Brent Headrick’s Yankees season has gone from waiver-wire afterthought to a real shot at Bronx history.
That arc got another push Sunday at Yankee Stadium, when the left-hander turned in another scoreless inning after Cam Schlittler’s six shutout frames in a 2-0 win over the Mets. Ben Rice and Austin Wells hit solo home runs, David Bednar closed it out for his 34th save, and the Yankees improved to 86-63 while trimming their magic number for a playoff berth to one.
Headrick’s work barely flashed compared with Schlittler’s start, but that’s been the story of his season. He’s become the kind of reliever Aaron Boone keeps reaching for in the middle innings, the sort of arm who can bridge a game to the late stages without much fuss. Sunday’s outing dropped his ERA to 1.94, and he entered the day with 73 1/3 innings already logged.
It’s a stunning turnaround for a pitcher the Yankees didn’t exactly target as a difference-maker. New York claimed Headrick off waivers from Minnesota on Feb. 11, 2025, after the Twins designated him for assignment.
No prospect package. No splash.
Just a roster move that looked minor at the time.
Instead, it’s turning into one of the more valuable pickups of the Yankees’ season.
Headrick’s first year in New York hinted at this coming. He posted a 3.13 ERA, struck out 32.6% of hitters and walked 7.6% in 17 appearances.
This season, the results have gotten even better, and not just because of luck. His batting average on balls in play has actually climbed from .260 last season to .324 this year, but opponents are hitting the ball with less force.
His average exit velocity allowed has dropped to 88.0 mph from 89.4 mph, and his hard-hit rate is down to 37.0% from 40.9%.
The pitch mix has changed, too. Headrick has cut his four-seam usage by about 15 percentage points and leaned more heavily on his slider and splitter.
The slider is coming in 2.4 mph harder, and opponents’ slugging percentage against it has fallen from .500 in 2025 to .310 this season. His splitter has been even nastier, producing a 47.1% strikeout rate while allowing a .265 slugging percentage.
The result is a bullpen weapon who keeps stacking scoreless appearances. Headrick has 62 scoreless outings this season, putting him right on the doorstep of a Yankees record shared by Mariano Rivera and Tom Gordon, who each had 65 in 2004. Boone Logan had 64 in 2012, and David Robertson had 63 in 2011.
With 13 regular-season games left, Headrick is three scoreless outings from tying Rivera and Gordon and four from owning the mark outright.
The workload makes that chase very real. Headrick has appeared in 76 games already.
If the Yankees use him six more times over their final 13 games, he’d finish with 82 appearances, and four scoreless outings in that span would be enough to pass Rivera and Gordon. He has been scoreless in 62 of his 76 appearances, an 81.6% rate, so the path is right there.
The schedule also gives New York plenty of chances to keep leaning on him, with three games at Minnesota, three at Arizona, four against AL East-leading Tampa Bay and three against Baltimore still on deck.
There’s another Yankees mark in view, though it’s a tougher climb. Paul Quantrill holds the club record for appearances in a season with 86 in 2004, and Headrick sits at 76. Reaching that would require a heavy final stretch - 10 more appearances to tie, 11 to break it.
But the scoreless-appearance chase is the one that really tells the story of Headrick’s season. He’s not the closer.
He’s not the headline arm. He’s the guy who arrived on waivers and wound up turning quiet middle innings into a legitimate run at a Yankees record.
With 13 games left, four more scoreless appearances would do it. For a pitcher who began this journey as bullpen depth, that would be quite a finish.
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