8:07pm: Tejada will earn at a $1.35MM annual rate if he plays in the majors, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets.
11:17am: The Yankees have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent infielder Ruben Tejada, agent Peter Greenberg confirmed to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick (Twitter link). He’ll be invited to Major League Spring Training. Last week, the New York Post’s George A. King III reported that the Yankees were interested in Tejada.
[Related: Updated New York Yankees Depth Chart]
Tejada, 27, has spent the vast majority of his career in the other New York organization, but the Mets cut him loose last Spring Training, after which he went on to play with the Cardinals and the Giants. Tejada opened the year as the Cardinals’ shortstop but suffered a hamstring injury almost immediately, which opened the door for Aledmys Diaz to break out and cement himself in that role. With little need for Tejada following Diaz’s breakout, the Cardinals cut him loose in early June.
When healthy, Tejada struggled at the dish, batting a mere .167/.247/.242 in 78 plate appearances. However, he has a track record as a passable offensive contributor relative to his positional peers, as from 2011-15 he slashed .261/.333/.328. Tejada has experience at both middle infield positions as well as third base, so he’ll come to camp with the Yankees as a depth option in competition for a bench role behind starters Starlin Castro (second base), Didi Gregorius (shortstop) and Chase Headley (third base).
Congratulation Ruben. Glad to see you rebounded from the crappy treatment Sandy and The Cheapons gave you. Good luck!
It was a 100% legal slide. I don’t even like the Dodgers. It was Ruben’s fault he tried to be fancy and spin around. He wanted to make a highlight play, I can assure that you will never see him do that again.
I am so tired of seeing this person’s posts. It’s so old and he’s a one trick pony. Please try to contribute something positive besides your boring “overrated sandy” comments and “cheapon” comments. We get it.
I am so tired of your breathing. You dont like what I write too PHKN bad, dont read it Jerk ok?
Why do you say the same thing on anything met related. And please, what poor treatment did the give him?
Cause Sandy and the Cheapons have 0 class. They signed Reuben to a $4 million dollar deal (to avoid Arbitration) which I knew they were never going to give him and then cut him before the last date they had to. Always CLASSLESS. By the way this is the same game they pulled on Justin Turner (except he had accepted a measly $800,000). Sandy and the CHEAPONS are CLUELESS and CLASSLESS.
Name a team that hasn’t cut guys who turn out good
In all honesty …. if the above is true … the Mets surely did treat both Tejada & Turner in a classless manner.
CLASSLESS
Yes, it is true…Look it up.
They cut him loose because he wasn’t good and coming off an injury.
Your sister thinks I am very intelligent and well-hung.
He’s gonna have to keep an eye on future hall of famer Torres.
Nice trolling Eck
Meyer’s replacement Version 27 or so.
What do we need him for?????
Minor league depth? Basically Pete Kozma’s replacement lol
Actually if you look at the left/right splits between him and Ronald Torreyes, they complement eachother perfectly as a third base platoon in the event the Yanks deal Headley.
great point about the splits in case they deal Headley (or in case Headley goes on the DL at all) – I don’t see them carrying both Torreyes and Tejada on the 25 man MLB roster though as Girardi likes the extra arms in the bullpen but maybe now that McCann, Teixeira and Arod are all off the roster he has the space to carry a second utility player. my only concern with the splits is that Torreyes and Tejada are both right handed hitters – Torreyes’ .745 OPS against RHP is a very small sample size at only 120 PA. but I looked up his minor league stats and from 2010-2013 his OPS was higher against LHP than RHP like a normal right handed hitter would expect to have but from 2014-2016 it’s actually a lot higher vs. RHP than LHP so I think you are on to something. I wonder why that happened? Maybe earlier in his career he was more of a pull hitter and then changed his approach and started staying inside the ball and hitting to all fields. I love watching him play, he’s got great hustle in the field and on the bases and a very high baseball IQ and is fresh and prepared and ready to play all the time and looks a lot more mature out there than his 24 year old age would dictate. I’m surprised so many teams have given up on him, at only 24 he’s gone from the Reds, Cubs, Astros, Blue Jays, Dodgers, Yankees, Angels and back to the Yankees again. Torreyes seems like a younger, faster version of guys like Luis Sojo who were excellent role players for the 1996-2000 championship teams. Maybe Tejada is the Jose Vizcaino counterpart to him.
Good deal
Low cost, possible high return if healthy. Always liked him , good player
Agreed. Mets fan here and I thought he came up too fast and too young. If I remember right, he had early success and they thought he’d take off. But maturity might have been an issue early on and work ethic was questioned. I bet he could produce if he found a spot somewhere.
Stupid comment.
Ummmm, Refsnyder?
He’s versatile.
Got Pop.
So why Tejada?
Ref has pop? His career ISO at AAA was .129 and his ISO in the bigs is .092. He has little to no pop.
Dumb
They said got POP and Refsnyder in the same comment LOL.
Hmm there is something great called depth. Every team has it. You’re not going to field the same 25 guys across all 162 games of the season.
As a Mets fan…i can say Tejada is a decent little player. He may have been rushed a year early due to Reyes leaving…but as long as he doesnt have to play everyday, you can hide what he is weakest at. Good defense and ok with the bat. Wont get a huge reward, but its minimal risk. Good luck Ruben.
W
This is good signing with minimal risk for the Yankees. Could be utility player and get bats around infield. Hopefully he is healthy, but as non Yankee fan I feel this is a decent move.
Baseball is my favorite sport game. I’m writing 500 word essay about Joe Dimaggio baseball career in Yankees now.