The Yankees have signed left-hander Chasen Shreve to a minor league deal, as reported by Dan Martin of the New York Post. The southpaw had previously been pitching for the Rangers’s Triple-A affiliate in Round Rock on a minors deal but evidently opted out of that deal and returned to the open market at some point since his last appearance with them on June 14.
Shreve, who will celebrate his 34th birthday next month, is a veteran of ten MLB seasons who first made his big league debut with the Braves back in 2014. Shreve was swapped to the Bronx the following offseason alongside David Carpenter in exchange for Manny Banuelos. In parts of four seasons with the Yankees, Shreve pitched to a 3.92 ERA with a 4.99 FIP across 180 relief appearances. He was then packaged with right-hander Giovanny Gallegos and shipped to the Cardinals in exchange for first baseman Luke Voit partway through the 2019 season.
Since leaving the Bronx, Shreve has pitched for the Mets, Pirates, Tigers, and Reds at the big league level in addition to the aforementioned Cardinals. He’s posted a 4.26 ERA that’s exactly league average by measure of ERA+ over 169 innings of work, including a roughly league average performance with Detroit and Cincinnati last year. In 44 2/3 innings of work across 50 appearances, Shreve pitched to a 4.63 ERA and 4.28 FIP with a solid 23.3% strikeout rate against a 7.3% walk rate.
During his time on a minor league deal with Texas, Shreve has looked nothing short of dominant at Triple-A with a 1.61 ERA in 22 1/3 innings across 20 appearances while striking out 29.6% of batters faced. If he could recreate anything close to those numbers at the big league level he’d certainly be a welcome addition to the Yankees bullpen, which has lost Jonathan Loaisiga, Nick Burdi, and Ian Hamilton since the season began while also watching pieces like Caleb Ferguson and Ron Marinaccio struggle. It seems likely that Shreve will head to Triple-A for the time being, although it would hardly be a surprise to see the club call upon the veteran at some point in the near future, particularly after they recently DFA’d lefties Clayton Andrews and Victor Gonzalez earlier this week.
OMG not again anyone but him. Why Cashman why!!!!
*Catches mlbnyyfan as he falls and starts to fan him cartoonishly*
It’s called depth, and the Yanks have shown a real need for such in the pen of late. Plus they’ve jettisoned 2 lefties just lately in Gonzalez and Andrews, while picking up Tim Hill. And these depth pen moves work sometimes – see Mike Tonkin as an example.
And while a bit unsteady at times, Marinaccio has been reasonably fine this year. The problem is a lack of roster flexibility in the pen and he still has an option unlike the other healthy arms out there. Pen took a beating in the past few games so someone had to go down for a fresh arm. Lets hope Bickford duplicates Tonkin’s success so far.
it was an obvious move in that you know what you’re like getting. I expect he had other offers and am surprised the Rangers didn’t call Shreves up to keep him. He’ll be up for the Yankees within a week or two.
At least he will be happy to be back with the Yankees. He was so sad when he was traded to St. Louis.
A+
There is absolutely ZERO risk with signing anyone on a Minor League deal.
If the Yankees were going to bring back an old friend. Try and get Houdini back.
Agreed, but Triple A shouldn’t be filled with just these guys. They have had Bickford, Underwood, Miesiwicz, Mosqueda, Gerber, Greene, Liranzo, Maciejewski, Cousins, Warren and now Shreve. Way too many of those guys in their 30’s. And that doesn’t include adding Tim Hill (less than 1 inning per game, low K percentage, etc)
They did promote Jack Neely and Schlitter to AAA recently. And glad to see them give Yoendrys Gomez a shot. He isn’t a starter but he can provide multiple innings.
I get the point you’re trying to convey on 30 YO relievers in the minors, but again, depth (and experience) has value.
More significant to the point – relievers are far from done at 30. I’d guess a pretty high % (near 50?) of relievers active in the bigs are 30 and over.
More to the point, of the 10 guys you initially listed above only 2 are 30 or older – Shreve is 33, Art Warren is 31 – and these are the only 2 relievers active in Yanks AAA that are 30 or more.
Maybe they can trade him for Luke Voit
Shreve is a lot worse than his ERA would suggest
And Alfredo Aceves.
And while they’re at it let’s see what Brett Gardner is up to!
Let’s face it I’m sure Shreve is a nice guy but the fact is he’s still around because he’s a Lefty. Both he and Mike Ford need a career change. Home Depot or Target always hiring.
Why does it feel like this guy has been in the big leagues for 100 years?
I get the need for depth, but the team has to add some strikeout guys for the 2nd half.
None of these guys should cost a lot.
From the left side, the obvious guys are Marlins Tanner Scott or Cards Jo Jo Romero.
From the right side, there are a few guys with both closer and set up experience — such as Rays Jason Adam, Nats Hunter Harvey or Dbacks Paul Sewald. Some other set up/middle relief guys such as Reds Fernando Cruz (lots of K), Giants Ryan Walker (lots of K), Nats Dylan Floro, Pirates Colin Holderman.
I would stay away from LH Aroldis Chapman (quit on team), RH Adam Ottavino (been there).
Mason Miller is mentioned frequently but he will cost a lot. He’s already got a UCL issue which is why he is in the bullpen. Giving up top prospects for a reliever isn’t wise, especially one with injury concerns.