The Yankees announced that they have claimed outfielder Michael Siani off waivers from the Dodgers. Los Angeles designated him for assignment earlier this week to open a roster spot for Kyle Tucker. New York designated right-hander Kaleb Ort for assignment as the corresponding move for Siani.
Siani, 26, is primarily a speed-and-defense outfielder. In his 160 big leagues games over the past four seasons, he has stolen 21 bases in 26 attempts. He has logged 1,014 innings on the grass, spread across all three outfield positions. He has been credited with seven Defensive Runs Saved and 17 Outs Above Average.
His offensive numbers are less appealing. In 383 big league plate appearances, he has drawn a walk just 6.3% of the time while striking out at a 27.9% clip. He has a .221/.277/.270 line, which translates to a 58 wRC+, indicating he’s been 42% worse than league average on the whole. In the minors, he has done a bit more with the bat, but not by a wide margin. Over the past three years, he has taken 938 minor league plate appearances with a 14% walk rate, 24% strikeout rate, .217/.329/.337 line and 77 wRC+.
He clearly has appeal to big league clubs, in spite of the relatively lifeless bat. He finished 2025 with the Cardinals. This offseason, he has gone to Atlanta, the Dodgers and now the Yankees via waiver claims. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he could be retained as non-roster depth, so perhaps all these clubs have been trying to be the beneficiary there.
That means the Yankees might put him back on the wire in the coming weeks. For now, he gives them a potential bench outfielder. He also has an option remaining and could be sent to Triple-A while holding onto his 40-man spot.
The Yankees lost Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger to free agency at the end of the 2025 season but have re-signed both. Those two and Aaron Judge should have three outfield spots spoken for, with Giancarlo Stanton in the designated hitter slot.
Jasson Domínguez and Spencer Jones are also in the mix but don’t have great paths to playing time right now. They both have options and could be sent to the minors. Both have also been in trade speculation since Bellinger re-signed, though the Yanks may want to hang onto them as coverage for injuries. Grisham is also slated to go back to free agency after 2026, so they may want to keep the depth until then.
Siani’s role with the club would depend on how all that shakes out and would be contingent on him hanging onto his roster spot. Marco Luciano is in a similar spot, having also been claimed off waivers this week, though he is out of options.
Ort, 34 in February, was just claimed off waivers from the Astros a couple of weeks ago. He has upper 90s velocity but hasn’t yet translated that into strong big league results. He has thrown 122 1/3 innings over the past five seasons, allowing exactly five earned runs per nine. His 23.7% strikeout rate is decent but he has also walked 10.5% of batters faced.
He is out of options, which gives him a tenuous hold on a roster spot. Houston bumped him off earlier this month and the Yanks grabbed him. It’s possible the Yankees planned to put Ort back on the wire later, as he would stick around as non-roster depth if he were to clear waivers. DFA limbo can last a week at most. The waiver process takes 48 hours. The Yanks could wait five days before putting him back on waivers but they could also start that process earlier if they so choose.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Yanks making moves!
Hes not quite a hitter, but man that glove plays
Hey Ort ,we hardly knew ya!
Kaleb Ort, now Michael Siani??? Oh how the mighty have fallen. Maybe the Red Sox can lend you an OFer, until you get back on your feet again.
last time the yankees tried that they ended up with the ellsbury d’oh! boy. fool me once…
Ellsbury was outstanding for an entire year though, then lousy for five years. So bad they took away his parking space away at the Stadium. Don’t ask me how I know this.
his 2-year “rehab” was extremely fishy still not sure how the yankees got away with that
Kaleb barada nikto
E chuta!
Nanu nanu.
yub nub
My favorite MLBTR picture is up again!
They can’t claim him until they peel him off that wall.
You want him on that wall! You need him on that wall!
High Five for Wally !
His D is the best, will always want him to do well
It’s so good lol
This is a great pick-up for a really good team. He is the best defensive center fielder in game. Great bunter, especially on sweeze-plays. Good base stealer and terrific guy. His offense is his draw back, but on a good team in tight games he is the guy you want.
I loved watching him as a Cardinal and would have him on my bench anyday. He put together some quality ABs in the middle of 2024 after working with Turner Ward and started going the opposite way too. But man, he makes it look effortless in center. So smooth.
Did the Yankees really need to use a 40-man spot on him? Couldnt they get him on a minor league deal? Ort is a sizable loss. He is a great flamethrower, and has already done it in the bigs (in a limited role, 2024).
They literally couldn’t get him on a minor league deal, as he was on waivers. If all the other teams had passed on him, then they could have tried to get him on a minor league contract, but they couldn’t be sure they would have and they also couldn’t have been sure he would have wanted to sign with them.
Ort throws hard and good for him, but lots of mid-30s DFA habitues throw hard.
This is likely a nothing move and I am inclined to give any given team the benefit of the doubt on these kinds of bottom of the 40-man churn transactions.
‘Nothing Move’ players usually dont cost a 40-man on playoff team roster. They should of just held onto Ort. JMO
Nothing move players cycle through 40-man slots all the time, especially at this time of year. Take a look at Diego Castillo’s transaction history.
Coleman, who they managed to sign to a minor league deal, is probably about as likely to be handy as Ort. Ort is nothing in particular, though I might have sent someone like Shewmaje packing instead.
Spud
“This is a great pick-up for a really good team”
Edited to:
“This is a reasonable role player acquisition for a pretty good team”
Maybe the Yanks won’t be a good team, hard to say for sure, but every team needs “roll” players, and for what he does he cannot be beat
Oh, the Yankees will be a good team winning at least 87 or 88 games minimum. Low 90s seem likely. Mid 90s seems too optimistic.
Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, and Clarke Schmidt may not contribute much, as they are recovering from injuries, with
Gerrit Cole unlikely to return immediately as a top-tier ace; he is projected to be in the “downside of his greatness”.
Rodón is expected to be back earlier than Cole, possibly by May, but still missing the start of the season. Reliability is in question due to continued injury recovery.
Clarke Schmidt is expected to be out for an extended period, potentially returning later in the season. Relying on anyone other than Fried brings risk.
Judge, Belli and Rice will do their jobs. No let downs. Grisham is bound to regress a little. McMahon is just great D, no bat. This is a pretty good team. Should make the postseason. Would not be surprised if Bednar regresses some. Weathers is going to face serious storms and turbulence.
Excellent insurance. Tremendous role player for a team that usually doesn’t value the skills he offers.
Funnily enough, Grisham and Siani were actually pretty much the same player in 2024 haha (minus some slug)
Didn’t we need relievers though???
Apparently addition by subtraction letting Weaver, Williams, Hamilton and Leiter walk this off-season
🙂
Well it’s one area that did need a revamp, so i don’t mind that part, but as the offseason has gone by we haven’t addressed it too much. Made me think this dude had a shot.
That said, Siani could be a nice pickup.
He likely passes through waivers and will then be able to choose who he wants to hit spring training with on a minor league invite.
Just keeping the Dodgers from stashing another depth piece in their pipeline.
The Ort signing feels more petty.
Wasn’t a signing really. They just claimed him. Still with their need for relievers I thought he maybe had a shot.
I would assume the Yankees will try and pass him thru waivers soon to hopefully have him go unclaimed and get hi off 40 man and AAA as a depth piece
At that point, he’ll be able to choose where he wants to spend spring training with.
All glove, no hit.
Good late-inning defensive replacement, pinch runner on a playoff team.
Yankees acquire Tucker.. adjacent outfielder.
Spencer Jones or Dominguez trade coming now.
Injury insurance more likely but most probably he gets cut before spring training starts.
Siani’s a high draft pick, who could’ve had a good career. Too bad he was drafted by the Reds
Enough with the Ort transactions, already.
I’ve already made all the decent Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt comments.
Klaatu barada nikto. The yankees are standing still.
Dodger postseason odds just went down to 99.98%
I wonder….. does anyone else think the Yankees will be surprised at their failure to win in the year-end press conference?
I would’ve loved to be in the room for the presentation of this offseason’s planning… (much like the story board proposal in the movie, Elf): “So, Brian, we’ve spent a bunch of time going over the available candidates for the team, and…..we figured……LETS RUN IT BACK! Same team, same players, same energy! I mean, it’s genius, right! Look at this way, the more playoff appearances we have with the same team, the higher the probability is that they win at some point.”
Cashman then stands with a tear in his eye and slow-claps his nerd heroes.
Poosibly a good fit. Elite defense in CF. Speedy baserunner. Not a starter but situational guy. He’s not gonna hit a ton especially with power but he can help a team. As a Cards fan I liked him. He and Victor Scott similar so one had yo go
How many more of these types of players get claimed is anyone’s guess. The Bronx Bombers moniker is fast becoming a misnomer. Truth be told:most of these offseason moves are charades. Whether or not any of these claims for utility players, speedsters, stellar defenders, “live” arms (or whatever) pans out is unknown. The aging cast of characters, however, is a certainty, as is the robust payroll. At best, expendable youth like Jones and Dominguez will be utilized to bring in a bigger bat when the timing is right. For now, though, NYY will keep treading water to at least keep fanbase attention. So far the player retention transactions are really the only ones worth feeling truly good about.
Threed
Not sure Jones and Dominguez are capable of bringing in a big bat, though you never know with a part-year rental.
But a “charade”? No. Yankees still have a top four payroll in MLB. They brought in players like Bednar, Doval and McMahon last year and retained Belli and Grisham.
Mlb top 100: as stated NYY “robust payroll” and player retention transactions are how I characterized NYY moves this offseason, so, yep the dollars are still flying out the window faster than ever yet still the cast of characters continues to age. Bronx Bummers is right now the bottom line in summation. Suarez is a big bat still lurking on the FA market. NYY could pull the trigger and potentially keep him out of the opening day RedSux lineup. We’ll see if that materializes and if it were to that potential hot corner lefty/righty platoon between Suarez and Mcmahon could be really something. They don’t call him “Bolibomba Suarez” for nothing.
Mike Elias waiver purgatory will vacuum up Ort again… fingers crossed for time shifted DFA to stash Kaleb in Norfolk.
So Kaleb Ort is cursing the name of Kyle Tucker
Yanks finally get their guy. Kaleb Ort we will always remember the 12 days in January that you were a Yankee. Godspeed.