The Royals released right-hander Michael Ynoa from his minor league contract, per MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan (Twitter link). He’d signed with Kansas City last November in hopes of rejuvenating his career after not pitching in 2018.
Now 27 years of age, Ynoa was at one time an uber-prospect out of the Dominican Republic who signed a then-record $4.25MM bonus with the Athletics. The 6’7″ righty landed on multiple top prospect rankings throughout his ascent to the upper minors but saw his numbers stall out as injuries mounted.
Ynoa eventually made it to the Majors with the 2016 White Sox and spent parts of the 2016-17 seasons pitching out of the bullpen there. He turned in an even 3.00 ERA with 30 strikeouts in 30 innings with the South Siders in ’16, but his 17 walks, five hit batters and four wild pitches spoke to his inability to control his arsenal. That was all the more true in ’17 when he walked 22 batters, hit five and tossed three more wild pitches in 29 innings before being cut loose.
This season, Ynoa has again demonstrated an ability to miss bats (26 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings) but a continued lack of control (14 walks, one HBP, five wild pitches). That’s the general book on him at this point, though perhaps another organization will be able to coax something we’ve yet to see out of the once highly touted right-hander.
Another failed Moneyball signing by the ” brilliant ” Billy Beane. Lolol
This is a perplexing comment since signing an international pitching prospect has absolutely nothing to do with the book. I sure hope your brand of stupid is not contagious.
Writing a book about a mediocre GM who didn’t build the success he had in Oakland was a high brand of stupid.
That book sold over a million copies and got made into a pretty good movie. That’s a pretty good return for “a high brand of stupid.”
Beane is/was a GM for Oakland who has repeatedly made the playoffs despite dirt payrolls to work with. Also the Red Sox took Beane’s strategy along with higher payroll and hired a super sabermetrics genius of their own who still works there to this day. Armed with that, they have been able to win multiple championships and contend regularly. That”mediocre” GM revolutionized how teams view players in the draft and probably has a heavy hand on the way the free agent market has changed with not throwing money blindly at veterans who are on the decline: see Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel. Beane by the way guided another team last year slated to finish in the cellar to the playoffs, and they are contending once again this year. There’s a reason he still has a job in Oakland.
That “mediocre” GM/VP of baseball OPs has won one single playoff series in his entire career.
Numerous small market teams with stadium problems and stingy owners have done way more with way less talent.
They just won 97 games a year ago with a bottom 5 payroll
In Stearns We Trust
Just more proof that any 16 year old that signs is really just a lotto ticket regardless of what the best baseball minds think.
I doubt you’ll find many baseball minds who would argue that, though? Everyone knows success rates are low.
Braves signed Ronald Acuna for $100,000.
Yet we’ll continue to trot out Peralta and Boxberger night after night
Boxberger clean inning tonight
Tall pitchers most often take a long time to find “it.”
Wonder if Rays will sign him and help fix his issues
Should sign with Pittsburgh or wherever Ray Searge is.
That “moneyball” signing netted the A’s Marcus Semien, Chris Bassitt and Josh Phegley in the Samardzija trade with the white Sox.
Is this good?
Trim Reaper…. Are you a Dink in real life, or do you just play one on the comment section? Billy Beane picked up on a small trend in baseball and greatly used it to guide his practice. Has he been successful? Absolutely the A’s have one of the top 10 winning percentages during his tenure. But not ultimately because his teams have not won in the playoffs. But the way he does business has dramatically impacted the way most GMs conduct business. So I would say he has done his job well.
He’s still overrated, it’s all about playoffs and World Series titles.
Talk about overrated look no further than the Yankees. One World Series championship in the last 18 years.
I see that the comment section is about to take it’s yearly plunge into the sea of garbage. Funny how this happens right around when school gets out for the summer…