The Yankees have claimed Josh Spence off waivers from the Padres, the team announced. Earlier today New York claimed David Herndon from the Blue Jays.
Spence, 24, has pitched to a 3.15 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 in 40 relief innings for San Diego over the last two seasons. The left-hander has held lefty hitters to a .158/.247/.237 batting line as a big leaguer.
The yankees are waivers happy lately
All your role players are belong to us?
Lol
Cheap way to get players. They usually find scraps for their bullpen, and it ends up being pretty good. Joe just looks in his binders full of men to find the best situation.
Won’t make headlines but these moves like Cory Wade (sans his collapse) or Clay Rapada can pay dividends as we’ve seen in the past. Spence will offer some competition.
Idk why Padres let him go and how another team didnt pick him up..idk why my Mets didnt pick him up?
Spence is legit but I know why the padres let him go. The padres need to make more cuts to make room on their 40 man roster for prospects like Liriano (they had 6 players on the dl). The pads have the deepest system so trust me when I tell you, everyone else they’re about to cut should be claimed, and Spence is going to be good for the Yankees (prob their 3rd-5th best bullpen arm they have). Truth is, the pads bullpen is the deepest in the majors (even over SF). They have multiple mlb starters and bullpen arms at every level in the minors but not a lot of ace types. The padres front office is going to have a lot of tough calls over the next 2-5 years (their top 40 is unreal) so it might be smart to package a couple guys in a offseason deal to make room for the players they’re keeping.
That’s a pretty good slash line, but the BB/9 is a bit high.
His numbers looked pretty good. I was wondering why they would drop someone like that. Doesn’t make too much sense. Not sure it does anyway.
Padres’s have loads of bullpen depth and a full 40 man.
I don’t know who thumbed you down, but you were correct. Lots of guys competing for spots. Lots of RP and Starting arms in the minors and a few that might find their way back into the pen if we sign a Free Agent starter or two.
Spence was the first person out of his draft class to make it to the Majors, he impressed me when i saw him pitch, he going.to be a good lefty out of pen
No he was not. Chris Sale reached the majors first…
I really liked him, for who don’t know him, he doesn’t throw harder than 84, but he’s pretty controlled and know how to mix his pitches
He has a devastating changeup…
Not that many lefties out there who rely on a 1 pitch changeup to succeed at the MLB level. Buehrle is 1, but you have to be able to mix in at least 1 other decent pitch to make it work, even if that change is devastating.
Not familiar with Spence, but there must have been a reason they let go of a 24YO lefty. Can’t picture that team giving him up for nothing and probably (guess) is lack of another fringe-average pitch if indeed his 1 out pitch is a change up.
He has a plus slider, but he has an easier time getting the righties out as opposed to lefties because of the changeup. For 2011, he didn’t throw many innings but he was tough to hit. Lefties hit under .200, and righties hit below .100 against him IIRC. Small sample size, but it gives you an idea of him…
Thanks a bunch on that info 🙂 remembered another after the post by the name of Hunter Jones, but a change was about all he had and like you mention for Spence? he was better against RH batters than lefties.
Also seem to recall (as a minor leaguer) his FB sat in the mid 80’s.
Good pick ups it will add cheap dept to their bulpen
Yankees have been very busy. You gotta give cash credit, he acquires some scraps from everywhere and throws it all together, to usually end up with a decent bullpen. Seems like another LOOGY, probably ends up competing with Logan and Rapada.
He will end up released or on another team. Yankees Have tow much lefty relief he will not even make it too camp. On Yankees roster for lefties as of right now who all rank above him: Logan, Cabral, Rapada, Cedeno. Four lefties. Where do you see spence fitting?
It will probably end up a competition in ST again. Cabral and Rapada were pretty close this year in ST, til Cabral got injured.
So again where does spence fit? Cabral, and Rapada are better and you gotta factor in Cedeno
MiLB options will be the key if they want to hang onto them. Not sure exactly how many each have, nor how long Cabral will have to stay on the 25 man roster after the season opens after being a rule 5 draftee last year and then missing the entire 2012 season from injury.
I looked up the options John, Logan is arb eligiable so he stays. Cabral would have to stay on 25 man all year or be returned to nats. Rapada is also Out of options as well as spence and they would have to clear waivers. Cedeno can stay in the minors but his era for lefties last year was .67
Looks like they are in decent shape then as far as options.
read a few days ago that Cabral for some reason didn’t have to stay on the 25 man roster all season and didn’t understand why. yeah, he was hurt all of 2012, but the story saw said he only had to part of the year and my understanding before was that if a guy was selected, missed an entire season (60 day DL) that the next year they had to remain on the 25 man roster like you seem to have found out also.
Curious huh? Not sure now how that goes either…
Cabral actually was a KC pick, traded to NY from Boston. He never pitched above A ball, but was fairly decent, tho was old for league and is now 24 am thinking.
Thanks for looking the options up. Always nice when others here help each other out 🙂
Above all those guys, maybe Logan ahead.
Youre nuts then. If he was so good, he wouldnt have been relased, Rapada had a 3.11 era. Cedeno had a 1.67 at Triple A and Cabral has to stay oin 25 man all year to avoid being returned. Thjey will not carry 5 lefvties at most 3
No, I bet Spence becomes their 3rd or 4th best reliever, with the potential of becoming their second best. Spence got released because the Padres have younger guns they want on their roster. I don’t know why they didn’t just trade him when they could have picked up some minor league talent for him.
OMG you are crazy. Becoming there second best?? Really. You think he will be bettter thanb the following: Roberston, Chamberlin, Arsmada, Phelps?? Really
I like this move. Young guy with upside.
There’s no upside. He is what he is. Mid-Low 80s FB, sweeping slider. He performed really well out of the pen for us last year when hitters were first exposed to him. Maybe he has the same fortune his first go-around with the AL East…
The upside is that he is young, cheap and can get batters out. Worst case scenario they dump him by ST, nothing wrong with that
Spence has a rubber arm and could be a good longman out of the pen, maybe even throw in a spot start. Good pickup by the Yanks, good guy. Sorry to see him leave SD.
i love spence, but he seemed really miscast as a long man. he’s a guy who, despite ok splits vs. righties, seems to fall apart when he goes longer than a couple batters. he relies a lot on deception and hiding the ball, which is often a ticking time bomb with relievers.