Yankees Sign Cody Poteet To Major League Deal

January 5: The Yankees have now officially announced the signing.

January 4: The Yankees have signed right-hander Cody Poteet to a major league contract, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post. Sherman adds that the Beverly Hills Sports Council client has already passed his physical. Poteet will make $750K in the majors and $200K in the minors, per Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. The club’s 40-man roster count was at 38 coming into today but they just claimed Bubba Thompson off waivers and this deal would fill out the roster once made official.

Poteet, 29, has a small amount of major league experience, having pitched for the Marlins in 2021 and 2022. He threw 58 2/3 innings in that time over nine starts and 10 relief appearances, posting an earned run average of 4.45. He struck out 21.5% of batters faced, walked 11% and kept 42.1% of balls in play on the ground. He also threw 14 2/3 innings in the minors in that time with a 1.84 ERA, 37.9% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate.

He underwent Tommy John surgery in August of 2022 and was outrighted by the Marlins at the end of that season. He signed a minor league deal with the Royals and he spent the year rehabbing, eventually making one Triple-A appearance late in September. Sherman says that the Royals and Poteet had a two-year minor league deal but with an understanding that the could opt out if he wasn’t selected in the Rule 5 draft and wasn’t subsequently added to the 40-man roster.

Poteet still has a full slate of options, so he can be kept in the minors if he doesn’t earn himself a job on the active roster. The Yanks traded away a decent amount of starting depth in the Juan Soto trade, with Michael King, Drew Thorpe, Jhony Brito and Randy Vásquez all going to San Diego in that deal. They have Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Nestor Cortes in three spots but are looking for rotation upgrades, showing interest in Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery. Clarke Schmidt will likely have a job at the back end while Clayton Beeter, Yoendrys Gómez, Luis Gil and Will Warren figure to be in the mix as well.

Regardless of whether they sign another pitcher or not, Poteet should give them some extra depth. Since he has done a bit of starting and relieving, he could perhaps slot in wherever he’s needed, depending on the club’s needs and his own results. His service time clock is at one year and 145 days, meaning he could be controlled for five more seasons, with optionable assignments potentially pushing that back even further.