The Yankees moved quickly to clear a roster spot, designating right-handed reliever Justin Topa for assignment and activating left-hander Max Fried from the 15-day injured list in the corresponding move. New York now has two open spots on its 40-man roster.
Topa’s stay in the Bronx was short. He had signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in mid-August, was added to the roster on Aug. 25, and then found himself in limbo just days later.
Before the club cut him loose, he made two appearances, including a stint in a 6-0 loss to the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon, and covered three innings while allowing four hits and one run. That run was unearned, and he struck out three while walking one.
The brief Yankees sample came after a much rougher opening to the season elsewhere. Topa, who has also spent time with the Twins, Royals and Blue Jays this year, was released by Minnesota in May after more than two years in the organization.
In 19 innings, he gave up 17 earned runs on 27 hits, including four home runs, along with 11 walks. That left him with an 8.05 ERA at the time, a steep drop from the 3.90 mark he posted over 60 innings last season.
The 35-year-old’s sinker velocity has also trended down, with the pitch now sitting at 93.4 mph. That’s about 2 mph off the heater he showed during his career year with the Mariners in 2023, before they traded him to the Twins in the teams’ Jorge Polanco deal the following winter.
Across his major league career, Topa - also a former Brewer - has a 4.22 ERA with a 19.2% strikeout rate, a 7.1% walk rate and a 52.8 ground-ball percentage over 170 2/3 innings. Because he has more than five years of service time and cannot be optioned, he is now in the 48-hour waiver process.
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