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Blake Rutherford

Nationals Outright Blake Rutherford, Michael Chavis

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The Nationals have taken a trio of players off the 40-man roster. Infielder Michael Chavis, outfielder Blake Rutherford and reliever Hobie Harris all cleared outright waivers, according to Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com (X link). Rutherford and Chavis have elected minor league free agency, as is their right as players who have been outrighted multiple times in their careers.

Chavis signed a minor league pact with the Nats last offseason. He made the Opening Day roster and ultimately in 48 games as a depth infielder. Over 96 plate appearances, the former highly-regarded Red Sox prospect hit .242/.281/.341 with a pair of home runs. He struck out at a 34.4% clip.

The 28-year-old has appeared in parts of five seasons at the highest level. He logged 129 games with the Pirates a year ago, his heaviest workload to date. Chavis is a career .238/.283/.401 hitter in a little under 1200 trips to the dish. He can play any of first, second or third base. He would have been eligible for arbitration had the Nats kept him on the roster. Now that he’s back on the open market, he could find minor league interest this winter.

Rutherford is a former Yankees first-round draftee who reached the big leagues this past season. The lefty-swinging outfielder had hit .336/.393/.571 in 74 games between Washington’s top two affiliates after singing an offseason minor league deal. The 26-year-old was selected to the majors for the first time in early August. He got into 16 games, hitting .171/.194/.171 across 36 plate appearances.

Harris is also a one-time Yankee draft choice who debuted with Washington in 2023. The 30-year-old righty pitched in 16 games, allowing 12 runs (11 earned) through 19 1/3 innings. He walked 13 while striking out nine. Harris had a 5.57 ERA while striking out 15.2% of batters faced across 32 1/3 frames at Triple-A Rochester. This is his first career outright, but he has sufficient minor league service time to become a free agent at the start of the offseason.

Washington needed to clear three 40-man spots within five days of the end of the World Series to clear space for players returning from the 60-day injured list. They’ll go into the winter with the roster at capacity.

Nationals Place Travis Blankenhorn On IL, Recall Blake Rutherford

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The Nationals have placed outfielder Travis Blankenhorn on the 10-day injured list with plantar fasciitis, the team announced. The move is retroactive to September 16, which means the left-handed hitter could return as soon as next Tuesday. In a corresponding move, Washington recalled Blake Rutherford, another lefty batting outfielder, from Triple-A.

Blankenhorn, a long-time Twins prospect, made his MLB debut with Minnesota in 2020 but was designated for assignment in May 2021. He has since spent time in the Dodgers, Mariners, Mets, and Nationals organizations, mainly at the Triple-A level. The 27-year-old earned his first real shot at regular playing time this September, posting a forgettable .555 OPS but showing off impressive plate discipline, with six walks and only six strikeouts in 37 trips to the plate.

It’s possible to play through plantar fasciitis, as Carlos Correa has demonstrated this season, but with so few games remaining and the Nationals already eliminated from postseason contention, the team has little reason to put an ailing player back on the field. Rest is key for treating plantar heel pain, and an early start to the offseason should do Blankenhorn more good than a brief stint on the IL. Then again, he might prefer to get back in the lineup as soon as possible, in an effort to improve his numbers and increase his chances of sticking on Washington’s 40-man roster throughout the offseason.

The 26-year-old Rutherford made his MLB debut this August, seven years since he was selected by the Yankees in the first round of the 2016 draft. Despite strong numbers at Double and Triple-A, he struggled to make the adjustment to the majors, batting .182 with a .388 OPS in 15 games. Ultimately, he was optioned at the end of the month to make room for catcher Drew Millas on the active roster. Rutherford will now have a second chance to make a good impression over the final 11 games of the season.

Nationals Select Drew Millas

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The Nationals announced that they have selected the contract of catcher Drew Millas, a move that seemed to be coming since it was reported yesterday that Millas was travelling with the club to Toronto. In corresponding moves, outfielder Blake Rutherford was optioned after yesterday’s game while righty Carl Edwards Jr. was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Millas, now 25, was originally drafted by the Athletics in 2019 but came to the Nats in the 2021 deadline deal that sent Yan Gomes and Josh Harrison the other way. He has since climbed his way up the minor league ladder, finishing last year at Double-A. Coming into this year, he was considered the club’s #25 prospect by Baseball America, who highlighted his defense but expressed concerns about his aggressiveness at the plate, with Millas having been punched out in 31.4% of his Double-A plate appearances last year.

He started this year back at Double-A and showed a great deal of improvement. In 99 plate appearances, he struck out at just a 16.2% clip and slashed .341/.455/.537, getting promoted to Triple-A in late May. FanGraphs then published its list of top prospects in the system in early June, bumping Millas up to the #6 spot. Since getting up to Triple-A, he’s taken 229 trips to the plate over 58 games. He drew walks at a 11.4% rate and struck out at a 14.4% strikeout clip while hitting .270/.362/.403 and will now get a bump to the majors.

The Nats will now have a three-catcher setup a tad earlier than usual, as such roster alignments are popular around the league when rosters expand in September. Millas will join Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams as the club’s catching trio for the time being, perhaps for the remainder of the season. The club has been playing well of late but are still well below .500 and eight games out of a playoff spot, meaning they are still clearly focused on the future.

Ruiz is hitting around a league average rate this year but his defensive marks aren’t great, including -11 Defensive Runs Saved and negative grades for his framing from both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus. Nonetheless, he is fairly settled in as the club’s primary backstop, having signed an eight-year extension back in March. Adams is also graded poorly for his glovework but has a strong .278/.338/.489 batting line for the year. Most of that damage has come against lefties, as the right-handed hitter is slashing .349/.414/.603 with the platoon advantage. The Nats will have the final month-plus of the schedule to sprinkle playing time around to these three and determine how to proceed in future seasons.

As for Edwards, his transfer is little more than a formality. He’s already been on the injured list longer than 60 days, having landed there on June 21. He’s eligible to be reinstated whenever he’s healthy, but that isn’t likely to be in the near future as he was recently diagnosed with a stress fracture in his throwing shoulder and shut down.

NL East Notes: Robertson, Albies, Nationals

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When the Marlins shipped a pair of intriguing young prospects to New York in order to acquire veteran right-hander David Robertson from the Mets, it was a statement of intent to contend by Miami, as they acquired perhaps the top rental reliever available at this year’s trade deadline. It was Robertson’s second time being dealt at the deadline in as many years, as the 38-year-old veteran was swapped from the Cubs to the Phillies in exchange for pitching prospect Ben Brown 13 months ago. Sporting a 2.23 ERA in 40 1/3 innings of work at the time of that deal, Robertson went on to post similarly excellent numbers in Philadelphia with a 2.70 ERA in 22 regular season appearances down the stretch and just one run allowed in his eight postseason appearances as the Phillies headed to the World Series for the first time since 2009.

At the time of this year’s deal, Robertson was having an even better season, with a 2.05 ERA in 44 innings of work with a 27.9% strikeout rate. Unfortunately for the Marlins, he hasn’t been the shutdown closer they were expecting in ten appearances with the club. He’s posted a brutal 7.20 ERA and 6.17 FIP in ten innings since joining Miami, with just four saves in seven chances. Those brutal results have led the Marlins to remove their veteran deadline addition from the closer role entirely, according to Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. Mish suggests Tanner Scott, who sports a 2.59 ERA and 2.12 FIP in 59 innings of work this season, could replace Robertson as the club’s closer moving forward.

The move reflects the dire situation Miami finds itself in after a difficult August; at the time of the Robertson deal, the club was 54-49 and firmly in the mix for one of the NL Wild Card spots. Since then, the Marlins have gone just 12-16, falling to 65-64 and three games back of the third Wild Card spot. While that’s hardly an insurmountable deficit with more than a month to go in the season, the club is facing playoff odds of just 19.4% at this point per Fangraphs, far worse than their 49.3% odds on the day of the Robertson deal.

More from the NL East…

  • Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies has been on the 10-day injured list since earlier this month with a hamstring strain, but could already be nearing a return. Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution relayed an update regarding Albies this evening, indicating that Atlanta will “see just how well he feels” tomorrow after a successful workout this afternoon. When Albies is ready to go, it seems he’ll be activated from the injured list directly, as Toscano notes that manager Brian Snitker has previously indicated the infielder won’t require a rehab assignment before returning to action. Albies, who sports a 121 wRC+ in 510 trips to the plate this season, has been covered for by Nicky Lopez and Vaughn Grissom at the keystone while he’s been on the shelf.
  • The Nationals announced this afternoon that the club had optioned outfielder Blake Rutherford to Triple-A. Rutherford, a 26-year-old journeyman and former first-round pick by the Yankees who made his MLB debut with Washington earlier this month, slashed just .182/.206/.182 in 34 trips to the plate with the Nationals prior to his demotion. Rutherford’s demotion sparked rumors regarding who would replace him on the active roster, with both Bobby Blanco and Mark Zuckerman of MASN indicating that the club could look to promote catching prospect Drew Millas. Millas, the club’s 23rd-best prospect per MLB Pipeline, is a defensive-first catcher who has impressed with the bat this season, batting .291/.390/.442 in 328 trips to the plate this season between the Double-A and Triple-A levels.

Nationals Option Luis García, Release Corey Dickerson

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The Nationals announced after today’s game that they have requested unconditional release waivers on outfielder Corey Dickerson and optioned infielder Luis García to Triple-A Rochester. The corresponding moves haven’t been announced but Talk Nats reports that outfielder Blake Rutherford will be selected to the roster for one of them. Infielder Jeter Downs will be recalled for the other, per Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post.

García, 23, was once a top 100 prospect but has continually struggled to hit in the big leagues. Dating back to the 2020 season, he’s appeared in 302 games and taken 1,169 plate appearances, coming into today’s action. He’s mustered a batting line of .263/.291/.388 in that time, which amounts to a wRC+ of 82. That includes a .260/.294/.363 showing this year, translating to a 74 wRC+.

Those numbers are especially concerning since his hit tool was supposed to be his standout feature as a prospect. Advanced defensive metrics don’t like his glovework at second base much, with García having tallied -2 Defensive Runs Saved there in his career, along with -14 Outs Above Average and a grade of -6.5 from Ultimate Zone Rating. His numbers at shortstop are worse.

The Nats will now send him back to Triple-A to get more work there, though he has little to prove at that level. In 82 games there in his career, he’s hit .306/.368/.554 but hasn’t been able to replicate that at the big league level. He’ll now try to get back in a groove and earn himself another chance.

From a service time perspective, he began this year with one year and 164 days of service. He’s already gone well past the two-year mark but his chances of reaching Super Two status at the end of the this year could go down, depending on how long he’s out. Perhaps more importantly, he has just one option year remaining. Once he spends 20 days on optional assignment, he’ll burn that last option here in 2023 and be out of options going into 2024. The Nats will likely still be rebuilding next year and could give him another shot, though his grasp on a roster spot would likely be more tenuous at that point.

As for Dickerson, 34, it’s hardly a surprise to see him lose his roster spot now. He was one of a handful of veterans that the Nats brought in over the winter on one-year deals to serve as veteran mentors and hopefully become trade chips. Jeimer Candelario showed the best-case scenario as he mashed and was able to be flipped to the Cubs for a couple of prospects. But Dickerson has hit just .252/.285/.357 for the year, producing a wRC+ of 71 that would be a career low for him. Now that the deadline has passed, the club will use his roster spot to give a chance to other players with a greater chance to help in future seasons.

One of those players the Nats will get a look at will reportedly be Rutherford. The 26-year-old was a first round pick of the Yankees, getting selected 18th overall in 2016. He was considered a top 100 prospect going into 2017 before getting flipped to the White Sox that summer as part of a seven-player deal that sent Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle to the Yankees.

The Sox added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2019 to prevent him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft, but he didn’t hit much in the years to come and was eventually outrighted off the roster, without getting a chance to make his major league debut. He cleared waivers in the process, meaning the other 29 clubs in the league had a chance to grab him and passed.

He reached free agency after last year, signing a minor league contract with the Nats in the winter and has seemingly been back in good form. He’s hit .345/.395/.583 in 62 games split between Double-A and Triple-A this year, producing a 153 wRC+. That’s obviously much better than his combined batting line of .262/.305/.399 from 2019 to 2022. The Nats will now give him a chance to see how he can handle major league pitching. If he succeeds, he still has no service time and can be retained for six seasons beyond this one. He also has an option year remaining, giving the club a bit of roster flexibility to use at some point.

White Sox Outright Blake Rutherford

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TODAY: Rutherford was outrighted to Triple-A after clearing DFA waivers, the Sox announced.

MARCH 29: The White Sox announced Tuesday that they’ve designated outfielder Blake Rutherford for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to fellow outfielder Adam Haseley, whose previously reported acquisition from the Phillies has now been formally announced.

In jettisoning Rutherford from the roster in exchange for Haseley, the Sox are swapping out one former first-round pick and top prospect for another. Rutherford, 24, was the 18th overall selection by the Yankees back in 2016. The Sox acquired him alongside Ian Clarkin and Tito Polo in the 2017 trade that sent David Robertson and Todd Frazier to the Yankees. Haseley was the eighth overall pick by the Phillies a year later in 2017.

Heading into the 2017 season, Baseball America ranked Rutherford as the No. 45 overall prospect in baseball, but he’s yet to deliver on the tools that made him a consensus first-rounder and a high-end prospect post-draft. The former prep standout turned in an impressive .293/.345/.436 batting line (120 wRC+) in a pitcher-friendly High-A setting back in 2018.

In two full seasons since that time, however, Rutherford has batted .265/.319/.365 in Double-A (98 wRC+) and .250/.286/.404 in Triple-A (80 wRC+). Along the way, he’s seen both his strikeout and walk rates trend in the wrong direction, ultimately drawing a free pass at just a 4.4% clip while fanning in 25% of his plate appearances in Triple-A Charlotte last year.

Rutherford has a minor league option remaining to Haseley’s two. He’s also yet to make his big league debut and has been used increasingly as a corner outfielder in recent years, while Haseley has had some big league success (2019) and is still viewed as a quality defensive option across all three outfield positions. The White Sox will have a week to trade Rutherford, place him on outright waivers or release him.

White Sox Announce 60-Man Additions

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The White Sox announced the addition of 16 players to their 60-man player pool Tuesday. They’ll all head to the team’s alternate camp site in Schaumberg, Ill. Today’s additions include (* = non-roster invitee):

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Outfielders

As Opening Day draws nearer, the White Sox will option additional players to their alternate camp site. There are currently 43 players in big league Summer Camp with the South Siders, and they’ll need to trim that number to 30 by the time the opener rolls around.

Today’s list of additions contains several notable names, including 2020 first-round pick Garrett Crochet, whom the Sox selected 13th overall out of the University of Tennessee. Farm director Chris Getz isn’t ruling out the possibility of Crochet making his MLB debut sometime this year, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score tweets.

Getz also spoke about another recent White Sox first-round pick in Zack Burdi, whom they took 26th in 2016, saying (via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times): ’We hope to build off how he finished major league camp. It’s the best we’ve seen him in a while. His last couple outings were very encouraging. It’s a special arm.”

Significant injuries have prevented the hard-throwing Burdi from realizing his potential or even reaching the bigs since the White Sox drafted him. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017, barely pitched the following year as a result, and then succumbed to a ligament tear in his patella last season. Burdi’s still a well-regarded relief prospect, though, and may have a chance to factor into Chicago’s bullpen this season.

Players Added To 40-Man Roster: American League

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We’re going to see a whole lot of players added to 40-man rosters in advance of tonight’s deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft. We will use this post to track those contract selections from American League teams that are not otherwise covered on the site.

AL West:

  • The Athletics made just one addition to the 40-man roster, righty Daulton Jefferies, which resulted in the DFA of righty Jharel Cotton (more on that move here).
  • The Rangers will add at least four players to their 40-man, per MLB.com’s TR Sullivan (via Twitter). Infielder Sherten Apostel, outfielder Leody Taveras, and hurlers Demarcus Evans and Tyler Phillips are all reportedly set to get a slot. Taveras is the most exciting name of this bunch; by the reckoning of some observers, he’s one of the club’s best prospects. Apostel came over in the Keone Kela trade. The two pitchers are upper-minors arms who could contribute in 2020.
  • There’s 40-man movement elsewhere in Texas as well. Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle tweets that the Astros have tacked on four players: Taylor Jones, Cristian Javier, Enoli Paredes, and Nivaldo Rodriguez. The last of those is the one that came from the farthest reaches of the prospect map (half a season of High-A ball); clearly, the ’Stros see him as an up-and-comer and were worried other teams would as well. Jones had a strong season at Triple-A and could fight for a bench spot. Javier and Paredes could be in the MLB bullpen mix after running up the farm ladder with high strikeout rates in 2019.
  • The Angels have selected second baseman/outfielder Jahmai Jones and lefty Hector Yan, according to the club. Both players (Jones – No. 6; Yan – No. 17) rank among the Angels’ top 20 prospects at MLB.com. The 22-year-old Jones is a 2015 second-rounder who spent the past two seasons at the Double-A level, where he hit .234/.308/.324 in 544 plate appearances in 2019. Yan, a 20-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, rose to Single-A ball this past season and notched a 3.39 ERA/3.17 FIP with a whopping 12.22 K/9 against 4.29 BB/9 over 109 innings.

AL Central:

AL East:

  • Infielder Santiago Espinal and righty Thomas Hatch were the Blue Jays’ pair of roster additions on Wednesday. Toronto jettisoned Tim Mayza and Justin Shafer from the 40-man roster in a pair of corresponding moves, as explored at greater length here.
  • The Orioles announced that they’ve selected the contracts of left-hander Keegan Akin, right-hander Dean Kremer, infielder/outfielder Ryan Mountcastle and outfielder Ryan McKenna. Mountcastle, a former first-rounder, has long been considered among the organization’s most promising minor leaguers. Akin posted a down year in Triple-A in 2019 but has generally been successful and is viewed as a near-MLB ready arm.
  • The Red Sox have added infielders C.J. Chatham and Bobby Dalbec, outfielder Marcus Wilson, and lefties Kyle Hart and Yoan Aybar to their 40-man, the team announced.The most hyped farmhand there is Dalbec, whom MLB.com ranks as the Red Sox’s second-best prospect. The 24-year-old reached the Triple-A level for the first time in 2019 after obliterating Double-A pitching, and he posted a .257/.301/.478 line with seven home runs and 29 strikeouts against just five walks over 123 trips to the plate.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Bautista, Yankees, Rutherford

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With the Red Sox looking far and wide for third base help, a couple of creative solutions are proposed by ESPN’s Scott Lauber and FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (writing on his Facebook page).  Lauber suggests that Boston could explore a deal for the Athletics’ Yonder Alonso (14 games as a third baseman over his eight-year MLB career) while Rosenthal’s suggestion is perhaps even more outside-the-box: the Tigers’ Ian Kinsler, who has played all of two innings at third in his 12 years in the Show.  Both suggestions, it should be noted, are based on only speculation from the two writers.  Rosenthal reports that the Red Sox and Tigers haven’t mentioned Kinsler in trade talks between the two clubs, while WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford (Twitter link) reports that Boston isn’t considering Alonso to fill its third base gap.  Still, as per Rosenthal, Dombrowski is apparently considering several infielders who could switch positions and play third, so the Sox might yet end up with a unique choice before the deadline.

Some more from around the AL East…

  • The Blue Jays have received “some feelers” about Jose Bautista, ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports (Twitter links).  Much of Toronto’s trade discussions to this point have focused around their pending free agents (i.e. Marco Estrada, Francisco Liriano, Joe Smith) though Bautista probably falls into this category as well, since the Jays seem unlikely to exercise their half of a $17MM mutual option for 2018.  Bautista’s production has fallen off this season, as the veteran slugger is hitting just .227/.340/.402 with 16 homers over 415 PA.  A trade is further complicated by Bautista’s trade veto rights as a 10-and-5 player, though one would think he would be interested in joining a contender.
  • The Yankees’ seven-player trade with the White Sox may be New York’s only really big move before the deadline, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes.  The Yankees are still looking for a left-handed hitting first baseman and lefty reliever, though “they do not appear to have urgency in those areas,” and certainly not to the degree it would take to move a significant prospect to address either need.  After missing out on Jose Quintana, the Yankees also don’t look like they’re willing to give up a notable prospect package to acquire a starter, since they were particularly enamored with Quintana’s durability and team-friendly contract.  While New York has been linked to Sonny Gray, Sherman reports that Gray’s injury history is a concern for the Yankees.  Similar concerns also scuttled the Yankees’ interest in Sean Doolittle before the Athletics dealt Doolittle to the Nationals.
  • Also from Sherman, he spoke to five rival personnel men who felt the Yankees made a very good move in swinging the Todd Frazier/David Robertson/Tommy Kahnle deal with the White Sox.  Blake Rutherford, the outfield prospect who headlined the minor league package sent to Chicago, received less-than-stellar reviews from the five executives, who questioned Rutherford’s power potential and his ability to stay as a center fielder.  One NL executive felt the Yankees may have sold high on Rutherford “when the buzz was still good” about his potential.  Incidentally, Sherman reports that Rutherford was also part of the Yankees’ offer to the White Sox for Quintana.

Yankees Acquire Todd Frazier, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle In Seven-Player Deal

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The White Sox and Yankees have agreed to a blockbuster deal that will send Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle to New York in exchange for outfield prospect Blake Rutherford, left-handed pitching prospect Ian Clarkin, outfield prospect Tito Polo and veteran right-hander Tyler Clippard. The White Sox have formally announced the deal.

Todd Frazier | Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

While Frazier has been primarily a third baseman in his career, he does bring 740 innings of experience at first base to the table. That’s a clear area of need for the Yankees, who have seen injuries ruin the seasons of Greg Bird and Tyler Austin, while offseason acquisition Chris Carter has been twice designated for assignment and now cut loose back to the open market. The Yankees could deploy Frazier at first base with regularity or put him at third and slide Chase Headley across the diamond, where even his modest production would be an upgrade.

The 31-year-old Frazier is set to hit free agency at season’s end, and while his production this year hasn’t been up to par, he’s turned things on since the the calendar flipped to June. Over his past 37 games, Frazier has batted .234/.361/.508 with nine homers and eight doubles. For a Yankees team that has seen its first basemen bat a collective .208/.295/.391, even Frazier’s overall .207/.328/.432 batting line represents a marked improvement, but if he can sustain his recently increased production, it’ll be a particular boon for manager Joe Girardi’s lineup.

And, in fact, there are plenty of signs that point to some positive regression for Frazier. The slugger has upped his walk rate to a career-high 14.3 percent in 2017 while also cutting his strikeout rate by more than three percent — from 24.5 percent in 2016 to 21.2 percent in 2017. Beyond that, Frazier has cut his infield-fly rate and seen increases in his line-drive and hard-contact rates. As such, it stands to reason that he could continue to improve upon a .214 batting average on balls in play that is currently the second-worst mark among all qualified Major League hitters. Frazier is earning $12MM in 2017, and there’s about $4.92MM of that sum remaining on his contract.

[Related: Updated New York Yankees depth chart and Chicago White Sox depth chart]

Robertson, of course, is a known commodity to the Yankees. The righty spent the first seven years of his career in the Bronx, working to an excellent 2.81 ERA with 12.0 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9. Most of his career in New York was spent setting up for future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera, but Robertson thrived in the ninth-inning spotlight in his final season with the Yanks (following Rivera’s retirement), setting him up to sign a four-year, $46MM contract that was at the time one of the five largest contracts ever inked by a reliever.

David Robertson | Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Now 32 years of age, Robertson is halfway through the third year of that contract and is in the midst of his best season with the Sox. Through 33 1/3 innings on Chicago’s South Side, Robertson has worked to a 2.70 earned run average with 12.7 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and an even 40.0 percent ground-ball rate. Like Frazier, Robertson is still owed $4.92MM of a $12MM salary this season. He, however, is signed through next year and is set to earn $13MM in 2018.

As for Kahnle, the 27-year-old was also once property of the Yankees, having risen through their minor league ranks before eventually making his big league debut in Colorado. The flamethrowing righty has long displayed a propensity for missing bats, but he’s taken that skill to new heights in 2017 while also dramatically slashing his walk rate. Through 36 innings in 2017, Kahnle has posted a ridiculous 15.0 K/9 rate to go along with a 41.1 percent grounder rate. The resulting 2.50 ERA looks impressive on its own, but metrics like FIP (1.47), xFIP (1.63) and SIERA (1.62) all feel that he may actually be unfortunate to be sporting an ERA even that high.

Further adding to Kahnle’s value is that he very much comes with long-term potential. If this proves to be a breakout rather than an aberration, he’d be controllable through the 2020 season via the arbitration process. Kahnle entered the year with just over two years of big league service time, so he’ll wrap up the 2017 campaign with three-plus years of service and be arbitration-eligible for the first time.

Tommy Kahnle | Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

Adding Robertson and Kahnle to a bullpen that already features both Aroldis Chapman and Dellin Betances gives the Yankees a powerhouse relief corps to work with not only in 2017 but also through at least 2018, after which Robertson will be eligible for free agency. That group will be joined by an excellent multi-inning weapon in the form of Adam Warren as well as 26-year-old Chad Green, who is in the midst of his own breakout season — one that closely resembles that of Kahnle (1.75 ERA, 12.3 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 in 36 innings). Chasen Shreve is in the midst of a solid season and seems likely to stick as a left-handed option.

Clippard’s inclusion in this deal is primarily a means of offsetting some of the salary that the Yankees are taking on. Signed to a two-year, $12.25MM deal prior to the start of the 2016 season (by the D-backs), Clippard was a solid midseason pickup for New York last year but has struggled to a 4.95 ERA this year thanks to a recent spike in his home run rate. He’s still owed about $2.5MM of this season’s $6.125MM salary, so his inclusion will negate about a quarter of the $9.85MM that the Yankees are adding to their 2017 payroll in acquiring Frazier and Robertson. He’ll also give the ChiSox a veteran option at the back of a very inexperienced bullpen.

Clippard’s inclusion may have helped sway the Yankees into parting with a bit more in a what is essentially a three-player package that is headlined by Rutherford. The 20-year-old Rutherford was New York’s first-round pick in 2016 (No. 18 overall) and is off to a .281/.342/.391 start with Class-A Charleston. While those numbers don’t immediately jump out, he ranked as the game’s No. 36 overall prospect on Baseball America’s midseason update less than two weeks ago.

Rutherford entered the year as MLB.com’s No. 30 overall prospect, though his unspectacular start to the season may well cause that ranking to dip a bit. (He did not, for instance, rank on the midseason Top 50s of ESPN’s Keith Law or Baseball Prospectus.) Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo noted that he has the potential to hit for average and power, though their report notes that he’s likely to end up in an outfield corner — probably left field due to an arm that is more average than great.

The Yankees dealt from an area of depth in moving Rutherford, as Aaron Judge has cemented himself in right field, while Clint Frazier is doing his best to cement himself as a big leaguer right now. Beyond that, Aaron Hicks is controlled through 2019, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner both remain under contract, and the team is obviously hoping for a full recovery from Dustin Fowler, who suffered a severe knee injury in his MLB debut.

Clarkin, meanwhile, ranked 19th in a stacked Yankees farm system this winter, per Callis and Mayo, while ESPN’s Keith Law had him 13th. peg him as a possible mid-rotation starter if all goes according to plan, praising a fastball that sits 90-93 mph and reaches 95 mph. Clarkin commands the pitch well, and Baseball America gives him a chance to have an above-average curveball. He’s repeating Class-A Advanced and has impressed with a 2.61 ERA, 7.1 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a 53.7 percent ground-ball rate. With 175 1/3 innings under his belt in High-A, the former first-round pick (No. 33 overall, 2013) could conceivably be in line for a promotion to Double-A this summer.

Polo, 22, is hitting .298/.358/.446 with five homers, 13 doubles, seven triples and 25 steals through 316 plate appearances between Class-A Advanced and Double-A this season. The former Pirates farmhand went to the Yankees as part of last season’s Ivan Nova trade with Pittsburgh but didn’t crack the team’s top 30 prospects this offseason.

Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago first tweeted that the Yankees were the “closest” team to landing this trio. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports said a deal was “very close” (on Twitter). USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that Rutherford was the headliner (on Twitter). Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that Clarkin was in the deal (Twitter link). MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported that the White Sox would take back Clippard and his contract (also via Twitter). Sherman added that there was no additional cash changing hands. Levine tweeted that there was a fourth player in the deal.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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