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Yankees Acquire Scott Effross From Cubs

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For the second trade deadline in a row, the Yankees have bolstered their bullpen with an under-the-radar arm from the NL Central. The Yankees announced Monday that they’ve acquired right-hander Scott Effross from the Cubs in exchange for minor league right-hander Hayden Wesneski.

Scott Effross | Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

Effross, 28, isn’t a household name but has been outstanding since the Cubs promoted him for his Major League debut in 2021. The sidearming righty has tallied 58 2/3 innings as a big leaguer to date and posted a 2.91 ERA with a 28.8% strikeout rate, a 5.1% walk rate and a 46% ground-ball rate.

While Effross throws right-handed, he’s been far more effective against lefties than right-handers to this point in his big league career, which surely held appeal to the Yankees (and to other teams). That’s not to say that he’s ineffective against fellow righties — far from it — but Effross has held lefties to a putrid .160/.250/.253 batting line through 85 plate appearances. Right-handed hitters have had struggles of their own, hitting Effross at a solid .262 clip but posting a meager .287 OBP and just a .369 slugging percentage.

Because Effross is only in his second big league season and entered the year with less than one full year of Major League service time, he’s controllable for another five years beyond the current campaign. He’ll be arbitration-eligible following the 2024 campaign and won’t reach free agency until the 2027-28 offseason.

The acquisition of Effross is pivotal for a Yankees team that has seen its previously rock-solid bullpen begin to show cracks of late. In recent weeks, the Yankees have lost Michael King to a fractured elbow, seen Chad Green go down with a torn ligament that required Tommy John surgery, and watched former closer Aroldis Chapman struggle badly in his return from the injured list. Even Clay Holmes, the team’s breakout closer and All-Star, has scuffled over the past two weeks after a superhuman start to the 2022 season that catapulted him into the Yankees’ closer role. Effoss will help solidify the group both in 2022 and well beyond — provided he can sustain his own impressive emergence as a viable late-inning arm.

Wesneski, 24, was the Yankees’ sixth-round pick in 2019 and has emerged as one of the organization’s top pitching prospects, ranking fourth among Yankee farmhands at Baseball America. The 6’3″, 210-pound righty reached Triple-A late in the 2021 season and has spent the entire 2022 campaign there. Through 19 starts and 89 2/3 innings so far this season, he’ notched a 3.51 ERA with a 22.4% strikeout rate, a 7.5% walk rate and a 41.6% ground-ball rate.

Scouting reports on Wesneski credit him for mid-90s velocity on a pair of heaters — two-seam and four-seam — with the latter able to climb as high as 99 mph. He also works with a slider, changeup and cutter. Baseball America touts him as a potential fourth starter, one who’s not too far off from big league readiness. It’s the type of upper-level arm with decent probability to become a big league starter that the Cubs generally struggled to develop in the prior Theo Epstein/Jed Hoyer regime. MLB.com has already updated its ranking of the Cubs’ top prospects with Wesneski slotting in No. 8, right behind fellow pitching prospects Caleb Kilian and Jordan Wicks.

Jack Curry of the YES Network first reported (via Twitter) that Effross had been traded to the Yankees. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweeted that Wesneski was going to Chicago in return.

Latest On Juan Soto’s Trade Market

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Juan Soto’s presence on the trade market has, in many ways, held up activity in other areas. Teams like the Cardinals and Padres, generally viewed as two of Soto’s top suitors, are also involved in the market for starting pitching. But, both are surely wary of dealing prospects to acquire a starter (e.g. Oakland’s Frankie Montas) if those same players might eventually be used to pry Soto loose from Washington.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan takes a lengthy look at the logjam Soto has created, writing within that the Yankees are a “long shot at best” to make a play for Soto before the deadline and suggesting that the Rangers, for now, are not a prominent bidder. That meshes with recent reporting from the New York Post’s Jon Heyman, who wrote last night that there was “no traction” between the Yankees and Nationals regarding Soto, even though the Yankees reached out as recently as yesterday evening. Heyman adds that the Nationals aren’t as high on top prospect Anthony Volpe as the Yankees and many other clubs are, which is a complicating factor in talks.

The Padres and Cardinals are the most oft-suggested fits for Soto, and with good reason, as both are win-now clubs with deep farm systems who could offer the blend of top prospects and controllable big leaguers the Nationals seek. Passan suggests that the Dodgers are “lurking,” however, and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic similarly wrote this morning that the Dodgers have maintained talks with the Nats and should not be ruled out as a potential landing spot. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale takes things a step further, tweeting that it’s actually the Dodgers — not the Cardinals or Padres — who have been making the most aggressive offers for Soto recently.

The Mariners, another regularly speculated fit for Soto, don’t appear likely to land him at this point. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto tells The Athletic’s Jim Bowden that while he checked in on Soto, he came away with the impression that there was not a realistic path to acquiring him (Twitter link). Presumably, that came prior to Seattle’s Friday acquisition of Luis Castillo — which cost the Mariners their top two prospects.

The Mets, too, have been speculatively listed as trade partners for the Nats. That’s due largely to the team’s huge payroll and aggressive past year under new owner Steve Cohen. However, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes that the Mets believed “relatively quickly in the process” that there’d be such a large market for Soto that Washington wouldn’t have to consider trading him to a division rival. That certainly looks to be the case, although if the Nats do covet the Mets’ best prospects, there’s at least a slim chance of something coming together; both Sherman and SNY’s Andy Martino report that the Mets would only move their very best prospects if it were to acquire Soto or (an even longer shot) Shohei Ohtani. Both reports suggest catcher Francisco Alvarez is off limits unless it’s for one of Soto or Ohtani. Sherman adds third baseman Brett Baty to that list, and Martino suggests third baseman Mark Vientos is viewed similarly.

Regardless of whether Soto specifically changes hands, the market will erupt sometime between now and tomorrow’s 6pm ET deadline. The ticking clock is going to eventually drive teams into activity, and given the lack of movement thus far, we could be in for one of the most active and chaotic 24- to 30-hour spans of deadline dealing we’ve ever seen.

NL Central Notes: Cardinals, Mahle, Drury, Quintana, Blue Jays, Sosa

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The Cardinals’ search for starting pitching has taken them inside their division, as MLB Network’s Jon Morosi (Twitter link) reports that St. Louis is one of the many clubs interested in Reds righty Tyler Mahle.  With the Cards looking at all options for rotation help, it only makes sense that they’d be at least checking in on Mahle’s services.

The Phillies, Twins, and Mets are among the clubs linked to Mahle since the start of the season, while the Rangers also reportedly had interest during the offseason.  With Luis Castillo already off the board, it’s fair to guess that most pitching-needy teams have spoken to the Reds about Mahle, and on paper the Cardinals have the kind of young talent that the Reds would surely demand.  However, it is possible Cincinnati might want a higher price for moving Mahle to a division rival — as Morosi notes, the Reds and Cardinals haven’t completed a player-for-player trade since 1997, so it would count as a surprise on some level if Mahle ended up in St. Louis.

More notes from around the NL Central…

  • Just because Castillo has been traded doesn’t mean the Reds are necessarily likelier to hang onto Mahle, since CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson hears that Mahle and Brandon Drury are expected to both be on new teams after the deadline.  Drury is a free agent after the season and thus an obvious trade chip, though Mahle is still under team control through 2023.  But, it now seems like Cincinnati is going to dive into something close to a full rebuild, a process that really started over the winter when they moved several other veteran talents.
  • The Blue Jays are in the mix for Pirates starter Jose Quintana, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, along with such previously-reported suitors as the Yankees and White Sox.  The veteran left-hander is having a bounce-back season after struggling in 2019-21, and Quintana could help bolster an inconsistent Toronto rotation.  Pirates GM Ben Cherington previously worked in the Jays’ front office, so this familiarity with the AL East side’s prospects could help the Blue Jays in the bidding, though the two sides haven’t completed a player-for-player trade in the two-plus years since Cherington went to Pittsburgh.
  • The Yankees were one of the other teams interested in Edmundo Sosa before the Cardinals dealt Sosa to the Phillies, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes.  Sosa would’ve been an interesting depth add to the Yankees’ infield, and it is even possible that Sosa could have worked his way into a timeshare with Isiah Kiner-Falefa at shortstop.

Latest On Frankie Montas

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TODAY: The Yankees, Cardinals, and Blue Jays seem to be the top suitors for Montas, as Jon Morosi of MLB Network writes that the right-hander’s “market is focused on” these three teams.

JULY 30: With Luis Castillo now on his way to Seattle following last night’s trade to the Mariners, Frankie Montas stands out as perhaps the best and likeliest arm left to be traded before Tuesday’s 5pm CT deadline. The majority of teams that held interest in Castillo are involved, to varying extents, in the Montas market, so it’s possible that last night’s deal begins to accelerate the pace of the pitching market overall.

The Yankees, for instance, were known to be Castillo suitors but have now made Montas their top target according to both Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter links). The Cardinals, who never seemed likely to be able to land Castillo from a fellow NL Central club, are continuing their pursuit of Montas, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. Their pursuit, however, is complicated a bit by simultaneous interest in Nationals superstar Juan Soto; Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes in his latest column that some of the Cardinals prospects the A’s are targeting in return for Montas are also coveted by the Nationals.

Several other clubs were linked to both Montas and Castillo in the past week, including the Twins, Padres and Blue Jays. There are also surely other clubs on the periphery of the market whose presence isn’t publicly known. Both Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News and Rosenthal have indicated, for instance, that the Rangers had engaged with the Reds in talks regarding Castillo. Whether the A’s would seriously entertain sending Montas to a division rival isn’t clear, but it’s telling that Texas is in the market for arms that can be controlled into 2023.

The Athletics’ asking price on Montas was reportedly quite high even before last night’s trade of Castillo potentially upped Oakland’s leverage in talks. In profiling the Cardinals’ current rotation needs, Katie Woo of The Athletic wrote (prior to the Castillo deal) that Oakland is believed to be seeking a pair of top prospects and “potentially a currently rostered player with substantial team control remaining.” It’s a steep ask, to be sure, though not an unrealistic one given Montas’ trade value.

Brewers, Padres, Rays Interested In Joey Gallo

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10:57AM: The Rays may not be too deep in the Gallo hunt, as Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News hears that the “Yankees wanted too much back” in return.

7:56AM: Joey Gallo’s time in the Bronx is widely expected to be up by Tuesday’s trade deadline, and the Yankees have been exploring trade possibilities for the struggling outfielder.  The Brewers, Padres, and Rays are among the clubs who have shown interest in the former All-Star, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes.

San Diego discussed a Gallo deal during Spring Training, and has been linked to the slugger’s market multiple times in the past, dating back to Gallo’s time with the Rangers.  The Rays and Brewers also had interest in Gallo at last year’s deadline, and seem to be again revisiting a trade 12 months later.

Of course, quite a lot has happened to Gallo’s trade value in the past year, none of it good.  After posting only a .707 OPS in 228 plate appearances as a Yankees in 2021, Gallo’s slump has only deepened this season.  Gallo has hit only .159/.282/.339 with 12 homers over 273 PA, with a wRC+ of 81 (the league average is 100) and strikeout and whiff rates that rank near the bottom of the league.

On the flip side, Gallo is still posting outstanding hard-contact numbers and his 14.7% walk rate is one of the best of any player in baseball.  A .217 BABIP only deepens the frustration, yet Gallo is so rarely making contact in the first place that his scuffles can’t be chalked up to just bad batted-ball luck.  This lack of production in the pinstripes is “something I’m gonna have to really live with for the rest of my life,” Gallo told The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler earlier this week.  “It’s going to be tough.  I didn’t play well, I didn’t live up to expectations.  And that’s a tough pill to swallow.”

The Yankees’ acquisition of Andrew Benintendi has all but confirmed that Gallo will be dealt, though what New York can expect back in return is an open question.  The 28-year-old outfielder is a free agent after the season and is owed roughly $3.4MM for the remainder of the year, making it quite possible that the Yankees will have to eat most or all of that money unless another unwanted contract is swapped in return.  While interested teams surely view Gallo as a change-of-scenery candidate, the Yankees don’t have much leverage in trying to market him as such, since it is so widely known that the club wishes to part ways with the outfielder.

In Tampa Bay’s case, the Yankees are surely wary of the idea of Gallo reviving himself on an AL East rival, and it is fair to wonder if New York would want more in order to move Gallo within the division.  The Rays may have the more glaring need for outfield help given that Manuel Margot, Harold Ramirez, and Kevin Kiermaier are all injured, with Kiermaier being out for the season in the wake of hip surgery.

However, the Rays already made a left-handed hitting outfield upgrade yesterday, landing David Peralta in a trade with the Diamondbacks.  It is possible this move could take the Rays out of the Gallo market, though the club is still looking for more outfield depth, as Nightengale also reports that Tampa is interested in former Ray and current Red Tommy Pham.

Christian Yelich, Andrew McCutchen, Hunter Renfroe, and Tyrone Taylor have comprised Milwaukee’s outfield mix for much of the season, with McCutchen also getting the majority of DH time.  Yelich is the only left-handed bat of the quartet, and Gallo could become a platoon partner with Taylor in center field.  2019 was the only season Gallo played a sizeable amount of center field, but he acquitted himself quite well defensively up the middle, even if right field is his ideal position — Gallo has won the last two American League right field Gold Gloves.

Latest On Juan Soto’s Trade Market

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With four days to go until Tuesday evening’s trade deadline, the floodgates of activity have yet to really open. There’s nevertheless been plenty of chatter about the game’s top trade candidate, Juan Soto. The Nationals superstar will continue to be the talk of the summer market until the club either pulls the trigger on a deal or the deadline passes.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post wrote last night that the Cardinals, Padres, Dodgers and Rangers are among the teams generally viewed as those best positioned to pull off the blockbuster. That wasn’t a comprehensive list of clubs with interest, although Jim Bowden of the Athletic tweets this evening that only four clubs remain in the market. Bowden adds that the Padres and Cardinals are among that group of four, but the identities of the other two teams remain unknown. To be clear, it’s not a certainty that no one besides St. Louis, San Diego, Los Angeles and Texas is still in the mix.

Previous reports have tied the Mariners, Giants, Mets and Yankees to Soto, but the general belief is the Nats aren’t interested in dealing him within the NL East. Meanwhile, Heyman wrote last night the Nats “seem focused” on teams other than the Yankees. That’s not to say the Yankees are out, as Heyman unsurprisingly notes they’re still interested in Soto after acquiring Andrew Benintendi from the Royals.

The Cardinals, Padres and Dodgers are obvious entrants into the Soto bidding. They’re each 2022 contenders with a robust collection of young major league and/or farm talent, and all three have proven bold enough to trade for star players in recent years. The Rangers are perhaps a more surprising entrant into the market since they’re not in the playoff mix this year, but Texas has long maintained they expect to compete in earnest by next season. With Soto controllable for an additional two seasons, the Rangers could enter the fray with an eye towards adding another star to the 2023-24 rosters after big free agent pickups of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien.

Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News wrote yesterday that Texas has indeed been in contact with the Washington front office and continues to monitor the market. Whether they’ll be willing to meet the Nationals’ understandably astronomical asking price — and top the offers of clubs that are eyeing Soto as a target to improve their 2022 odds as well — remains to be seen. Grant suggests the Rangers may prefer to focus their resources, both financial and in terms of prospect capital, on their efforts to add talent to the starting rotation. Meanwhile, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic noted last night in an appearance on Fox Sports that the general expectation is that Texas will be outbid by a more motivated club (Twitter link).

There’ll be more clarity on the Soto negotiations over the next few days. One thing that does not appear to be under consideration: the sides reopening extension talks before the trade deadline. Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post hears the Nats aren’t planning to make another extension offer (Twitter link). General manager Mike Rizzo has confirmed that Washington made a 15-year, $440MM proposal that Soto rejected a few weeks ago. That apparently marked the final extent to which the Nationals were willing to go, at least this summer. That’s not to say the Nats have to force a trade imminently, since his remaining arbitration eligibility would allow them to revisit extension and/or trade talks next offseason if he’s not dealt before Tuesday.

Yankees Re-Sign Ryan Weber, Shane Greene To Minor League Deals

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The Yankees have re-signed right-handers Ryan Weber and Shane Greene to minor league deals, per an announcement from their Triple-A affiliate, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Joining that pair in Scranton will be veteran reliever Richard Rodriguez, who inked a minor league deal earlier this month once he’d finished serving an 80-game PED suspension. Rodriguez has been building up with the Yankees’ Florida Complex League affiliate but is now headed for Triple-A.

This is old hat by now for Weber, who is signing his fourth minor league deal of the season with the Yankees. On three different occasions now, Weber has been selected to the 40-man roster, pitched in one game, been designated for assignment and elected free agency after clearing waivers. Each time, he’s returned on a new minor league deal. In all likelihood, this scenario will play out again the next time the Yankees need some length in the bullpen — or possibly a spot start. The journeyman Weber has pitched well both with the Yankees and the RailRiders this season, but his overall track record in the Majors is fairly pedestrian: 174 2/3 innings, 5.10 ERA, 14.7% strikeout rate, 5.4% walk rate.

Greene, meanwhile, made his MLB debut with the Yankees back in 2014 and was traded to the Tigers in the three-team deal that brought Didi Gregorius to the Bronx. He went on to have a long run as a quality setup man and occasional closer for the Tigers and Braves, but Greene’s production has slipped in recent years. He returned to the Yankees on a minor league deal earlier this season and, like Weber, was briefly selected to the Majors and then designated for assignment after one lone appearance, during which he allowed a pair of runs. It wouldn’t be a shock if Greene received another look and again followed the same cycle that Weber has for much of the year.

Yankees Shopping Miguel Andujar

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Miguel Andujar’s journey from American League Rookie of the Year runner-up to organizational depth in the Bronx has been well-chronicled by now, and the it’s long seemed possible he could find himself with a clean slate and fresh opportunity before next Tuesday’s trade deadline. Jon Heyman of the New York Post writes in his latest notes column that the Yankees are “trying to deal” Andujar, who first requested a trade in early June.

Still just 27 years old, Andujar finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting with a .297/.328/.527 batting line and 27 home runs back in 2018. A shoulder injury ruined his 2019 season, however, and a series of other Yankees acquisitions and/or breakouts (e.g. DJ LeMahieu, Gio Urshela, Josh Donaldson, Joey Gallo) have combined to limit Andujar’s opportunities in the Majors since that time. He’s worked to improve his defensive versatility, learning left field and first base in addition to his customary slot at the hot corner, but it still hasn’t resulted in much in the way of big league playing time.

Since returning from that 2019 shoulder surgery, Andujar has received just 279 plate appearances with the Yankees. In the team’s defense, he hasn’t hit well at all in that time, slashing just .249/.280/.358. Then again, the playing time has been sporadic, with Andujar always keenly aware that he could be optioned at any time. The Yankees have optioned Andujar to Triple-A Scranton a whopping nine times since Opening Day 2020, and even during his stints with the big league club, he hasn’t been a regular in the lineup.

There’s no denying that Andujar hasn’t forced the team’s hand, and with stronger big league production he’d likely have found his way back into the fold. We often hear about hitters struggling through inconsistent usage, though, and at least based on his Triple-A output, there’s a case to be made that Andujar’s big league struggles can be at least partially attributed to his lack of a role. The competition in Triple-A is obviously far weaker, but Andujar has nonetheless slashed .304/.355/.516 with 15 home runs, 13 doubles, five stolen bases (in five tries) and just an 11.4% strikeout rate through his past 299 Triple-A plate appearances (2020-21). Despite that production, the Yankees have given him 52 big league plate appearances this season.

Trading Andujar is something of a tricky notion for a few reasons. The Yankees clearly value him as a depth option and don’t simply want to give him away for nothing of value in return. At the same time, his stock isn’t exactly at a high point, given the lack of recent MLB production. A contending club isn’t likely to surrender a prospect pf any note and plug Andujar right into the lineup at third base as they push for a postseason berth. Similarly, a club in the midst of a pure rebuild (the Nationals, for instance) may not relish the idea of surrendering long-term value in order to acquire a player who’s only controlled another two years beyond the current season.

Regardless of the specific fit, a deal involving Andujar seems likely to come together either in the next few days or over the winter. He’s in his final minor league option season, meaning the Yankees will need to carry him on the Major League roster next year or else place him on waivers before being sent down to Triple-A, and he’d surely be claimed by another club at that point. The Andujar dilemma has been ongoing in the Bronx for what seems like forever, but perhaps it’s finally headed toward a resolution.

Yankees Acquire Andrew Benintendi From Royals

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The Yankees and Royals have made the biggest move of deadline season to date. New York announced an agreement to acquire outfielder Andrew Benintendi from Kansas City in exchange for pitching prospects Beck Way, T.J. Sikkema and Chandler Champlain.

Benintendi has been one of the game’s most obvious trade candidates for the past few months. The Royals entered 2022 with designs on competing, but they stumbled to a 16-32 record through the end of May. That made Kansas City an obvious deadline seller, and an impending free agent like Benintendi likely to change uniforms.

New York adds a contact-oriented bat to their outfield mix. Benintendi owns a .321/.389/.399 line on the year, walking at a strong 10.1% clip while only punching out in 13.5% of his trips to the plate. He’s only connected on three home runs, but Benintendi leads the majors with 91 singles and has picked up 14 doubles. He hasn’t looked like the 15-20 homer bat he was during his early seasons with the Red Sox, but he’s made contact on a strong 82.6% of his swings.

Benintendi’s production has been propped up by a career-high .368 batting average on balls in play. As a line drive hitter who uses the entire field, he typically generates solid results on batted balls, although it’s unlikely the Yankees are anticipating his 2022 mark remaining quite so high. Even if his BABIP regresses closer to his .325 career figure, his plate discipline and bat control should support a solid on-base percentage.

Those plus bat-to-ball skills contrast Benintendi sharply with the player whom he’s likely to displace from the lineup, Joey Gallo. New York’s biggest deadline pickup last summer, Gallo has struggled mightily since landing in the Bronx. He’s a .160/.293/.371 hitter in 498 plate appearances as a Yankee, striking out at a massive 38.4% clip over that stretch. Among hitters with 200+ plate appearances this season, Gallo has the third-highest strikeout rate (38.1%) and third-lowest rate of contact on swings (62.2%).

The Yankees are now set to roll out an outfield of Benintendi, MVP candidate Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks — owner of a massive .333/.471/.593 line this month after a slow start to the season — on most days. Giancarlo Stanton is the primary designated hitter, although he landed on the injured list yesterday. New York has already begun to cut back Gallo’s playing time while working the scorching hot Matt Carpenter into the corner outfield mix, and tonight’s acquisition is the firmest signal yet the Yankees are prepared to squeeze Gallo out entirely. It stands to reason they’ll try to find a taker for him in trade before next Tuesday’s deadline.

Judge has adequately handled a move from right to center field this year, leaving Hicks and Benintendi to play the corners. The latter has played exclusively left field since landing in Kansas City’s spacious home ballpark, rating well in the eyes of both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating. Statcast’s Outs Above Average has pegged him as exactly a scratch defender in each of the past two years. He should add an adequate to above-average glove in the outfield while offering a notable improvement over Gallo’s recent work at the plate. It’ll be a boost to a lineup that already led the majors with 523 runs scored.

That the Yankees pulled the trigger on a Benintendi deal is sure to raise a few eyebrows for an off-field reason. He was placed on the restricted list before the Royals recent series in Toronto, indicating he’d not been vaccinated against COVID-19 at the time. That renders him unavailable for series in Toronto barring a change in his vaccination status or the removal of the ongoing prohibition of unvaccinated athletes crossing the border. Reports shortly thereafter emerged the Yankees could be dissuaded from pursuing him due to concerns about his availability.

That obviously proved not to be the case in the end. Jon Heyman of the New York Post and Andy Martino of SNY each suggest (Twitter links) that some close to Benintendi believe he’s now willing to be vaccinated. Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark of the Athletic indicate that vaccination status didn’t come up in talks between the Yankees and Royals front offices (Twitter link). Whether that’s because the Yankees anticipate he’ll eventually be eligible to play in Toronto or whether they’ve just decided to accept his possible absence for a few games isn’t clear.

The Yankees, who ironically open a four-game series against the Royals tomorrow, only have three regular season games remaining in Toronto. With an 11 1/2 game cushion over the Jays in the AL East, a three-game absence — if it comes to that — seem unlikely to have much of an effect on the regular season standings, although it could be relevant in the event the Yankees and Jays meet in the playoffs.

Benintendi is playing this season on an $8.5MM salary, around $3.3MM of which will be paid out through the remainder of the season. The teams didn’t make any mention of cash considerations, so it seems the Yankees will assume the remainder of that tab. New York’s luxury tax payroll now sits just under $265MM, in the estimation of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. They’re paying a 20% tax on their first $20MM over the $230MM base threshold, with a 32% fee on every dollar spent between $250MM and $270MM. If they exceed $270MM via future trades, they’d owe a 62.5% tax on any money up to $290MM (with higher fees thereafter). It’s a franchise-record level of spending for the Yankees, who seem likely to explore both rotation and bullpen upgrades over the next few days.

Turning to the Royals return, they’ll bring in a trio of lower minors arms. Way, Sikkema and Champlain were each ranked among the Yankees top 30 prospects at Baseball America, with Way topping the group at #13 in the system. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN concurs that Way is the headliner of the return, tweeting that he looks like a possible mid-rotation starter.

A fourth-round pick in 2020, Way has spent this season at High-A Hudson Valley. He’s worked 72 1/3 innings of 3.73 ERA ball, striking out an above-average 27.6% of opposing hitters. The 22-year-old righty (23 next month) has posted strong ground-ball numbers throughout his early pro career, and he’s walking a career-low 9% of batters faced. Way’s control has previously been spotty, but BA credits him with a mid-90’s fastball and a promising sweeping slider.

Sikkema was the 38th overall pick in the 2019 draft. The canceled minor league season in 2020 wiped out his first full professional season, and he missed all of last year on the injured list. That confluence of factors means he’s made just 15 appearances as a professional, but he owns a 2.48 ERA with a huge 38% strikeout percentage and a strong 6.3% walk rate through 36 1/3 innings in High-A this year. BA praises his strike-throwing ability and suggests his lower arm slot adds some deception to his delivery. He’ll have to be added to the Royals 40-man roster at the end of the season or be exposed to the Rule 5 draft.

Champlain was a ninth-round draftee out of USC last season. The 23-year-old has spent the entire year with Low-A Tampa, posting a 4.30 ERA with a 30.5% strikeout rate against a 6.2% walk percentage in 16 outings against generally younger competition. Baseball America credits him with a mid-90s fastball and a promising slider.

The Benintendi deal will be the first of plenty of dominoes to fall over the next few days. Rosenthal and Stark report that the Blue Jays, Brewers and Dodgers were among the teams that had some interest in Benintendi, and it stands to reason the remainder of that group could look for other ways to add to their outfield. Ben Gamel, David Peralta and Tyler Naquin are among the other lefty-hitting rental outfielders who should be available, although none seems likely to draw as much interest as Benintendi.

Jack Curry of the YES Network was first to report the Yankees were acquiring Benintendi. Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Royals were receiving three minor leaguers, whom Joel Sherman of the New York Post initially specified were Way, Sikkema and Champlain.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Shane Greene Elects Free Agency

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The Yankees announced this evening that veteran reliever Shane Greene has passed through waivers unclaimed. He’s elected free agency in lieu of an outright assignment back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, as is the right of any player with three-plus years of major league service.

The right-hander made just one major league appearance with the Yankees during his latest stint. He was selected onto the roster last Saturday and tossed an inning out of the bullpen, allowing a two-run home run to Ramón Urías. The 33-year-old righty was designated for assignment the next day, and he’ll now head back to the open market.

Greene, who also made a lone appearance with the Dodgers earlier this season, has spent the past couple months in Scranton. He tossed 21 innings over 15 outings for the RailRiders, working to a 3.86 ERA with a slightly above-average 25.3% strikeout rate. Of course, it’s possible Greene circles back and returns to the Yankees on another minor league pact even after refusing an outright assignment. Electing free agency is a fairly common practice for outrighted veterans of his ilk, as he’ll have an opportunity to scour the market for a more immediate path back to the majors elsewhere.

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