Pirates’ general manager Ben Cherington has informed reporters, including Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic, that the club has acquired left-hander Manny Banuelos from the Yankees for cash considerations. No corresponding move will be necessary as the Pirates already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster.
Banuelos, 31, was in the Yankees’ system as far back as 2008, when he was just 17 years old. He was long-considered one of the best prospects in the system, appearing on Baseball America’s list of the top 30 Yankee youngsters for seven straight years from 2009 to 2015. That was despite missing the entirety of the 2013 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
In 2015, he was traded to Atlanta for David Carpenter and Chasen Shreve and made his MLB debut that year, though injuries limited him to just 26 1/3 innings. He then bounced around the minors for a few seasons, pitching in the systems of the Braves, Angels, Dodgers and White Sox. The Pale Hose gave him his second MLB opportunity, as Banuelos threw 50 2/3 innings for them in 2019, though he underwhelmed with a 6.93 ERA in that time.
In 2020 and 2021, he took his journeyman status to another level, signing with the Mariners, before joining the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League and then the Sultanes de Monterrey of the Mexican League.
In January, the Yankees signed him to a minor league deal, bringing him back to the organization where his career began. Banuelos pitched well in Triple-A, throwing 30 2/3 innings with a 2.35 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate and 45.6% ground ball rate. Based on that strong performance, he finally got the call to join the Yankees after so many twists and turns.
He spent just over a month with the big league team, faring quite well in 8 1/3 innings. He has a 2.16 ERA on the season so far, along with a 22.9% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 62.5% ground ball rate in that small sample. Despite that solid showing, Banuelos lost his roster spot last week, likely due to the fact that he’s out of options.
Despite his long and winding career, Banuelos has only accrued about two years of MLB service time. That makes him a fairly sensible pickup for the Pirates. If he can sustain any of the promising results he’s shown so far this year, they can retain him well into the future, when they will surely hope to be more competitive than they are at the moment. He makes a lot of sense in the short term as well, given the club’s current bullpen situation. With Anthony Banda recently being DFA’d and traded to the Blue Jays, that left Cam Vieaux as the only southpaw in the club’s bullpen. The team leaned hard on Vieaux in mop-up duty recently, as he was sent out to pitch the eighth inning on Friday with the club down 9-1. The Pirates let him take a shellacking to save the rest of their arms, as he ended up throwing 56 pitches in a single inning of work, allowing eight runs (seven earned). The addition of Banuelos will give them a fresh arm from the south side to insert in their relief mix.
Good pickup.
Indeed. This is a good opportunity for Banuelos. The Pirate pitching staff has overall been pretty decent but there are still jobs to be had.
Wait, the pirates gave up Money? Hmmmmm I don’t trust it. Maybe it’s a misprint. More to come at 2.
Probably $5
Pirates Gm takes Cashman out for lunch is what it really means. Or dinner.
He bought him a sandwich from Primanti Brothers.
Probably the money they got from the Jays for Banda. Good minor move. Manny over Banda ?
$1 and Cashman pays for Banuelos’ uniform
Guy dope
Happy for Manny! Good luck, hope you have a great career against everyone but the Yankees.
Why are the Yankees taking money from the Pirates? Are they that hard up financially?
Would have been less surprised if you’d told me the Orioles traded for Nate McLouth or Seattle acquires Johnny Gomes
Genuinely shocked this guy is still playing
Cash considerations in this case means that Hal gets a free place to sleep and is welcome to go through all redeemable bottles and cans along with dibs on any loose change he finds in the PNC stadium parking lot.
Good luck with that. PNC doesn’t have parking.
No? So that $20 I spent to park there was just a grift?
Precursor to a trade deadline move between the two teams
The Yanks might be facing Manny next Tuesday and Wednesday. Good luck to him on his other days.
And manny, manny happy returns
Very solid move for Pirates. They haven’t yet found this years version of Chasen Shreve, who oddly enough was once traded for Banuelos. Manny can’t be worse than Banda was, at least I hope not.
LEGEND
In years past, Pirates Charities’ bags consisted of 1 current player’s autograph baseball and one from an alumni, a slew of Pirate trinkets and 2 tickets to an upcoming game at PNC Park.
This year’s event subtracted everything but the current player ball and 2 tickets.
Why you ask?
What’s placed in the bags is the final decision of one Bob Nutting, the cheapest owner in MLB
And people are surprised they sent cash to the Yankees, with obvious good reasons
And this is the sobering element which gives fans great pause when it comes to all of the kids coming up. I’ll be somewhat amazed if after guys like Cruz, Madris, Contreras, Davis and others have good years, Nutting is willing to take the padlocks off of his coffers and pay the piper
As I’ve said, I see more hope here than I’ve seen in years. Granted, they go through some real growing pains out there and can be a tough team to watch , but we can hope. But sustaining it all for more than a couple of years comes down to one guy with a dubious track record
I’m still waiting for the “… in a blockbuster deal for Bryan Reynolds” part.
He’s a down payment for Reynolds.
Also in Yankees reliever news: Marinaccio on the 15 day IL with shoulder injury.
Yeah, that sucks. Sears did a nice job in Marinaccio’s absence.
I found this report in S.I. a bit disturbing for another reason:
‘This is more significant than just a tired pitching arm, though. Marinaccio spoke to reporters in New York’s clubhouse after Game 2 of the twin bill, disclosing that he’s been managing shoulder discomfort for over a week, something he’s been trying to play through during this challenging stretch on his team’s schedule.
‘”I wanted to push through it,” Marinaccio said. “With my situation as well, trying to battle and stick on the roster. I’m super bummed about it, but I don’t want to put myself at risk for a worse injury. I’m going to just rehab hard and hopefully get back as soon as I can.”‘
si.com/mlb/yankees/news/new-york-reliever-ron-mari…
If he kept his mouth shut about pain because he wanted to stay up with the big club, that was understandable but stupid. It also calls into question the level of communication between these rookies and the coaching and conditioning personnel.
ML IL = ML pay. Those weekly checks for $30k are better than $900 bucks or whatever they make in AAA.
Triple-A players get $700 a week.
As I said, understandable that he’d want to stay with the big club. Besides the money, the food and facilities are much better and there are flights on chartered jets instead of tedious bus rides. And you’re playing on the big stage with the best players.
But if he ended up on the operating table for TJ surgery, he’d have helped neither the team nor his own career. A pro athlete’s body is his meal ticket. It’s worth taking care of.
Or he wanted to help the team win?
This just made sense. Happy it happened.
good good pick up for the pirate. Cheap, controlled probably until his retirement.
I noticed he picked up quite a few starts in AAA and mostly starting in foreign leagues.
He a reliever because of the good rotation with the Yankees or because it is where he belongs?
Realistically I think he’ll have a better career as a long reliever/swing man. Never really showed enough for me to believe he’s the kind of guy to go through a lineup twice with any consistency.