Recent Yankees Reliever Lands MLB Opportunity With Red Sox

On May 16, 2025, the Red Sox announced that they had "selected right-handed pitcher Nick Burdi to the active Major League roster from Triple-A Worcester."

Right-handed pitcher Cooper Criswell was optioned to Triple-A Worcester as a result, with injured starter Kutter Crawford also being transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Although Burdi only spent parts of the 2023 and 2024 campaigns inside the Yankees organization, he's had a long and winding career that began as a high-end prospect of the Minnesota Twins.

The Twins selected Burdi (for the second time) during round two of the 2014 MLB June Amateur Draft. But he never pitched in a major league outing for Minnesota, undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2017.

Most of Burdi's MLB career came later, as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Over three seasons' worth of spot appearances with the Pirates, Burdi pitched to a cumulative 9.49 ERA. He missed the 2021 campaign due to Tommy John surgery, once again, before joining the Chicago Cubs in 2022.

Burdi didn't have much success with the Cubs at the pro level either, but he reinvented himself with the Yankees, even if the end result was brief. 

It'll be interesting to see which Burdi the Red Sox get in Boston, although MLB Trade Rumors noted that the 32-year-old reliever managed a 0.54 ERA over 16.2 innings at Triple-A Worcester.