The Yankees are designating Rule 5 pick Cade Winquest for assignment, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The righty didn’t get into a game during his two weeks in New York’s bullpen.
That’ll evidently be the corresponding move for tomorrow’s recall of Luis Gil. Manager Aaron Boone said over the weekend that the Yankees would bring Gil up this week. He’s listed as the probable starter opposite Steven Matz for Friday’s series opener against the Rays. The 13-pitcher limit meant an arm from the MLB roster had to be squeezed out.
The Yankees had the luxury of running a four-man rotation for the first couple weeks based on their number of available off days. Gil joins Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers in the rotation. They needed to drop from nine to eight in the bullpen. Brent Headrick has pitched too well to be sent down. Jake Bird has been sharp as well aside from one ugly outing against Miami on Sunday. Fernando Cruz and Camilo Doval are their only other relievers with minor league options.
Rather than option a more trusted reliever in Bird, the Yankees move on from Winquest. The 25-year-old didn’t have a great spring, allowing nine runs (eight earned) with eight strikeouts and four walks across 10 innings. It was a surprise that he broke camp at all.
The Yankees clearly liked some of what they saw but didn’t find a scenario where Boone felt comfortable bringing him into a regular season game. Teams generally use Rule 5 picks as low-leverage relievers, especially early in the season before they’ve gained a manager’s trust. All four of New York’s losses have been by one run, games in which they could certainly have come back. They’ve had three blowout wins, but two came behind long outings from Fried and one followed an off day so the rest of the bullpen was fresh.
They’ll have five days to trade Winquest or place him on waivers. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll be offered back to the Cardinals. The former eighth-round pick had previously spent his entire career in the St. Louis organization. He has worked as a minor league starting pitcher and combined for a 3.99 ERA across 106 innings between High-A and Double-A last year. Unless another team is willing to keep him on the MLB roster, he’ll head back to his original club without requiring a spot on the 40-man roster for St. Louis.
I was a fan of Winquest. I thought he was going to be good but not good enough for the Yankees!
What an oddity. How the heck did Boone npt use him even one time???
Yankees gave this dude 2 weeks of service time and said cya
He’ll have a fun story to tell the grandkids one day.
All four of their losses have been by 1 run each. Their wins have been mostly close victories. Nine man bullpen. Pretty obvious why he wasn’t used yet. Hopefully he gets another chance to make his MLB debut in the future.
very true but 2 of fried’s starts was 5+ runs by mid game and ended in shutout … perfect time to give the kid the 8th and/or 9th to save some of those arms.
I mean he got paid so he’s definitely not complaining but why have him if you aren’t going to use him might as well have called up Kervin Castro.
He will turn 26 later this month and only has eight games at the AA level. This year, Winquest was never likely to be part of a quest for winning.
Unlike say Ty Cobb who loved soccer