The Yankees and Mets have announced a rare, but minor, swap involving a pair of farmhands. Utilityman L.J. Mazzilli is headed to the Yanks in exchange for outfielder Kendall Coleman.
Mazzilli is the son of former MLB player and coach Lee Mazzilli, who currently works in the Yankees organization in a non-uniformed capacity. The younger Mazzilli is a former fourth-round pick who has mostly played in the upper minors over the past three seasons. He’s a .254/.335/.346 hitter over 1,164 Double-A plate appearances, but has gone down on strikes just 176 times in that span while drawing 123 walks. Mazzilli has mostly played second base but has increasingly also spent time in the corner outfield.
As for Coleman, he has not really advanced since drawing a $150K bonus as the Yankees’ 11th-round pick in the 2013 draft. The 22-year-old has mostly struggled at the plate in the low minors and has only briefly moved past the low-A level. All told,he carries a .207/.309/.301 batting line with ten home runs and 245 strikeouts in his 893 trips to the plate as a professional.
Sweet!
I think the Yankees got the better end of this deal, but I’ll be surprised if this trade ever has any repercussions on the ML level.
Ya it’s a weird trade. Both of these guys look like low ceiling players since they really haven’t showed much of anything in the minors.
This is simply for minor league depth. With the injuries and call ups it’s made the backups in the minors become starters in the minors. I would be shocked if either made it to the majors.
Looks like the yanks wanted more upper minors depth. That’s about it. Cool with the Mazzilli family connection though.
His twin sister also works for the Yankees as an on-air promo.
Total minors depth trade, but there is a ever so slight, non-zero chance that Mazzilli could see a “make daddy proud” September call up under the most favorable of circumstances. One of those 60 day dl transfers that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, where this kid gets a week on the pine and plays in a meaningless game or blowout. Would be nice for he and his family. Highly unlikely though.
“Mazzilli is the son of former MLB player and coach Lee Mazzill . . . “
You forgot manager.
Someone’s got to play the field for the AAA team when half the roster is promoted to the majors…
L.J. Mazzilli was suspended 50 games for a positive drug test a few years ago.
That doesn’t matter to the Yankees. The owners pay fines for just about anything that’s thrown at them.
https://www.milb.com/milb/news/minor-league-drug-suspensions-in-2017/c-216112420
Every team has had players suspended for violating the drug policy. Yankees had three in 2017. Boston also had three, as did the Mets. The Giants had five.
The Blue Jays had SEVEN.
Yankees are hardly the biggest offenders.
Yeah but that’s just, like, indisputable, factual evidence supporting your argument. That’s nonsense around these parts.
Not the most players, but notorious ones.
To be fair, minor-leaguers can be suspended for marijuana, and major leaguers are not. Since weed is legal, in some capacity or another, in something like 2/3 of states now, it seems like MLB can get with the times.
Another odd coincidence in this trade: Lee Mazzilli actually played for both the Yankees and Mets during his playing career.
I think this happens often, honestly. There are about 150 players in history who have played for both teams.
True, I just meant that it was an odd coincidence in the context of this story that Mazzilli’s kid was traded between 2 teams his dad had played for, not that it’s odd that a player ever plays for both New York teams.
Sounds like the more cynical (but probably accurate) headline would read “Teams swap players that were in danger of being cut anyway”. There’s not much incentive for the mets to make this deal otherwise.
Minor league players are judged by development potential, not the sum total of stats + which level of minor league ball did he make it too + what was their draft position 3 years ago. Evaluations of potential dont show up well on paper.
No real winners or losers in a trade of two flamed out minor leaguers getting 2nd chances with new organizations
This was a small favor from the Mets to unify the mazzilli family.
How sweet of them!
This reminds me of the rare Stephen Drew-Kelly Johnson, Red Sox Yankees trade, a couple of years back.
No, Not because the Mets acquired Kelly Johnson like a million times, but because of the sheer rarity of trades between these two rivals. First time BOS and NYY traded with each other since 1997.^
How long has it been since last NYM-NYY trade.^
The Gonzalez Germen deal in 2014?
Good memory, that might be it.