New York Yankees Veteran Reliever Reinvents Himself After Velocity Drop

A New York Yankees reliever looking to make the team in spring training has reinvited himself in a return from injury.

Kenneth Teape | Feb 26, 2025

Feb 12, 2025; Tampa, FL, USA; New York Yankees relief pitcher Scott Effross (57) participates in spring training workouts at George M. Steinbrenner Field. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

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New York Yankees

The New York Yankees pitchers have been hit hard by the injury bug early in spring training this year.

Chase Hampton already underwent Tommy John surgery. Jonathan Loaisaga isn’t going to be back on the mound until the late spring or early summer. Jake Cousins is dealing with a forearm strain.

Those injuries are certainly unfortunate but open up the opportunity for other players to step up and take advantage.

One of the pitchers who is looking to come back from an injury themselves is Scott Effross.

In 2022, the Yankees acquired him from the Chicago Cubs, believing he could be the missing piece to take their bullpen to the next level.

It certainly looked like they would be correct in that assumption as Effross pitched at a high level for New York. He made 13 appearances, pitching 12.2 innings with 12 strikeouts and a 2.13 ERA, recording three saves.

Unfortunately he suffered an injury and had to undergo Tommy John surgery.

Since his appearance on Oct. 3, 2022, Effross has gotten on the mound three times in a Major League game, as he also dealt with a back injury that has essentially cost him the last two years of his career.

As is the case with some players when they come back from injury, he is not the same pitcher he was prior to the ailments.

His velocity has dipped across the board on his sinker, slider and changeup. But, he has not let that stop him, as he has reinvented himself with a slight change in his arm angle during delivery, which has resulted in a wild improvement in pitch movement.

As Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated shared, the side-arming righty has some downright nasty movement on his pitches to compensate for the loss of velocity.

Effross lost 2.5 mph on his sinker but added 3.4 inches of downward movement. His slider dropped 2.9 mph but gained 3.5 inches of horizontal movement.

Now his changeup sits at 83 mph, a drop from 81 in 2022. But the horizontal movement has improved by four inches.

Whatever adjustments Effross made during his rehab are working, as the movement should be more than enough to make up for his offerings being a few mph slower.

He is someone worth keeping an eye on in spring training as the team had high hopes for him back in 2022. It certainly seems possible that he can produce at a high level once again but with a different form of dominance.

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