Yankees Select Brady Lail And Joe Mantiply, Transfer Stanton To 60-Day IL
9:53 am: Tarpley is set to undergo an MRI on his balky elbow, tweets Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.
9:15 am: The Yankees announced a correction to Tarpley’s injury. He suffered a left elbow impingement, not a shoulder impingement as previously reported.
7:46 am: The Yankees announced today they have selected the contracts of relievers Joe Mantiply and Brady Lail. To create 40-man roster space, the club has transferred Giancarlo Stanton to the 60-day injured list. Infielder Breyvic Valera was optioned to Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre, while left-hander Stephen Tarpley was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left shoulder impingement, opening up active roster spots.
New York just acquired Mantiply from the Reds on Friday. While the acquisition was swung after the hard July 31 deadline, Mantiply was still eligible to be traded because he initially signed a minor-league contract with Cincinnati. The left-hander threw a solid 29 innings in a long relief role for the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate before the trade and will get his second big league crack, having previously pitched five games for the Tigers in 2016.
It’ll be the first MLB go-round for Lail, who turned 26 on Friday. The Yankees’ 18th-round pick out of high school in 2012, Lail hasn’t been among the club’s top 30 farmhands since 2015, per Baseball America, and he went unselected in the Rule V draft last offseason. That said, Lail pitched to a 1.93 ERA with a 36.9% strikeout rate in Double-A this season. Like Manitply, he’s worked multiple innings in the minors and gives the club some long relief depth.
Stanton’s transfer to the 60-day IL is more of a formality than an indicator of any new health problems. He was already known to be out until September, and because his initial 10-day IL placement occurred June 26, he’ll be eligible to return August 26. With a commanding lead in the AL East and stunning production from their fill-in options, the club will surely be cautious with the star slugger.
The club didn’t announce a timetable for Tarpley’s return. The 26 year-old has served as optionable bullpen depth himself this season, pitching dreadfully in the majors- to an 8.24 ERA- but putting up solid results in Scranton. As James Wagner of the New York Times notes, he becomes the 27th different pinstriped player to hit the IL this season, making the club’s 76-41 record all the more remarkable.
Valera, a May waiver claim most notable for his defensive abilities in the infield, has been used sparingly at the big league level this season, but has raked in Triple-A. He’s hitting .328/.402/.532 with more walks than strikeouts for the RailRiders. He’s also bounced around in trade over the past few years, indicating multiple teams view him as a quality depth piece.
Yankees Activate Gary Sanchez, Recall Stephen Tarpley, Place Jonathan Holder On IL
Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez will be activated from the injured list today in Toronto, per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (via Twitter). The club’s PR department has announced the move as well.
Sanchez is in the midst of another strong season when healthy behind the plate. The nuances of Sanchez’s contributions are self-evident in his power-heavy .229/.299/508 batting line. On-base struggles notwithstanding, Sanchez remains one of the more potent catchers in the game, and his position means his power contributions are of slightly more unique to New York than those of other Yankees’ mashers. Backup Austin Romine has been a surprisingly fair facsimile while hitting .265/.290/.426, but it’s still a position without a ton of reliable depth. This was Sanchez’s second stint on the injured list this season.
Kyle Higashioka was optioned to Scranton Wilkes-Barre to make room. Higashioka, 29, hasn’t seen a ton of playing time, but he has stood in ably when given the opportunity: .256/.250/.590 across just 40 plate appearances.
Left-hander Stephen Tarpley will also be joining the big league club from Triple-A. Tarpley has made 15 appearances with the big league club with an 8.31 ERA/6.56 FIP across 17 1/3 innings. Big league hitters have launched against the 26-year-old Arizona native for 13.5 hits and 2.6 home runs per nine innings. It’s a small sample so far this season for Tarpley, who made the ALDS roster last year after 10 strong outings in September.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Holder was placed on the 1o-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation. Despite strong peripherals (10 K/9 to 2.4 BB/9, 4.18 K/BB), Holder has struggled to keep the ball in the yard at times, blowing his ERA up to 6.31 (4.45 FIP) across 34 appearances. The 26-year-old has been a steady contributor the last two season for the Yankees – 3.42 ERA over 97 games in 2017 and 2018 – so there’s a fair amount of flukiness in the unusually high number of runs allowed.