Right-hander Mike King has made the Yankees’ Opening Day roster, manager Aaron Boone told reporters this afternoon (Twitter link via the New York Times’ James Wagner). Top pitching prospects Deivi Garcia and Clarke Schmidt, meanwhile, will open the season on the alternate roster in Scranton.
A stress reaction in King’s elbow limited him to just 48 innings in 2019, but he impressed the organization enough to make a brief MLB debut in September and to crack the Opening Day roster in ’20. The 25-year-old King, acquired in the trade that sent Caleb Smith and Garrett Cooper to the Marlins, posted a sub-2.00 ERA in 161 1/3 innings in his last full season back in 2018. He logged a 4.18 ERA with a 28-to-6 K/BB ratio in 23 2/3 frames in a very hitter-friendly Triple-A setting last year.
King isn’t as highly regarded a prospect as either Garcia or Schmidt, but he’s further along in his development and considered to be much more polished. Garcia did pitch 40 innings in Triple-A last year, but he’s also four years younger than King. He could very well still make his MLB debut at some point in 2020. Schmidt, too, has a chance at cracking the roster at some point, although the 24-year-old has only pitched 19 innings above the Class-A Advanced level. Both Schmidt and Garcia were ranked among the game’s 100 best prospects according to each of Baseball America, MLB.com and The Athletic prior to the season.
With Masahiro Tanaka working his way back from a concussion and Luis Severino out for the year due to Tommy John surgery, King could get a chance to start a game or two early in the season. However, Tanaka also tossed a 20-pitch bullpen session this afternoon (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch), and he could be back in the fold for the Yankees at month’s end.
… Clarke Schmidt isn’t on the 40-man, so not optioned.
Agh! That’s very true. Thanks for pointing that out.
Even though I’m a Red Sox fan, I’m pulling for Mike King to do well in the majors. He was a great pitcher for Boston College and grew up in Rhode Island I believe. You don’t see too many kids from New England make it to MLB as the weather is such a disadvantage to their early development. Get it done, Mike! (Just not against the Red Sox).
Keeping Garcia sharp for Lindor trade later on. No Clarke Schmidt for the Tribe. Indians can’t expect a big haul for all the money that it will take to sign Lindor. Yanks have a 20 year old shortstop Oswald Peraza that will likely have to be included in the Transaction.
The Yankees can’t afford Lindor, unless they want to exceed the highest CBT penalty cap. After signing all of their arbitration eligible players, they’ll be around $190M+ in payroll obligations for 2021 and will be losing Tanaka, Happ, DJL and Paxton. I would assume they’ll go for a free agent starting pitcher whether it is a resigning of Tanaka or Paxton or someone like Strohman. That alone will put them over the $208M first level cap and will still have 4-5 open slots on the team to fill. Even if they are all filled by minor leaguers, Lindor’s final arbitration salary will be $25M+ and will push them over the last $240M CBT cap. Not sure that they want to do that and impact their future drafts.
Yanks will definitely be able to afford Lindor with the likes of Gardy, Paxton or Tanaka and others coming off the books. So that shouldn’t be a problem at all
No they won’t. They have $135M in payroll obligations next year for 9 total players. They have over 12 players who are arbitration eligible next year, so none of their salaries are included in that $135M number. Here’s what to expect the top 5 to make: Judge – $20M, Sanchez – $12M, Torres – $10M, Andujar – $7M. That’s about $185M right there and they’ll still have to sign the remaining 7-8 Arb players like Voit, Urshela, Holder, Heller, Frazier, etc. So even though they are subtracting a lot of payroll with their FA pitchers leaving, they are in arbitration jail with talented players who either need to get paid or they’ll need to trade them to make space. Maybe they’ll move Andujar and a couple of Arb. eligible bullpen pitchers but that still won’t do enough to get them below the max CBT threshold if they sign one SP and trade for Lindor as they’ll still have 3-4 openings on the roster to fill.
I appreciate all your hard work. Seriously so impressed. Yankees would rather keep both Tanaka and Paxton but that is less likely. They are most likely to steer away from the likes of Marcus Stroman and Robby Ray also. They feel very confident Clarke Schmidt or Mike King will be able to come in and take a spot in that rotation. Sevvy should be back by mid to late June also. So no need to sign both Tanaka and Paxton. So most likely just one of the pitchers
@mantooth
You’ve put tons of thought and effort into your comments around the Yankees payroll.
I am wondering where you are getting some of the arb numbers from. For example, Judge at 20 mil sounds pretty high. Are you basing these on comps?
Thanks in advance for your response.
Dorothy Mantooth, Don’t bother trying to talk facts with Cegmyster. He is not capable of dealing with facts. He does seem to have a fascination. with the Indians and Lindor though. He will have to stop soon or the Yankees will take away his Yankee lunchbox.
hockeyjohn had a dream last night that the Indians won the World Series. Woke up right away so it was short lived. I not only have a Yankees lunchbox but a bat, tote bag and a umbrella. So I am fully equipped! Hope you sign Lindor. If not then trade him and get him out of beautiful Cleveland already.
After rooting for the Indians for over 65 years maybe hockeyjohn can find a new team worth rooting for? Remains to be seen. Poor hockeyjohn as sensitive as Red Eye
2022 the Yankees have $105-mil on the books, assuming they decline Britton’s option. Assuming the luxury tax payroll is around the same number it will be hard to acquire Lindor with the assumption the Yankees will grab a pitcher either this offseason or next. But it can be done. Tight squeeze.
no shocker after Deivi’s performance yesterday…
Deivi Garcia is a really interesting prospect to me, I’m by no means a Yankees fan – in fact in a red Sox fan, but he’s put up some really impressive K numbers in the minors so far and while his ERA wasn’t all that great last year he still struck out a solid number of hitters. Whether he stays as a SP or transitions to RP probably remains to be seen but for a 20 year old in AA to K more than 10 per 9IP is pretty impressive
Clarke Schmidt has a little more upside then Deivi Garcia but Cleveland has had their eyes on Garcia for a long time. That’s definitely a piece that they will want among Peraza and others
Yes your right Garcia might be best suited in the bullpen. Remains to be seen. But he throws 3 power pitches. He will be good if he can stay healthy. Not a big guy at all. Like 5”10. But Pedro wasn’t either. He obviously won’t be better then Pedro was. But then again, who is? lol
Scouts are saying Peraza could be the next Gleyber Torres. If this is the case the Indians should be very happy. C.J Abrams is a young 20 year old player on the Padres that will interest the Tribe also. Indians will want McKenzie Gore although the Friars are less likely to move him. Expect Pods to offer Patino instead and others with Abrams at the deadline
hockeyjoe might go crazy when or if this trade happens with the Yankees or the Padres. So we will likely have to console him to get thru such a tough time… lol
Maybe Yankees will throw in future closer flamethrower Luis Medina to calm these Fanatical delusional Tribe fans down on mlb trade rumors. Who knows?
I’m not sure the Padres will be interested in Lindor. They have Machado & Tatis manning the left side of the infield for years to come. Unless they move Tatis to 1B, I don’t see a real need for the Padres here. A better option would be the LA Dodgers. They have both the prospects and the cap space to acquire Lindor.
Yeah but Dodgers won’t give the Indians Gavin Lux so they likely won’t be getting Lindor as hockeyjohn said Cleveland wants a young can’t miss shortstop back in any trade for Lindor. So CJ Abrams or Oswald Peraza fits the bill as far as a trade
I will correct Cegmyster again as I always have to do. Cleveland was looking for a controllable MLB ready prospect. The Indians have a boatload of middle infield prospects in their better rated system. In 2019, Peraza played at the low A level. Sounds like Ceg would like an Indian bookbag and book covers too. Abrams, although a much better prospect than Peraza, is also not major league ready at this time.
hockeyjohn if Oswald Peraza is the next Gleyber Torres and playing for your Indians would you be happy for at least once?
Any update to the status of Joe King ??
Should definitely be “Schmidt has a chance at cracking the roster at some point too” and not “Schmidt, too, has a chance at cracking the roster at some point.”
Come on, Richt. This is a baseball trade rumors site and not American Literature 101. These guys crank out articles in 5-10 minutes and don’t have editors to proofread and fix misplaced modifiers. If it bothers you that much, reach out to Tim D. and offer your proofreading services for free.
Absolutely NOTHING wrong with how that is written.
C’mon gotta feel a little sorry for the lowly Tribe. When was the last time they won a World Series?
You again? Ohhhh boy
How u doing Red Eye? Long time no speak to. Thank god!
Red Eye have you been crying again?
1948
How old was hockeyjohn in 1948? Actually afraid to ask. He’s a diehard. Like the battery. You gotta give him that. You obviously sink in the ship with your team to the end. The handwriting is on the wall though when your franchise player doesn’t wanna play on your team anymore. You gotta move him. Tough pill to swallow
135 floor, 160 ceiling salary cap in the next CBA. Salaries go up more than they ever have, yankees pee through their pinstripes as they finish 72-90.
good laugh
Don’t forget… Ellsbury’s contract also finallllllly comes off the books after this season as well. So that’s another $16+mil coming off the books after this season (I think it’s $5mil for the yankees to decline the $21mil option for next season. I also think the last payment on Arod’s contract is this season as well (a $5mil deferral from his last contract)… so the Yankees have $21mil in dead money coming off the books after this season as well. Add that to Gardner, Paxton, Tanaka, Happ and DJ LeMahieu. If the Yankees decide to pick up Gardner’s $10mil club option for next season, they’ll have about $64mil to spend before they get to the luxury tax threshold for 2021 (or about $74mil to spend if they decline his option). It’s a decent amount of money, but it’ll go verrrrrry quick because they will have multiple holes to fill. I’m a huge fan of DJL, and hope the Yankees resign him… but he’ll be 32/33 after this season, and what exactly will he cost to resign? Same goes for both Paxton and Tanaka… they’d be great pieces to retain, but they’re both over 30 and what kind of contract (years and dollars) are they both looking for? Happ is definitely a goner after this season, and I hate to say it, but this could be the last year we see Gardner in pinstripes (which again, would save the Yankees around $10mil of their projected payroll for next year). It’ll be interesting to see what moves Cashman will pull off, either at the trade deadline or next offseason, to build the roster for 2021 and beyond.