The Yankees announced Monday that right-handed reliever Justin Topa elected free agency in lieu of an outright assignment to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He’d been designated for assignment over the weekend, went unclaimed on waivers, and is now free to sign with any club. New York also confirmed its waiver claim of Royals righty John Schreiber, which was first reported earlier in the day.
Topa signed a minor league deal with the Yanks in mid-August and was selected to the major league roster less than two weeks later. He went on to toss three shutout innings, punching out three batters and issuing one walk (in addition to one hit-by-pitch).
The 35-year-old Topa opened the season in Minnesota’s bullpen, where he’d spent each of the two preceding seasons. He struggled badly early on, serving up 17 runs in only 19 frames before being released by the Twins. It was obviously a poor showing, but Topa turned in a 3.90 ERA in 60 innings with Minnesota last year and was brilliant for the 2023 Mariners, too (69 innings, 2.61 ERA, 21.9 strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate, 56.7% ground-ball rate).
As that pair of seasons shows, Topa has occasionally looked the part of a quality setup arm in the bullpen, but injuries have regularly prevented him from taking the mound. He tossed 69 innings in ’23 and 60 last season, but this year’s 22 frames stand as the only other time he’s topped even 10 big league innings in a season.
Topa’s sinker sat at 95 mph during his best season in Seattle. It dipped to 93.4 mph recently with the Twins but was back up to 94.5 mph in his short time as a Yankee. Perhaps that’ll spur another team to roll the dice on a return to form. Prior to this season’s struggles, Topa carried a career 3.79 ERA, 20% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 52.7% ground-ball rate in 149 2/3 major league frames. If he signs with a new club today, he could sneak in ahead of tomorrow’s postseason eligibility deadline.
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