Left-hander Tyler Matzek passed through waivers unclaimed and rejected an outright assignment to the minor leagues, the Yankees announced Monday. He’ll instead elect to become a free agent and explore new opportunities with other clubs (as well as a potential reunion with the Yankees on a new minor league deal).
Matzek, 34, pitched 6 1/3 innings with the Yankees before being designated for assignment last week. He held opponents to three runs but did so on a troubling 11 hits and five walks. The veteran southpaw fanned 20% of his opponents as well (seven of 35).
A former first-round pick and top prospect, Matzek has been frequently injured throughout his big league career. He had a terrific run with Atlanta in 2020-21, pitching 92 innings of 2.64 ERA ball for the Braves while punching out 31.2% of his opponents against a 12.2% walk rate. Shoulder and elbow troubles — including 2022 Tommy John surgery — have hampered him since that time.
Matzek averaged 94.5 mph with his heater in his brief time with the Yankees. That’s a bit down from his 96 mph peak in 2021 but also higher than at any point in 2022 or 2024. (He missed the 2023 season recovering from that Tommy John procedure.)
At his best, Matzek pairs a mid-90s heater with a mid-80s slider and offsets sub-par command with plus bat-missing ability. Beyond that previously mentioned 31% strikeout rate in 2020-21, Matzek notched a sharp 13.2% swinging-strike rate across those two seasons. He’s only logged an average ground-ball rate in his career (42.9%), but he’s nonetheless been hard to elevate with much authority. Matzek has averaged just 0.65 homers per nine innings in his career — and that’s despite calling Coors Field home for his first two MLB seasons with the Rockies.
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