The Yankees announced they’ve designated reliever Lucas Luetge for assignment. The move creates a 40-man roster spot for Tommy Kahnle, who has officially signed a two-year free agent deal.
It’s a relatively surprising decision, as Luetge is coming off a strong two-year run in the New York bullpen. The southpaw returned to the majors in 2021 for the first time in six years. Signed to a minor league deal over the 2020-21 offseason, he broke camp with the MLB club that season. Luetge held his bullpen spot all year and posted a 2.74 ERA over 72 1/3 innings. He struck out an above-average 25.9% of batters faced with a sterling 5% walk rate, holding left-handed hitters to a dreadful .196/.204/.315 line in the process.
Luetge’s 2022 campaign wasn’t quite at that level, but he managed another productive year. He was called upon 50 times and put up a 2.67 ERA across 57 1/3 frames. The 35-year-old punched out 23.9% of opponents against a 6.8% walk percentage. Lefties managed a more respectable .269/.359/.333 showing off him this time around, largely thanks to an uptick in free passes.
Nevertheless, Luetge generally handled himself well when tabbed by skipper Aaron Boone. Over his time in pinstripes, he put together a 2.71 ERA through 129 2/3 frames. He avoided the injured list in both seasons, struck out a quarter of his opponents and walked less than 6% of batters faced. Luetge held opponents to a .255/.307/.371 slash in 552 plate appearances. He missed bats on over 12% of his offerings in both seasons and was particularly adept at staying off barrels. Only 23.5% of batted balls against him this past season were hit hard, per Statcast; that’s the lowest rate of any qualified pitcher in the game.
While Luetge was consistently productive, he never quite worked his way up the bullpen hierarchy in the Bronx. New York relied upon Wandy Peralta in higher-leverage situations, and Luetge was a healthy scratch in this year’s American League Championship Series. Peralta generates more ground-balls and throws in the mid-90s, while Luetge has succeeded on guile and movement — primarily turning to a cutter that averaged just 87.6 MPH this year.
As New York stockpiles power arms in the bullpen, Luetge was squeezed out of the picture. There’s a good chance he finds another landing spot in the next few days, with the Yankees having a week to trade him or put him on waivers. Luetge is eligible for arbitration through the end of the 2024 season; he’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $1.7MM salary next year. That’s a reasonable price for a productive lefty bullpen arm, and teams like the Cardinals, Astros, Cubs and Guardians could check in with New York general manager Brian Cashman about the possibility of a minor trade.
Wow
This is surprising he pitched extremely well. What can you ask for? He had an incredible season. To the Cards please.
Why him and not Deivi Garcia? Garcia can’t possibly have trade value and he’s out of options.
I see the Bucs trading Castillo for him, then waiving Underwood Jr
We’ll take him.
I noticed he wasn’t pitching in the postseason and I thought maybe he was injured, but I never did hear of an injury. I was wondering what happened to him.
Check in with the Mets, they’ll offer him $220 mil for 5 years. Let the insanity continue…
Braves guy here and yeah, even I am scratching my head ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What!?!?
Omg! he will last 5 min. Dbacks!
He was already in the desert some years ago.
Lasting 5 minutes is good, right?
That’s what she said
I guess the salary relief begins. We can save 1 million or two this way. Lol.
Probably cuda traded him in a package for something jeez
Still can
But they have only 7 days to do it, or they lose him for nothing.
Luetge is 35 years old, but other than that a valuable player. I would love the Tigers to get him (for cheap), the need LHP for their bullpen after Chafin left.
Gruß,
BSHH
Wtf? One of the most reliable arms in that pen, can give you multiple innings, from the left side. Who is making these decisions?
He was the Yankees garbageman when called upon. Low leverage relievers with good numbers are not difficult to find. The guy couldn’t break 90mph on his best day and is 35 years old. The Yankees love power arms and nasty sliders for their pen. He was just about as far from that as you could get.
Come on, Dipoto! A decent LHP for the Mariners pen!
We’ll take him back in a heartbeat
Did Cashman have a stroke? Red Sox should get all over this. So should most teams for that matter.
Bit surprised they would choose Jimmy Cordero over him. Expect a trade, shouldnt let him go for nothing.
They won’t and he’ll get a warm body of value back.
Cordero has much higher-end stuff.
Lol and no mlb success?
Little Stevie, I’m sure you were the type complaining when the Yankees pulled Luetge out of oblivion after he was out of the game for six years. Or were pissed when they traded Tauchman for Wandy Peralta. Or brought Clay Holmes over from the Pirates.
Luetge was a high-spin rate guy who lost spin after the sticky stuff crackdown. He maintained effectiveness based on how he was deployed. You won’t miss him, but you’ll convince yourself you will.
I felt Boone’s first call to the bullpen was always Luetge. it could be a Robertson type situation where they know they overworked him and its going to be a cpl down seasons incoming.
New Phillies closer
I would rather trade for Hendriks.
I would, but I don’t see it happening.
McGarry, Morales, and a lottery ticket.
Wow, this is kind of surprising. Should have at least gotten something back for him in a trade.
I believe they have a brief period to work out a trade before Luetge hits waivers. They’ll probably find a taker
He’s not a known name I guess, but every team could use a reliable bullpen arm who eats innings and doesn’t allow many runs.
The Yankees won’t get much in return but maybe they take a chance on an unknown teenage prospect and strike gold
Halos will take him.
I’m not sure if its allowed, but they could look to get Intl pool $ to offset what they are losing over luxury tax
Designated for assignment means you have 10 days to trade, release or waive the player.
Hence the term designated for assignment
Cashman is so, so smart. What exactly am I missing here?
The thinking might be…Wandy was great, and maybe Britton is coming back and they dont want to carry 3 lh relievers
His high whip and increasing age? I dont know
Cashman is the greatest. He should hire the Superfife!
orioles claim him
Are the Dodgers still trying to fill out their bullpen?
Surprising. Out of all their bullpen guys how was Luetge the odd man out? I get that someone had to go for Kahnle, I assume, but with Chapman off the books, Britton off the books, etc. how was Luetge of all pitchers the odd man out?
36 years old and arb 2. Shown signs of decline.
Yeah I was considering that as I wrote my comment. True.
Also, keep in mind that the signing of Rodón pushes German into the pen. Michael King is also expected back at the start of the season. They have more arms than open slots in the pen. Marinaccio, who pitched well, may even start the season in AAA.
And also keep in mind steinbrenner needs his pocket change. Now he saves himself some pocket change money.
He has the most underwhelming stuff of the staff, though effective. I feel like Britton or another lhp is in the works.
Stuff is worth zilch if you can’t command it. We’ve all seen 100 MPH flamethrowers who couldn’t find the plate.
I’m with Ghost. His numbers are pretty good but for some reason, I never had any confidence in him.
That may be, but he had the same ERA as Seattle’s Paul Sewald, who saved 20 games this year, and he had a better FIP; and the only Yankee reliever who threw at least 30 innings and had a better K/BB was Michael King.
Maybe so, but not Britton please. The dude is always injured. Or recovering from injury.
He was essentially a long man / mop up guy. They never used him in any high leverage situations. It was clear they the way they used him they didn’t think that highly of him
Lucas Luetge is probably ecstatic about this move. I think it comes as no surprise to Yankee fans that he HATED the way Boone managed him.
I can’t imagine him making it to the waiver wire. Cubs should trade for him.
The Yankees used him in very low leverage situations, and not at all in the postseason. He has some value, but not much. They found him, they’ll find someone else.
Gang…..designating him for assignment just means they have a week to trade him! Hopefully Cash has been speaking to a bunch of teams and has offers on the table, so this just becomes paperwork/headline fodder.
Yeah they have to get something back for him. He’s been very solid for 2 years now.
Wow though that the pen depth is so deep that they’re moving Luetge.
I understand the reasoning behind this move but I still don’t like it. Luetge was out of MLB for 6 years before catching on with the Yanks in 2021. I absolutely love stories like that and I loved that it happened with the Yankees. I think several teams will be pursuing him and I wish him well in the future.
It decreases your leverage though.
Calling Billy Eppler, please acquire him off waivers. We need all the quality BP reinforcement we can get.
What’s another $15M or so for Luetge to Cohen after taxes? Yankees should charge accordingly in a trade.
He will be claimed.
Gotta be a trade coming for him right?
If Cashman is on the ball there should certainly be a deal to be made here. Still don’t like it.
Cashman is not on the ball, his boss had to intervene to sign the franchise player since he couldn’t do it and screwed up negotiations. Just one example.
My Met friend used to say, that Luetge sinks, how does he get people out. Well he pitched well in low leverage situations for the Yanks, Cashman has someone else he thinks can move into a higher leverage situation. It’s always a numbers game!
Surprise move. Especially considering that all 29 of the other teams could find a use for him.
Overused by Dr. Boonedoggle. Burned him out.
Merry Christmas, Grinch!
Yes Boone always called him in, another Robertson overused arm and cut free before the downtime.
Yes Boone always called him in, another Robertson overused arm and cut free before the downtime. they’ll prob trade for Intl bonus pool $
Great story of recovery from significant health issues. Gutsy guy who deserved more. He will be picked up immediately. Yankees could have packaged him in a trade…stupid
Still can.
The Yankees had to open up two spots and released two intriguing relievers today. Seems like they might be able to package both of them to a team looking for a quick rebuild in their pen.
Junior Fernandez is intriguing? all I’ve read is he could never find consistency.
People upset about a marginal, 35 yr old reliever being dfa’d lol
And someone who the Yankees already know how they’re replacing him.
If you (baseball classic85) actually read the article, this “marginal 35 yr old reliever” performed pretty well ( see his stats) in pressure situations for the Yankees against some very tough competition especially in the AL East……he may not be a premier reliever, but can and will be a valuable asset in somebody’s bullpen going forward.
They didn’t use him in the playoffs even though their bullpen was a mess. The writing was on the wall. They received a couple of decent years from the guy, nothing more.
Letting go of such Luetge and Carpenter (and there will be more) risks also letting go of some strong juju they brought. But it tells me they are dead serious about overtaking the Crastros. Giddyup.
Bringing back Kahnle will spruce up the clubhouse 10 fold. Carpenter was great during his mid season run but after the injury he wasn’t ready. Those situations are season by season motivation and in the moment hype. New season new finding of motivation. Hopefully it will be like 17 and the kids are brought up to inject some energy. Cabrera started doing that last yr, hopefully they get off to a great start and then call up Peraza and/Volpe so they can get reps without insane spotlight
Goodbye.
Stupid move. Donaldson is the one who needs to be DFA’d. He’s a complete waste of a roster spot. Yanks need to just eat the last year of that contract and make room for a productive player on the roster.
As others have said already, there were much more logical candidates to lose their roster spot than Luetge. He was fourth in fWAR of all Yankee relievers in 2022.
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&…
But Cashman stupidly assumed a huge salary obligation to get Donaldson, and I guess they’d rather lose a valuable reliever in a nickel-and-dime attempt to shave a million and change from the payroll than eat Donaldson’s salary.
If this is Hal worrying about the luxury tax again after giving huge contracts to Judge and Rodon, it reminds me of George Costanza playing the big spender after he made a killing on a stock buy and then trying to grab back a dollar from a waitress, worried that he tipped her too much.
Right, like they would ever just eat close to $30 million. This is the Yankees were talking about.
I really don’t understand this. Luetge ranks in the 23rd tier in fWAR among qualified relievers since 2021. If they were determined to get rid of him, they could’ve offered him as a very desirable part of a trade package instead putting themselves in the position of having to work a trade within a week or lose him for nothing. But mainly I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to keep him at his low salary.
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&…
This doesn’t make sense from any perspective, really. From a financial standpoint, it saves them very little. From a roster standpoint there were several other players who could’ve and should’ve been DFA’d before LL. From a performance standpoint, there were several other players who should’ve been DFA’d before LL. From a trade standpoint, LL has more value in trade than do those same other prime DFA candidates.
Essentially, any way they slice this it doesn’t appear to be a good move. Cashman tripled down on JD being their 3B for ‘23 and with this move we have only {one lefty in the bullpen} and several kids without options.
Look at what Cohen just did with BAL & McCann. Trade him, pay 2/3 or whatever, and let another team have JD. It’s that simple. Eat it, own it, move on.
I hate to say it, but Cohen is running circles around Hal right now. Yankees seem like they have decision paralysis at some points and then they just commit to something, even if it’s not the right something.
This move is bad optics wise because it looks a lot like they’re salary dumping wherever they can and Leutge was selected despite good stats. Kinda reminds me of the Luis Cessa move a few years back where he was DFAd and ultimately traded for spare parts.
That being said – if you watched yankee games this year – your eyes would show you something the stats wouldn’t. Same as Monty – yanks dont wanna use these finesse guys in high leverage when the stakes are high and if i saw him ever come in it was when the lead was safe or the game was abt to be out of hand and he was there to try to hold the deficit where it was (which he sometimes did and often didnt).
He wont be missed
What a weird move.
Alex anthopolous is licking his chops as we speak.