbrough back up to being a starter. However, there is an interesting quirk about the way in which Yarbrough gets his outs that has helped with this transition.

In an age of FIP, whiff percentage, pitch shaping, and maximum effort on every pitch, the Yankee left-hander is a bit behind the times.

According to baseballsavant, Ryan Yarbrough has the 6th slowest average fastball (88.3) in the entire league. The other five pitchers below him are: Trevor Williams (87.5), Hoby Milner (87.4), Kyle Hendriks (86.5), Brent Suter (86.3), and Alek Jacob (85.4). Milner, Suter, and Jacob are relievers who provide a different look out of the pen than the usual flame throwers. While Williams and Hendriks are traditional starters but are hanging on to their Major League careers on teams that are nowhere near first place. Ryan Yarbrough is the 2025 version a pitcher that would’ve been a key plot point in Moneyball. Or someone that Malcolm Gladwell would love to speak with. He’s an outlier.

Yarbrough has the lowest opponent exit velocity against in baseball according to baseballsavant at 84.1 MPH. Hitters cannot touch Ryan Yarbrough right now. That’s because he’s pitching! Of his four main pitchers, he doesn’t primarily throw one singular pitch. He mixes it up. His cutter, sinker, change-up, and sweeper are all thrown about 20% of the time.

The Yankee lefty has also thrown 73.8% first pitch strikes, which is 5th best among qualified pitchers and an 11% increase from last season. The other four pitchers in front of him are all relievers (Tim Hill, Nick Mears, Taylor Rodgers, and Jeff Hoffman). In his second to last start against the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim)14 of the 21 batters Yarbrough faced saw first pitch strikes. Against the Dodgers in his most recent start Yarbrough threw a first pitch strike to 12 of the 21 batters. The Yankee lefty has also pitched six innings in back-to-back starts for the first time since July of 2023. And this is coming at a point in the Yankee season where they need innings and a quality starting pitcher.

Due to the injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, and Marcus Stroman, Ryan Yarbrough is being asked to do is out of necessity. And the 33-year-old lefty has answered the call. He is also making a case to stay in the rotation full-time. Brian Cashman got this one right.

In his five starts in pinstripes the Yankees have won four of the five games. Yarbrough has gotten a decision in three of those games and hasn’t added a “1” to the right-hand column yet.

He is the biggest surprise out of the early Yankee season so far. Ben Rice showed flashes of his .875 OPS last season. Trent Grisham put himself on the map with an impressive 2021 campaign in San Diego. Max Fried might win the American League Cy Young, but he’s paid like an ace. Carlos Rodon finally looks like he’s comfortable pitching in pinstripes, but he’s also being paid like a top-of-the-line starter. Ryan Yarbrough was signed three days before Opening Day. He was released by the Toronto Blue Jays as a minor league free agent. He wasn’t supposed to be this good and has never shown he can be a consistent starter in the big leagues. Now, Yarbrough is on the top of the list of reasons why the Yankees are leading the AL East by five and a half games—and could win another division championship.