Ryan Yarbrough Injury: Will return as reliever

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Thursday that Yarbrough (oblique) will be used out of the bullpen once he's activated from the 15-day injured list, Chris Kirschner of The Athletic reports.

Before landing on the injured list June 22 due to a right oblique strain, Yarbrough had started in eight of his 16 appearances for the Yankees and delivered a 3.90 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and 49:17 K:BB in 55.1 innings, but he'll lose his spot in the rotation with New York having gotten strong results from No. 5 starter Cam Schlittler in recent weeks. Yarbrough has pitched well in his own right through three rehab starts with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, with whom he most recently pitched Tuesday and struck out six while allowing two earned runs over 4.2 innings. The lefty will likely be deployed as a long reliever and should be the top choice to enter the rotation if the Yankees lose a starter to an injury at any point in September.