NEW YORK — The Yankees finally exhaled Friday night. New York beat the Twins 5-2 at Yankee Stadium to snap a seven-game losing streak.
The relief lasted about as long as the pregame news conference. Hours before first pitch, the Yankees placed left-hander Carlos Rodon on the 15-day injured list with inflammation in his pitching elbow, punching another hole in a Yankees rotation already missing Max Fried.
Rodon had been scheduled to start Saturday’s holiday matinee against Minnesota. The Yankees have to cover those innings now, and the four healthy starters left behind Cole all pitched recently.
So the club is turning to a 27-year-old rookie most casual fans could not pick out of a lineup.
Manager Aaron Boone said Brendan Beck will be recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and will pitch in Saturday’s game, according to The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner, though the club had not formally named him the starter. Either way, the right-hander is in line for the biggest workload of his young major league career.
A Stanford ace who lost two seasons to his elbow
Beck is not a mystery because he lacks pedigree. He is a mystery because his body kept interrupting the story. The Yankees drafted him 55th overall out of Stanford in 2021 and signed him for a reported $1.05 million after a senior season in which he went 9-3 with a 3.15 ERA, struck out a Pac-12-best 143 batters and won Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, per his official Stanford bio.
Damon Oppenheimer, then the Yankees’ amateur scouting director, said after that draft the club believed Beck “could be really close” to the majors because of his athleticism, four-pitch mix and strike-throwing.
The elbow had other plans. Beck underwent Tommy John surgery in late 2021 and missed what should have been his first full Yankees season in 2022, then lost the entire 2024 season to another elbow operation after a promising 2023 return, according to MLB Pipeline.
When he finally strung together a full season in 2025, the results were loud. Beck went 13-5 with a 3.36 ERA across 131 1/3 innings between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton, leading all Yankees farmhands in wins and WHIP, per his official MLB bio.
The rookie says he knows exactly what he is
Beck does not throw 100 mph. His fastball sits in the low 90s and tops out around 94, and MLB Pipeline grades his control at 60 and his low-80s slider, his best pitch, at 55. He wins by landing strikes early and finishing hitters with the breaking ball, a rarity in a Yankees system stocked with velocity.
Before his call-up in May, Beck told the New York Post he wanted to shed the reputation that had trailed him through the minors and move forward “without that injury label.”
“I know how to pitch,” Beck said.
He backed up the confidence in his one taste of the majors. Beck made his MLB debut on May 7 against Texas, throwing three innings of two-run relief in a 9-2 Yankees win and striking out Justin Foscue with a slider for his first career strikeout. Boone said afterward that Beck “held his own” and “gave us a chance to win,” and Beck called pitching at Yankee Stadium “a dream.” He was optioned back to Scranton the next day.
A June surge earned him this call
The Yankees are not reaching for Beck out of desperation alone. He owns a 3.07 ERA with a 1.02 WHIP, 91 strikeouts and 28 walks over 88 innings in 16 starts for the Yankees’ top affiliate this season, and he has twice been named International League Pitcher of the Week.
His June was the best month of his professional career. Beck posted a 1.24 ERA over five starts with 31 strikeouts in 29 innings, per Minor League Baseball on SI, including seven no-hit innings on June 5 in a game the RailRiders finished as a combined no-hitter.
He also opened the year by throwing four hitless innings for Great Britain against Brazil in the World Baseball Classic, where he pitched alongside his older brother, Giants right-hander Tristan Beck. Both brothers starred at Stanford before turning pro.
Beck last pitched June 27, when he threw 91 pitches over seven innings, so he arrives fully rested and free of workload restrictions.
A rotation that needs him to be ready now
The timing raises the stakes. Rodon told reporters an MRI showed heavy inflammation but confirmed his ulnar collateral ligament is intact, and he hopes to avoid a long shutdown. He was 4-2 with a 3.30 ERA in nine starts and will miss at least two turns before the All-Star break.
Behind Cole, the healthy Yankees rotation is down to Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers. Fried threw a two-inning simulated game June 30 and is not expected back until after the break, and Luis Gil has not pitched in nearly two months.
That leaves Beck holding a meaningful piece of the Yankees’ AL East pursuit when Minnesota returns to Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Whether he formally starts or follows an opener, the rookie who spent five years fighting his elbow will get the innings he was drafted to throw.
One strong outing could keep him in the Yankees rotation until Rodon or Fried returns. The Yankees will hand him the ball and find out.
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