The Yankees announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Tim Mayza. They signed the lefty to a minor league deal after he was released by the Blue Jays last month. They optioned Will Warren after Wednesday’s game and designated Enyel De Los Santos earlier this week, meaning they already had a vacancy on both the active and 40-man rosters.
It’s been a strange year for Mayza, who had a strong run for the Jays before everything seemed to come off the rails this year. From 2017 to 2023, he made 317 appearances for the Jays, despite missing the 2020 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. In that stretch, he allowed 3.47 earned runs per nine innings. He struck out 25.7% of batters faced, walked just 7.8% of opponents and got ground balls on 54.4% of balls in play. He racked up four saves and 77 holds in that period.
But here in 2024, his 35 appearances for the Jays were disastrous, leading to an 8.04 ERA. He surely wasn’t helped by a .367 batting average on balls in play or his 54.8% strand rate, but he also only struck out 13.2% of batters faced.
He was designated for assignment by the Jays at the end of June. Since he had passed five years of service time this year, he earned the right to reject an outright assignment while retaining his $3.59MM salary. The Jays skipped that formality and released him, leaving them on the hook for the rest of that money.
The Yankees signed him to a minor league deal and sent him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He has since made nine appearances for the RailRiders, allowing two earned runs in 8 1/3 innings. He has struck out eight opponents against three walks.
That will get him another shot in the big leagues, giving manager Aaron Boone a second left-handed option alongside Tim Hill. Now that Mayza has more than five years of service, he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. But if he manages to stick around, he can be retained via arbitration for the 2025 season.
For now, it’s a fairly low-risk move, as the Yankees will only have to pay Mayza the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That amount will be subtracted from what the Jays pay, which will make a small dent in their competitive balance tax calculation. Last week, Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro said the Jays were just under the tax line but that the situation was “fluid”.
Shows you how finnicky RPs can be. Guy had 2.29 ERA / 3.26 FIP across 132 games in ’22 and ’23 and was absolutely dreadful with the Jays this year (8.03 ERA 4.92 FIP in 24.2 IPs). Looks like he’s been OK down at AAA, maybe he’s figured out what was going wrong?
He had some excellent years
Hopefully he can repeat that performance for us
I watched loads of Jays games and Mayza has always had good stuff. Hope they can get him into Lab Blake and turn him around!
Another project for Yankees pitching guru Matt Blake! Watch him become a weapon down the stretch for the Yankees lol
He already is cool with team Captain Aaron Judge, he gave up his 61st HR in 2022 🙂
This is a solid low risk/high reward pickup for NY. Mayza had some productive years in Toronto and it doesn’t hurt that he’s no stranger to AL East hitters. If the Yankees coaching staff can help him get back on track they got a decent bullpen arm with a few years of control.
Please bring in Votto, Mr. Cashman. You could acquire him for 2 or 3 good prospects and he is the missing spark and Yankees fans will thank you forever for it. Thank you, sir .
Are you Votto’s mom? You’re making the exact same post on multiple threads.
No, his agent !
2 or 3 prospects for a 40 year old who hasn’t played in the majors all year and is batting 179 at AAA? – c’mon man
I like votto, great career, but this is the end of the line for him
As long as Mayza’s health is right, the Yankees have a very good pitcher.
I wanted to Jays to keep him somehow. Tim Mayza can be money. I believe that he will be again if his health is right. He just needs time and expertise to work it out.
It looks like he’s lost some pop on his fastball, not that he was throwing 99+ but he has been in the low 90s this year. Blake has been great with a lot of guys, hopefully they can turn him around
Mayza is a rocket launcher at this stage. Release him ASAP.