The Yankees enter play Monday 5.5 games back of the Rays in the AL East…and now they’ll have to watch a very familiar face try to help pitch Tampa Bay back to the postseason.
As first reported by the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin, RHP David Robertson has agreed to a Major League deal with the Rays, a move he later confirmed on his own twitter:
Per Topkin, Robertson will report to Triple-A Durham initially to get into routine, with the intent to join the big club soon after.
Robertson, 36, just helped Team USA to a silver medal in the Olympic Games earlier this month, but has not pitched on an MLB mound since April 2019, as he was sidelined with a strained flexor tendon just seven outings and 6 2/3 innings into a two-year, $23 million deal he signed with Philadelphia prior to the 2019 season.
That flexor strain led to Tommy John surgery in August 2019, and a setback kept him out for the entire 2020 season as well.
Robertson had interest this spring but chose not to sign, instead opting for a quick pre-Olympic tune-up in the independent Atlantic League – throwing 2 2/3 innings over two appearances for High Point in mid-July – before making three appearances and tossing three innings for Team USA, notching two saves.
Prior to his 2019 injury, Robertson had averaged 65 innings per season from 2010-18, including multiple stints as the Yankees’ closer. For his career, Robertson has appeared in 661 games, all in relief, over 12 seasons with the Yankees, White Sox, and Phillies, going 53-33 with a 2.90 ERA and 137 saves.
He was one of three free agents on Team USA, joining ex-Yankee and Met Todd Frazier, who had been released by Pittsburgh in May (and went on to spend a month pre-Olympics with a “hometown” team, the Sussex County Miners, of the independent Frontier League), and RHP Edwin Jackson, who pitched for a record 14 MLB teams from 2003-19, but has been out of baseball since (outside of also making one appearance for High Point in mid-July).
Now, D-Rob’s high socks will try to help Tampa Bay return to the World Series, and he’ll have one big chance to do so against his former team – the Rays play their final series of 2021 in the Bronx, facing the Yankees October 1-3.
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