The Detroit Tigers have signed former Yankees right-handed relief pitcher Scott Effross to a minor league deal, according to the team’s transactions page from December of 2025.
Effross, age 32, posted an 8.44 ERA in 11 appearances and 10.2 innings pitched in 2025 with the New York Yankees. He’s played in three seasons with the Yankees, compiling a 5.06 ERA in 27 appearances, logging 26.2 innings pitched with 20 strikeouts.
Effross Struggles With The Yankees
Effross has battled numerous injuries since being traded to the Yankees from the Chicago Cubs at the trade deadline in 2022, when the Cubs received the Yankees’ No.7 prospect, right-handed pitcher Hayden Wesneski. Effross in two seasons with the Cubs (2021-22) showed promise, posting a compiled 2.91 ERA with 68 strikeouts in 58.2 innings pitched.
Effross has since struggled not only performance-wise but also with staying healthy. He missed all of the 2023 season due to undergoing Tommy John Surgery a month after the Yankees acquired him at the trade deadline in 2022. He dealt with “setbacks” in his recovery timeline from this surgery, as well as other bodily ailments during his Yankees tenure, the last few seasons, which included his hamstring, back, and shoulder.
During the limited times Effross could pitch, whether at the major league level with the Yankees or in minor league rehabilitation outings, he didn’t perform well. Effross in 2025 posted a 6.37 ERA for the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, Scranton Wilkes-Barre, over 29.2 innings during his rehab assignment from a hamstring injury that kept him out for over three months of the season.
No Risk With Potential Upside For The Tigers
The benefit for the Tigers here is that it’s a minor league signing; therefore, no risk is attached, along with the possibility of him maybe getting healthy and returning closer to the kind of relief pitcher seen with the Chicago Cubs several years ago, back during the 2021-22 seasons.
Effross doesn’t throw very hard, with an average fastball velocity of around 89 mph in 2025, states Baseball Savant. Still, his underlying metrics, according to Baseball Savant, despite his struggles, show a pitcher with a three-quarter slot arm delivery that has demonstrated the ability at times to generate weak contact and induce a lot of ground balls. Effross throws four pitches, a four-seam fastball, sinker, sweeper, and change-up, which fits the profile of him being a weak ground ball type of arm with his pitching arsenal.
In a pitcher-friendly ballpark such as Comerica, with his makeup, the Tigers could view this as hidden value and the potential for a bounce-back for a pitcher who’s had lots of injuries and underperformance the last few years, but does have a track record of some success before pitching in New York. Effross will, of course, have to prove himself at Tigers camp this Spring Training to make the big league roster in 2026. But from the Detroit Tigers’ perspective, this is a solid depth move that can potentially contribute at the MLB level out of the Tigers’ bullpen in 2026 or, at the very worst, be a depth piece in Triple-A. Therefore, there’s really no harm or foul in this signing for the club, whether Effross pans out in Detroit or not.
Detroit Tigers Sign Former Yankees Reliever