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Luis Gil

Yankees Activate Luke Voit, Place Anthony Rizzo On COVID-IL

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11:30AM: The Yankees have also recalled Luis Gil as a replacement player and optioned Nick Nelson to Triple-A, per a club announcement.

9:51AM: The Yankees have activated Luke Voit and placed Anthony Rizzo on the COVID-IL. Manager Aaron Boone says Rizzo has tested positive, per Lindsey Adler of The Athletic. He also is exhibiting some symptoms. As a positive test, he will be quarantined for at least 10 days.

The Yankees are now further hampered by an ongoing COVID outbreak that has already seen them place Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery and Gary Sanchez on the IL in recent days. Since being acquired in a deal just before the deadline, Rizzo has had an excellent debut as a Yankee. In nine games, he’s slashed .281/.400/.563, for a wRC+ of 163.

The club will now turn to Voit and hope that he can return to last year’s excellent form. His wRC+ of 152 in 2020 was one of the best in the league. But 2021 has been a struggle so far, with a wRC+ of 98 while dealing with various injuries. The club reportedly nearly traded Voit after acquiring Rizzo, but the deal fell through at the last hour. After a knee injury in July, he had only started a rehab assignment a few days ago. But it seems Rizzo’s positive test has hastened his return.

Despite scrambling to cover for all of these players missing time, the team is on a hot streak and currently just 1 1/2 out of a playoff spot.

Yankees Promote Luis Gil

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The Yankees are promoting Luis Gil to start this evening’s game against the Orioles, the team told reporters (including Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News). He’ll be making his major league debut. Gerrit Cole had initially been lined up to take the ball, but he’s now out of action for at least ten days after testing positive for COVID-19. Gil was already on the 40-man roster, so no corresponding move was necessary.

Acquired from the Twins for Jake Cave in March 2018, Gil has since developed into one of the more promising young arms in the organization. Baseball America placed him fourth among Yankees farmhands in their recent midseason update, while FanGraphs slots him twelfth in the system. Both outlets rave about his fastball, which gets into the high-90’s and has enough life to generate plenty of swinging strikes. There’s some debate about which of his secondary offerings — a mid-80’s slider or a low-90’s changeup — will become his most effective offspeed pitch, but the general expectation is that Gil’s fastball will play at the big league level.

While there’s not much doubt about the efficacy of his raw stuff, there are still questions about Gil’s strike-throwing consistency. The right-hander has walked more than 10% of batters faced at every level of his minor league career. That’s continued this season, as the 23-year-old has doled out free passes to a huge 13.5% of opponents over 15 starts split between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

To his credit, Gil has managed a decent 4.13 ERA between the two levels. That’s largely thanks to the plus bat-missing ability he’s shown throughout his career. Gil has struck out a huge 33% of opposing hitters in his first crack at the high minors, actually a bit of a step up from his overall 30.1% mark as a professional. He has worked exclusively as a starting pitcher in recent years, although that combination of high-octane stuff and bouts of wildness might hint at a bullpen future down the line.

Yankees Release Jacoby Ellsbury, Designate Greg Bird

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The Yankees have released outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury and designated first baseman Greg Bird for assignment as part of a series of roster moves. The club has also designated left-hander Nestor Cortes Jr. and added seven players – outfielder Estevan Florial and right-handers Deivi Garcia, Luis Gil, Brooks Kriske, Luis Medina, Nick Nelson and Miguel Yajure – to its 40-man roster. Ken Davidoff and George A. King III of the New York Post first reported the Yankees were considering releasing Ellsbury.

This brings to an end a hugely disappointing New York tenure for Ellsbury, a former star with archrival Boston who parlayed his success with the Red Sox into a seven-year, $153MM deal with the Yankees after 2013. Ellsbury was merely a decent to good contributor for the Yankees from 2014-17, and a series of injuries prevented him from taking the field at all over the previous two seasons.

The Yankees currently have a need in center field with Aaron Hicks on the mend from Tommy John surgery and Brett Gardner a free agent, so the fact that they’ve moved on from Ellsbury and eaten the remaining $26MM-plus on his contract speaks to how far his stock has fallen. Now, if the 36-year-old is going to continue his career, he’ll likely have to settle for a minor league pact with another organization.

Injuries have also been ruinous for the 27-year-old Bird, whom the Yankees once regarded as their first baseman of the future. Bird was tremendous during a 178-plate appearance debut in 2015, when the left-hander’s swing looked tailor-made for Yankee Stadium, but that’s the only regular-season excellence he has shown to this point. Bird missed all of 2016 after undergoing shoulder surgery and then hit a meager .194/.287/.388 in 522 trips to the plate from 2017-19. Thanks in part to foot problems, he totaled just 41 PA at the MLB level this season. At this point, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see another team trade for or claim Bird, who still has three minor league options left.

Cortes, 24, is also in the DFA pile with Bird. The southpaw, a two-time member of the Yankees organization and also a former Oriole, saw extensive MLB action with New York in 2019. While Cortes limped to a 5.67 ERA/5.57 FIP in that 66 2/3-inning span, he did amass 9.32 strikeouts per nine against 3.78 walks. Cortes also had a solid year at the Triple-A level, where he posted a 3.86 ERA/3.40 FIP with 9.53 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 over 39 2/3 frames. He has a pair of minor league options remaining.

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