Jakob Junis is a free agent righty who would improve the Yankees bullpen

Jakob Junis, who is entering his 10th MLB season and his age 33 season, is a free agent who would improve the 2026 Yankees bullpen. In his last two seasons he has had his two best seasons of his career and he would help offset the losses of Devin Williams and Luke Weaver to the Mets, who had up and down seasons but had periods of sustained success. Weaver pitched very well with the Yankees at the beginning of 2025 and in 2024.

Junis was drafted by the Royals in the 29th round in 2011 out of high school in Illinois. As a senior in high school, he threw an 88–92-mile-per-hour fastball and had a 1.10 ERA with 93 strikeouts as a pitcher, while having a .485 batting average with 54 RBI.

Junis had committed to play college baseball at North Carolina State University as an infielder and a pitcher. He was rated as a fourth round pick in mock drafts but he fell all the way to the 29th round because of his scholarship to North Carolina State.

He made his MLB debut on April 12, 2017 and in that game he allowed a hit and two walks but was able to strand those runners for a scoreless inning pitched. He pitched the first five seasons of his career with the Royals and was primarily a starting pitcher in his first four seasons. In his rookie season, the 6-foot-3 righty had a 4.30 ERA in 20 games (16 starts) with an about league average 104 ERA+ (100 is league average). He had an ERA+ of below 100 in each of his next four seasons with Kansas City.