The Yankees have signed veteran catcher Rob Brantly to a minor league deal, per an announcement from their Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliate. He’ll return to the Yankees organization and provide some depth behind the plate.
The 36-year-old Brantly was with the Marlins for most of the season. He signed a minor league deal with Miami in the winter, was selected to the major league roster in April and wound up spending a couple months on the 60-day injured list after suffering a lat strain during his brief call-up. He tallied a trio of singles in seven at-bats during his limited time with the big league club and has slashed .359/.390/.590 in a tiny sample of 41 plate appearances with the Marlins’ Triple-A club in Jacksonville this year.
Brantly has appeared in parts of 10 big league seasons but hasn’t topped 36 MLB plate appearances in a given year since 2013. He’s a .226/.286/.323 hitter in 472 big league plate appearances and has played in parts of 13 Triple-A seasons with more than 2700 plate appearances to his credit. He saw brief MLB time with the Yankees in 2021-22 and had a generally productive two years in Triple-A with the Yankees organization in that time.
The Yankees are set at catcher in the majors, with Austin Wells, J.C. Escarra and Ben Rice all on the roster. They traded catching prospects Rafael Flores and Jesus Rodriguez in respective deals to bring David Bednar and Camilo Doval into the bullpen. Brantly will help to replenish some of that lost upper-level catching depth.
Wasn’t he a pitcher from the 80s? That’s like signing Devo to sing the national anthem
Would be better than the actual anthem
Promising guy to have in the bullpen if he whip it good.
Can he still pitch?
El Devo or Devo?
Devo had epic batting helmets.
I wonder if he can still Whip It around the bases.
Who says you can’t get an impact player after the deadline?
Can never have enough catchers!
Especially since no one said it had to be a positive impact.
36. “Why , I’m in my prime”.
He’s going to mentor Bird back to flight.
67 OPS+? Guy’s gonna fit in well with the Yankees.
Good. They were thin on catching depth.
New catching coach to help Wells and Rice learn some defense and how to throw out a baserunner once in a blue moon.
Wells hasn’t hit a lick for a month in a half, but his defense is broadly regarded as very good.