The Yankees were planning to call up Justin Topa on August 24, 2026, setting up a roster move that could bring the veteran reliever back to the majors after a run at Triple-A. Because Topa was not on the 40-man roster, the club would need to formally select his contract before he could join the bullpen.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the planned move, and it came on a day when New York was off, which meant a formal announcement might not arrive until the next day. That timing matters because Topa cannot be tucked away in the minors: he has more than five years of service time, so once the Yankees bring him in, they have to keep him on the roster or risk sending him into designated-for-assignment territory and back through waivers.
Topa got this chance after working his way through a scattered season. He opened the year with the Twins, then was released after allowing 17 runs in 19 innings out of the Minnesota bullpen. He had been much better before that, with the Mariners in 2023 and the Twins in 2025, but this year he had to rebuild his case one outing at a time after signing minor league deals with the Royals, the Blue Jays and the Yankees.
At Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he allowed one run in five innings, though he struck out only two batters in that span. His Triple-A line still looked useful enough for a call-up: a 1.75 ERA in 25 2/3 innings, with a 13.3% strikeout rate, an 8% walk rate and a 45.9% ground-ball rate. The stuff also held up, with his sinker averaging 93.9 mph in Triple-A after sitting at 93.4 mph with the Twins earlier this season; in his best year in Seattle, it was at 95 mph, and he also trimmed back a low-80s slider in favor of a low-90s cutter.
The move is also tied to the Yankees’ roster math. A 40-man spot has to open for Topa, and Giancarlo Stanton is the obvious candidate because he has been out since April with a calf strain and recently picked up a new injury on a rehab assignment. If that transfer does not happen immediately, the Yankees still need some other corresponding move to create room, because Topa can only come up once the 40-man accounting works. That leaves the club with a simple next step and one unresolved detail: whether the formal selection comes through and Topa is kept in the bullpen once the paperwork is done.
