{"id":81404,"date":"2025-08-21T22:30:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T22:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=81404"},"modified":"2025-08-21T22:30:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T22:30:45","slug":"yankees-sign-paul-blackburn-adding-former-all-star-right-hander-to-staff-ahead-of-series-vs-red-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=81404","title":{"rendered":"Yankees sign Paul Blackburn, adding former All-Star right-hander to staff ahead of series vs. Red Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div id=\"Article-body\">\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sportshub.cbsistatic.com\/i\/r\/2025\/08\/21\/0f6ec271-d4d3-45ec-ab9a-1cac152800fe\/thumbnail\/770x433\/96b4b959383674179bf612ae8b299e6d\/paul-blackburn-mets-g.jpg\" alt=\"Yankees sign Paul Blackburn, adding former All-Star right-hander to staff ahead of series vs. Red Sox\" width=\"770\" height=\"433\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The New York Yankees have signed veteran right-hander Paul Blackburn to a big-league contract, the team announced on Thursday afternoon. Blackburn has been added to the major-league roster, with the Yankees clearing a roster spot for him by optioning fellow right-handed pitcher Allan Winans to Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre. The Yankees will ostensibly use Blackburn in a long relief role.<\/p>\n<p>Blackburn, 31, is a former All-Star honoree who was released earlier this week by the New York Mets. In seven appearances (four of them starts) this season, he had compiled a 6.85 ERA (59 ERA+) and a 2.25 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His contributions were estimated by Baseball Reference to have been below the replacement-level boundary.<\/p>\n<p>From an arsenal perspective, Blackburn has thrown six pitches at least 5% of the time this season. His best offerings are a pair of breaking balls, a sweeper and a spike curveball, that serve as his third- and fifth-most deployed weapons. It&#8217;s possible that the Yankees ask him to spam the opposition with those pitches more often as a means of improving his output.<\/p>\n<p>Blackburn isn&#8217;t too far removed from better days, however. In 56 appearances spread across the 2022-24 seasons, he amassed a 4.43 ERA (89 ERA+) and a 2.68 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Those marks may not seem reliable, but they helped earn him a place on the 2022 American League All-Star team when he was a member of the then-Oakland Athletics.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Blackburn has dealt with his fair share of injuries. Dating back to Opening Day 2023, he&#8217;s required six different stints on the injured list. That includes last fall&#8217;s deactivation on account of a spinal fluid leak.<\/p>\n<p>The Yankees will begin a four-game series with the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night. You can read more about that renewed rivalry by clicking here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blackburn was recently released by the Mets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":81405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Yankees sign Paul Blackburn, adding former All-Star right-hander to staff ahead of series vs. Red Sox - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=81404\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yankees sign Paul Blackburn, adding former All-Star right-hander to staff ahead of series vs. Red Sox - 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