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The Atlanta Braves have acquired veteran starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco from the New York Yankees for a player to be named later or cash. The YES Network's Jack Curry was first to report the news.
Carrasco appeared in eight games for the Yankees this season, starting six, but he had not pitched in the big leagues since May. The Yankees designated him for assignment and he later accepted an outright to Triple-A Scranton.
In 11 appearances with the RailRiders, Carrasco had a 3.27 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 52.1 innings pitched. Though he's not striking out many batters, Carrasco's ground ball rate in Triple-A is 51.6 percent and he is only walking 5.7 percent of batters.
Carrasco is in his 16th Major League season after spending his first 12 in Cleveland. At 38 years old, he hasn't had an above-average season since 2020, when he pitched to a 2.91 ERA in 12 starts. From there, he spent the next three years with the New York Mets, building a 5.21 ERA over 61 starts.
From the Braves' perspective, he is the second previously DFA'd pitcher the team has picked up in the past day. Atlanta also acquired Erick Fedde from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for cash.
Those two will try to plug holes in the Braves' rotation left by a spate of injuries. Chris Sale, Grant Holmes, Reynaldo Lopez, Spencer Schwellenbach and AJ Smith-Shawver are all on the 60-day IL, leaving Atlanta without its entire Opening Day rotation.
Sale and Schwellenbach are both working their way back and can return with time left in the regular season, but the Braves desperately need more. At 44-60, Atlanta is far from playoff contention, and at this point is just looking to cobble enough Major League caliber pitchers to get them through what has been a lost season.
“We're going to figure out a way and piece this thing together,” manager Brian Snitker said on Sunday, per Drew Davison of MLB.com. “That's all you can do, you know, 'cause the games aren't going to stop because we lost our rotation. We're going to keep mixing and matching and piecing games together and go from there.”
