Yankees Rumors

Yankees Designate Colby White For Assignment

By Steve Adams | May 20, 2024 at 12:36pm CDT

The Yankees announced Monday that they’ve designated right-hander Colby White for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to lefty Clayton Andrews, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Yankees placed righty Ian Hamilton on the Covid-related injured list in a corresponding move.

White, 25, was claimed off waivers out of the Rays organization back on May 9. He appeared in a pair of games for the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate but only recorded two outs. He faced six hitters, surrendered a pair of hits (including a homer) and a pair of walks with one strikeout. He yielded two earned runs in that very brief tenure in the organization.

The Rays selected White with their sixth-round pick back in 2019 and watched him develop into one of the system’s more promising arms. His 2021 campaign featured 62 1/3 innings of utter dominance across four levels; White posted a 1.44 ERA and struck out a ridiculous 45% of his opponents against a sharp 6.4% walk rate. Tommy John surgery wiped out his entire 2022 season and much of his 2023 campaign, however. He returned with 22 innings of 1.64 ERA ball last season in the minors but also a bloated 19.5% walk rate that pointed to surefire regression. He’s walked 23.1% of his opponents between the Rays and Yankees organization this season.

The 27-year-old Andrews came to the Yankees in a minor February trade with the Brewers. He was designated for assignment earlier this season and cleared outright waivers but remained in the organization. He’ll now be called up for what would be his team debut if he gets into a game.

A former 17th-round pick by Milwaukee, Andrews made his MLB debut with the Brew Crew last year, appearing in four games but yielding 10 runs in just 3 1/3 innings of work. Rough as that first look was, the southpaw also turned in a 2.53 ERA in 57 Triple-A frames, punching out 31.1% of his opponents. Command is an issue, evidenced by last year’s 13% walk rate, but Andrews has shown the ability to miss bats at a high level.

In 15 innings with Scranton so far this season, Andrews has been tagged for 11 runs — a 6.60 ERA. A massive 18.5% walk rate has played a role in those struggles, but he’s still whiffed 27.7% of the batters he’s faced and kept the ball on the ground at a big 54.5% clip.

Hamilton will hopefully only face a short-term absence. The 28-year-old righty has emerged as a key bullpen member for Aaron Boone over the past two seasons. While his 2024 campaign hasn’t been as strong as his 2023 season, he’s still given the Yanks 22 2/3 innings of 3.18 ERA ball. His 18.8% strikeout rate is down more than 10 percentage points from last year’s 29.9% mark, however, and his 8.9% walk rate is ever so slightly higher than the 8.5% league average. Hamilton still boasts a huge 14.4% swinging-strike rate and similarly impressive 35.7% opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate, both of which could portend a boost in strikeouts once he’s able to return to the active roster.

AL East Notes: Houck, Kahnle, Santander

By Mark Polishuk | May 19, 2024 at 4:28pm CDT

The Red Sox locked up Brayan Bello and Ceddanne Rafaela to contract extensions this past spring, but no deal developed between the team and Tanner Houck, even though the two sides had some negotiations. Houck confirmed to MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo that some “discussions” took place, “but we’re at where we are now. I put that behind me whenever we shook hands and said, ’Let’s go out and win as many games as we can.’ ” There’s nothing preventing Houck and the Sox from restarting talks, though it would seem that Houck (like most players) prefers to save contractual matters for the offseason to cut down on potential distractions.

The right-hander also doesn’t even reach arbitration eligibility until this coming winter, so since he is already under team control through 2027, Boston might not feel too much urgency to lock Houck up on an extension. Of course, given how Houck has pitched this season, the Sox might’ve missed their window for landing Houck at a relative bargain price. Houck has broken out with a 2.17 ERA over 58 innings and nine starts, and his secondary metrics are highlighted by impressive grounder (55.2%), walk (4.7%) and barrel (3.7%) rates. Even in a season marked by impressive pitching around baseball, Houck has stood out, as his 1.9 fWAR is behind only Tarik Skubal as the highest in the league.

Hal Steinbrenner Comments On Possible Juan Soto Extension

By Darragh McDonald | May 16, 2024 at 11:59pm CDT

Yankees chairman Hal Steinbrenner appeared on the Yankees News & Views podcast today and host Jack Curry of the YES Network asked him about the possibility of extending superstar outfielder Juan Soto. The YES Network shared a video clip on X.

“I think we’d like to see him here for the rest of his career,” Steinbrenner said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt of that.” He goes on to say that Scott Boras, Soto’s agent, doesn’t normally do extensions midseason. Steinbrenner says he generally prefers to avoid talks during the season as well so that they don’t become a distraction, but that Soto is a special case.

That’s due to Soto’s obvious talents but also since he’s only been a Yankee for a few months, having been acquired from the Padres in December with just one season left to go before he’s slated to reach free agency. Steinbrenner said he wanted to give Soto some time to get to know the organization before getting into talks about long-term plans. “I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a conversation or two had, possibly during the course of the season.”

In the latter half of the clip shared above, Curry relays that he contacted Boras about what Steinbrenner said. Boras said he is always willing to talk to Steinbrenner but that Soto is focused on winning.

Soto himself was asked about the comments after this afternoon’s game and echoed what Boras said, with the YES Network sharing a clip on X of those as well. “My door is always open,” Soto said. “Whenever he wants to start talking with Scott and all his people, they’re always open. They’re always open to hear whatever he has. And for me, I just focus on the game right now.”

The topic of Soto’s future free agency, or an extension to prevent that free agency from happening, has been a topic of conversation for quite a long time. That’s on account of how he debuted at such an unusually young age and also due to him finding immediate success that he has maintained or improved. Soto debuted with the Nationals in 2018 when he was only 19 years old. He hit 22 home runs in 116 games while drawing walks in 16% his plate appearances. His .292/.406/.517 batting line translated to a 146 wRC+.

He’s never provided much in terms of speed or defense, but his combination of power and plate discipline is exceptional and has remained quite consistent. He currently has 169 home runs in his career and an 18.7% walk rate, while striking out just 16.9% of the time. He has slashed .286/.420/.525 overall and has a 155 wRC+, which includes a .310/.408/.530 line and 170 wRC+ as a Yankee this year.

Those skills and his age put him on course for a massive contract. Most free agents reach free agency for the first time in the vicinity of their 30th birthday but Soto is still just 25. He’ll turn 26 on October 25, just before he’s slated to hit the open market.

The fact that Steinbrenner is interested in an extension is somewhat notable since the club doesn’t do them very often. MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows that they have done just three in the past decade, which were for Luis Severino, Aaron Hicks and Aroldis Chapman. Those deals didn’t go especially well for the most part and the club may not be thrilled at doing more extensions in general, but Soto is clearly in a different stratosphere than those players. That Steinbrenner is willing to make an exception here is unsurprising, but actually getting it done won’t be cheap.

Back in 2022, the Nationals reportedly offered Soto $440MM over 15 years. When he rejected that overture, they decided to trade him instead, which is how he came to be a Padre. While that may be a massive sum to leave on the table, he’s already earned himself a decent chunk of that. Since turning down that deal, he made $23MM last year and is making $31MM this year, his final two arbitration seasons. That means any contract higher than $386MM will prove that he made a wise financial decision in turning it down.

Last month, Boras revealed that the late Peter Seidler tried to get a deal done to keep Soto in San Diego. However, Seidler’s deteriorating health got in the way of the talks and he passed away in November. The next month, Soto was traded to the Yankees as the Padres’ financial situation forced them to make budget cuts.

Keeping Soto away from the open market is obviously going to be a challenge. Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman admitted as much in February. “The odds are this is a one-year situation,” he said. “I don’t see too many things stopping him from reaching free agency.”

There has been all kinds of speculation about what kind of number it would take to get Soto’s signature on a contract. The round number of $500MM is often thrown around as a speculative ballpark figure, but that’s really just a guess.

Since Soto is now just a few months away from the open market, there’s little incentive for him to accept anything except free agency prices. The largest contract in MLB history is Shohei Ohtani’s recent ten-year, $700MM pact with the Dodgers. The heavy deferrals on the deal make the net present value closer to the $435-465MM range, though that adjusted figure still makes it the largest ever, both in terms of total guarantee and average annual value.

Soto obviously doesn’t have the two-way abilities of Ohtani nor the same international marketing power, but Ohtani is now 29 and about to turn 30, meaning Soto will be marketing three to four extra prime years compared to Shohei. That youth is clearly valuable to teams, as was recently seen with the Yoshinobu Yamamoto free agency. Going into his age-25 season, he drew widespread interest despite having no major league experience. He eventually shattered expectations when he signed for $325MM over 12 years, plus a posting fee of over $50MM.

The Yankees have long been one of the biggest spenders in baseball, but they have a decent amount of money on the books already. Between Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton and Carlos Rodón, they have four players making $25MM or more through 2027 or longer. The Marlins are paying down a bit of Stanton’s deal but the Yankees already have almost $150MM committed to books three years down the line, per Roster Resource.

For a generational talent like Soto, they likely wouldn’t care much about adding another huge contract to the pile. Still, Boras might want to wait a few more months to see what teams like the Mets, Dodgers, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Phillies or others have to offer. Getting them to the table would increase the chances of a bidding war driving up prices and the Yanks might have to put down a huge number to stop that from happening.

Jasson Dominguez Begins Rehab Assignment

By Steve Adams and Anthony Franco | May 14, 2024 at 6:32pm CDT

Yankees outfielder Jasson Dominguez began a minor league rehab assignment Tuesday, per a team announcement. That effectively presses the start button on a 20-day rehab window before he must either be optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre or reinstated to the MLB roster. He’s starting out in Class-A Tampa, though he’ll very likely move up the ladder over the next couple weeks.

Dominguez underwent Tommy John surgery last summer, so it’s fairly natural that Yankees skipper Aaron Boone indicated over the weekend that the 21-year-old will be limited to DH work in the early stages of rehab. This will be the first game action for Dominguez since early September, when he burst onto the big league scene with a promising .258/.303/.677 batting line in 33 plate appearances. Dominguez homered off notable big leaguers like Justin Verlander and Cristian Javier, ultimately popping four round-trippers in his brief debut before being diagnosed with a ligament tear in his elbow.

Prior to that debut, Dominguez had split the season between Double-A and Triple-A, recording 507 plate appearances at the former level and 37 at the latter. He batted a combined .265/.377/.425 despite being just 20 years old. He was about four years younger than his average opponent in Double-A and more than six years younger than the average Triple-A player.

Had Dominguez been healthy, the Yankees’ offseason could well have looked different. They’d still quite likely have made an aggressive push to land Juan Soto from the Padres, but it’s fair to wonder whether Alex Verdugo would’ve still been a prominent trade target with both Dominguez and Aaron Judge projected to be healthy. It seems likely that would not have been the case.

Now, with Verdugo, Soto and Judge all hitting well and Giancarlo Stanton still providing thump from the DH spot (despite a .283 OBP), it’s not as clear how Dominguez might fit onto the roster. He’d certainly be expected to outproduce the surprisingly anemic .069/.270/.172 line that Trent Grisham has mustered thus far, but that’s come in a sample of only 38 plate appearances. There’s likely some merit to the idea that a longtime starter like Grisham has struggled mightily with the move to such a limited role, but the minimal playing time he’s received is the primary reason why Dominguez likely wouldn’t be considered for such a role.

Even if the Yankees felt Dominguez could outperform that pace (which they surely do), putting a touted 21-year-old in a position to get seven or eight plate appearances per week would be a poor move for his development. Whenever Dominguez is deemed healthy enough to be reinstated from the injured list, the Yankees presumably want him to be ticketed for regular at-bats. The current construction of the big league roster doesn’t look ideal for that setup, though all it would take would be one injury to Verdugo, Judge, Soto or Stanton to open up some more substantial playing time.

Of the current outfielders, only Verdugo seems even remotely plausible as a trade candidate, but he’s produced a respectable .243/.329/.397 batting line (111 wRC+) while drawing more walks (11.4%) than strikeouts (10.8%). There’d be ample risk (to put it mildly) in moving a steady veteran enjoying that type of performance to free up playing time for a 21-year-old with eight games of big league experience, regardless of his prospect status. There’s been some speculation about a potential Verdugo trade among fans and pundits alike, but such a scenario seems decidedly unlikely.

Barring an injury in the big league outfield, an eventual minor league assignment for Dominguez feels almost inevitable. He’s still only played in 17 total games above the Double-A level. But with Verdugo and Soto both set to become free agents at season’s end and Grisham playing his way into a non-tender candidate, there’s still a clear path to a prominent role for Dominguez in the long-term — it just might not happen this season.

DJ LeMahieu will follow Dominguez in beginning a minor league rehab stint later this week, tweets Greg Joyce of the New York Post. It’s the second time he’ll start a rehab assignment as he returns from a season-opening injured list stay. LeMahieu joined Double-A Somerset on April 23 but was removed in the first inning after experiencing renewed soreness in his right foot. The veteran infielder was diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture in his foot at the end of Spring Training.

Oswaldo Cabrera and Jon Berti have split the third base work in LeMahieu’s absence. Cabrera started the season well before a recent slump dropped his batting line to .252/.295/.390 in 132 plate appearances. The speedster Berti is hitting .263 without an extra-base hit and only two walks in 41 trips.

Gleyber Torres’ Early-Season Power Drought

By Anthony Franco | May 14, 2024 at 4:32pm CDT

The 2024 season is a pivotal one for Gleyber Torres. The longtime Yankee second baseman will almost certainly head to free agency in November. Torres has publicly angled for an extension on multiple occasions in recent years, but there hasn’t been any indication the team wanted to strike early to keep him beyond this season.

Torres projects as one of the more interesting mid-level hitters in next winter’s class. He isn’t doing himself any favors with his early-season performance, though. Torres is out to a .208/.289/.273 start through 174 plate appearances. He didn’t hit his first home run of the season until May 2 and hasn’t collected multiple hits in a game since April 29. His overall production has hovered around replacement level.

It’s a surprisingly poor start for a player who has emerged as one of New York’s more consistent offensive contributors. Torres was a decidedly above-average hitter, by measure of wRC+, in four of his first six MLB seasons. Last year was among the best of his career. He connected on 25 homers with a .273/.347/.453 slash over a personal-high 672 trips to the plate.

Torres didn’t have the gaudy slugging numbers he posted back in 2019, when he popped a career-best 38 longballs in the so-called “juiced ball” season. Yet he cut his strikeout rate to a personal-low 14.6% mark and posted the highest on-base percentage in any full season of his career. There’s an argument the 2023 season was Torres’ best after accounting for the significantly depressed offensive environment compared to ’19.

While there are a few months to turn things around, he’s amidst a rough opening to his walk year. Torres’ triple slash stats are all easily at personal lows. His rate of hard contact (a batted ball with an exit velocity of 95 MPH or greater) has dropped 10 percentage points relative to last season. After squaring up a solid 40.3% of batted balls a year ago, he’s down to 30.4% thus far. That ranks 228th among 264 qualified hitters, per Statcast.

Torres is not only making decidedly less impactful contact, he’s making less contact of any kind. His strikeout rate has jumped to 23.6%, which would be the highest since his rookie season. He’s swinging through more pitches both within and outside the strike zone. It’s not disastrous — Torres’ strikeout and walk marks are right around league average — but it’s a major step back from where he was last season.

This isn’t quite the worst stretch of Torres’ career. He had a slightly worse month and a half coming out of the All-Star Break back in 2022. Torres rebounded with a power explosion that September that presaged his strong ’23 campaign. It’s certainly not out of the question that he puts this recent slump behind him.

League-wide power numbers tend to improve in the summer as the weather warms. That has typically been the case for Torres, who has a career .369 slugging percentage in March and April and has been north of .400 in every other month. It’s not uncommon for him to take some time to find his power, although that doesn’t typically come with the kind of swing-and-miss he has shown this year.

It’s imperative he put things together fairly quickly if he’s going to land the kind of contract his camp presumably envisioned coming into the season. Torres’ profile is driven by his offensive ability. While there’s value in being able to play up the middle, he’s a fringy defender at second base. It’s not likely that teams would consider moving him back to shortstop, where he had well below-average grades and hasn’t played regularly since 2021.

Torres was already looking to buck an unfavorable market trend towards second basemen. As shown on the MLBTR Contract Tracker, there are only a handful of recent free agent deals for second basemen that exceeded $50MM. Marcus Semien’s seven-year, $175MM pact stands as an anomaly that Torres was never going to match — and Semien had a plausible argument as a potential shortstop before the Rangers signed Corey Seager a few days later. Mike Moustakas (four years, $64MM) and DJ LeMahieu (six years, $90MM) are more realistic comparison points, though those players could also play third base.

Teams have generally been more willing to invest in second basemen via extensions (e.g. Jose Altuve, Andrés Giménez, Ketel Marte, Jake Cronenworth, Jeff McNeil) than on the open market. That doesn’t seem likely to happen with the Yankees, who could be content to turn the position to Oswald Peraza after this season.

Torres’ biggest selling point once he gets to the open market is his youth. He’ll play all of next season at 28. It’s likely his camp would try to push for a deal in the range Andrew Benintendi received at the same age (five years, $75MM). That contract has aged very poorly for the White Sox, but he’d been a similar caliber of hitter as Torres leading up to his signing. Benintendi was a Gold Glove winner who plays a less important position.

However, the market for mid-tier hitters last offseason wasn’t as robust as it had been in the previous winter (when Benintendi signed). Jeimer Candelario and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. each landed three-year guarantees in the $14-15MM annual range. As with Torres, they’d generally been good but not elite hitters who weren’t offering immense defensive value. Neither Candelario nor Gurriel was eligible for a qualifying offer. If Torres turns things around, he could receive one from the Yankees.

Torres will need to start hitting soon for that to be a factor. He has already played his way out of the leadoff spot to the bottom half of the order. It’s too early for Aaron Boone to consider pulling him from the lineup entirely, but the Yankees should be locked in a tight race with the Orioles throughout the summer. They can’t afford to live with no production from second base all season, and Peraza is on a rehab stint from a Spring Training shoulder strain. How Torres performs over the next two months will be a key factor in both New York’s chance of winning a tough division and his appeal to teams when he hits the market.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Yankees Release Luis Gonzalez

By Anthony Franco | May 13, 2024 at 9:44pm CDT

The Yankees recently released outfielder Luis González from his minor league deal, according to an announcement (on X) from their Triple-A team. He returns to free agency and will likely look for another minor league opportunity elsewhere.

González signed with New York in December. The 28-year-old struggled over 10 games in Spring Training and opened the season with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. González appeared in 22 games for the RailRiders, tallying 91 plate appearances. His .282/.374/.397 slash line was solid, although he didn’t connect on any home runs. Hitting .400 on balls in play also compensated for an elevated 26.4% strikeout rate.

Even a more resounding Triple-A performance probably wouldn’t have gotten González a look in the Bronx. Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Alex Verdugo have the starting outfield spots secured. Trent Grisham hasn’t contributed much off the bench, but he’s a good defensive center fielder. González, on the other hand, has limited experience in center and is better suited for a corner spot. New York could welcome Jasson Domínguez back within a couple weeks, as he’ll start a minor league rehab assignment tomorrow.

González has played in parts of three MLB seasons. He saw sporadic action with the White Sox and Giants between 2020-21. The lefty hitter was a solid contributor for San Francisco in 2022, batting .254/.323/.360 through 350 trips to the dish. He hasn’t played in the majors since then, largely because of a back injury that required surgery in Spring Training last year. González was shelved for the first four months of the season. San Francisco ran him through outright waivers not long after he returned and released him entirely last September.

Yankees Notes: Cole, Dominguez, LeMahieu

By Nick Deeds | May 11, 2024 at 4:48pm CDT

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole spoke to reporters (including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch) about his rehab from right elbow inflammation, which has kept him from making his 2024 debut to this point. Cole indicated to reporters that he threw a 29-pitch bullpen session prior to the club’s game against the Rays this afternoon.

“The fastball profiles were good, and the location was good,” Cole said of the session. He added that his velocity, which averaged 89 mph, was “where we wanted it” at this point in his rehab.

In terms of next steps, Hoch indicates that Cole is scheduled for another session on the mound later this week but that, according to Cole, he does not yet have a set date for facing live hitters. Even so, Cole emphasized that he’s made “good progress” since he first resumed throwing off a mound at the beginning of the month, when reporting suggested that the veteran could be eying the middle of June for his return to the big leagues.

As a six-time All Star the reigning AL Cy Young award winner, Cole’s return to the Yankees rotation would obviously provide a massive boost for the club. With that being said, New York’s starting staff has handled itself well in the absence of its ace. Yankees starters rank seventh in the majors with a 3.36 ERA this season, thanks in part to strong performances from youngsters Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt.

Cole isn’t the only key player for the Yankees whose rehab is progressing, as Hoch also notes that manager Aaron Boone told reporters this afternoon that young center fielder Jasson Dominguez is set to begin a rehab assignment at Single-A on May 14. Dominguez, who underwent Tommy John surgery back in September, is set to spend the first two weeks of his rehab as a pure designated hitter before returning to work in the outfield. Boone told reporters (including Hoch) that Dominguez’s recovery has been “smooth” with “very few hiccups” since he went under the knife.

A longtime consensus top-50 prospect in the sport, Dominguez made his debut last season to plenty of fanfare and slashed .258/.303/.677 with four home runs in just eight games before having his season cut short by surgery. The 21-year-old seems sure to impact the Yankees in some capacity this year once healthy, though with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge locked into everyday outfield roles and both Alex Verdugo and Giancarlo Stanton hitting well to this point in the season, the club’s top prospect could have a hard time breaking into the lineup on a regular basis.

Also making progress toward a return is veteran infielder DJ LeMahieu, who fouled a ball off his foot during Spring Training and has been sidelined by a bone bruise ever since. LeMahieu began a rehab assignment back in late April as he seemingly neared a return to action but was almost immediately sidelined by right foot soreness and returned from the assignment. The veteran has worked back up to the point of facing live pitching in the weeks since then, with Boone telling reporters that live batting practice against rehabbing righty JT Brubaker “went well” for the veteran.

There still appears to be no clear timeline for the veteran’s return to action, but the fact that he’s once again participating in field work and hitting against live arms is a positive sign for the club nonetheless. It’s been difficult for the Yankees to replace LeMahieu’s production in the lineup this season even has he’s posted roughly league average numbers in recent years. New York has relied on Oswaldo Cabrera and Jon Berti at the hot corner in the veteran’s absence, but Berti has slashed just .300/.344/.300 in ten games while Cabrera has fallen back to Earth after a hot start with a paltry .212/.257/.273 line in his past 20 games.

Yankees Claim Colby White

By Steve Adams | May 9, 2024 at 2:55pm CDT

The Yankees announced Thursday that they’ve claimed right-hander Colby White off waivers from the Rays, who’d designated him for assignment late last week. White has been optioned to Double-A Somerset. The Yankees already had an open 40-man spot after designating outfielder Taylor Trammell for assignment and outrighting him to Triple-A, so a corresponding 40-man move isn’t necessary.

The 25-year-old White was a 2019 sixth-round pick by the Rays. He ranked among the team’s most promising arms at one point but has seen his career set back by injuries. The right-hander missed the 2022 season and a good portion of the 2023 campaign recovering from Tommy John surgery. He returned to pitch 22 minor league frames late last year and posted a 1.64 ERA that looked pristine on the surface but masked some worrying trends. Namely, White issued a free pass to a whopping 19.5% of his opponents in last year’s comeback effort.

His command woes continued this year, and the good fortune he had in stranding all those free baserunners dried up. White pitched 7 2/3 innings in the Rays’ system but was rocked for 15 earned runs on the strength of 10 hits and 10 walks. He’s given up a walk to just under 22% of his opponents this year and has also hit a pair of batters.

Command wasn’t an issue prior to White’s surgery. In 2021, he posted a sparkling 1.44 ERA across four minor league levels while dominating opponents — evidenced by a comical 45% strikeout rate and a strong 6.4% walk rate. White is in the second of three minor league option years, so the Yanks will send him to Double-A and hope that the change of scenery can get him closer to his 2021 form. If they can accomplish that, White could yet emerge as a quality big league reliever, but he’s clearly a project in the wake of his post-surgery struggles to locate the ball.

Yankees Outright Taylor Trammell

By Darragh McDonald | May 7, 2024 at 4:47pm CDT

The Yankees announced that outfielder Taylor Trammell has been sent outright to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on the weekend.

Trammell, now 26, was once a highly-touted prospect. He was selected 35th overall by the Reds in 2016 and cracked Baseball America’s top 100 list in three straight years from 2018 to 2020. He was traded to the Padres in the 2019 deal that sent Trevor Bauer to the Reds and Yasiel Puig to Cleveland, then was flipped to the Mariners in the 2020 deal that also sent Ty France and Andrés Muñoz to Seattle.

Along the way, Trammell has continued to perform well in the minors but has struggled whenever given opportunities in the big leagues. He has 359 major league plate appearances over the four most recent seasons, but has hit just .167/.270/.363 in that time. His 11.1% walk rate in that stretch is quite strong, but he’s also been punched out at a huge 37% clip.

Since the start of 2021, he stepped to the plate 812 times at the Triple-A level, with a 14% walk rate and 24% strikeout rate. He hit 38 home runs and produced a combined batting line of .274/.381/.506 for a wRC+ of 116.

He exhausted his three option years from 2021 to 2023 as he struggled in the majors, continually getting sent back down to the minors. That left him out of options here in 2024, but the past prospect pedigree and strong minor league numbers still led to interest from other clubs.

The Mariners designated him for assignment on Opening Day, with the Dodgers claiming him off waivers. He received only six plate appearances in two weeks with the Dodgers before getting designated for assignment again. The Yankees put in a claim but didn’t give him playing time either. He got into five games but mostly as a late-game substitute, getting just two plate appearances in over two weeks in pinstripes before his third DFA of the year.

Now that Trammell has finally cleared waivers, he will reported to the RailRiders and look to work his way back to the majors. This is his first career outright and he doesn’t have three years of service time, meaning he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency.

Yankees Designate Taylor Trammell For Assignment

By Mark Polishuk | May 4, 2024 at 9:04am CDT

The Yankees announced that outfielder Taylor Trammell has been designated for assignment. The move opens up a 26-man roster spot for utilityman Jon Berti, who has been activated from the 10-day injured list after missing the last three weeks due to a groin strain.

In a little more than five weeks’ time, Trammell has been DFA’ed by three different organizations. The Mariners designated Trammell just prior to Opening Day, and the Dodgers claimed the outfielder off waivers a few days later. Los Angeles then returned Trammell to DFA limbo in mid-April, and Trammell found himself quickly on the move once more when the Yankees placed a claim.

Trammell is out of minor league options, hence the whirlwind of transactions as teams have had to try and sneak him through waivers in order to officially outright him off the 40-man roster. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Trammell claimed again if yet another club has need for some outfield depth, so he could soon add a fourth team to his 2024 resume.

Over five games apiece with the Dodgers and Yankees, Trammell has only eight plate appearances. (He had a walk and a hit in his two PA with New York, giving him one of the few perfect batting lines in Yankees franchise history.) Trammell has hit only .167/.270/.363 over 359 career MLB plate appearances, which has dimmed his star after several years as a top-100 ranked prospect during his time in the minors.

The dreaded “Quad-A” label could apply here since Trammell has continued to rake at Triple-A, but between his speed and ability to play all three outfield positions, Trammell has still managed to attract attention for roster spots. His past blue-chip prospect status has also undoubtedly helped, as some teams might think Trammell could still have a post-hype breakout in him at age 26.

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