August 30th, 2022: Cortes, Chapman, Britton, German, Weissert, September Call Ups

At best, the Yankees will go 11-17 (.393) in August. It will be their worst month since going 8-14 (.364) in April 2016. It looked like the Yankees were turning things around last week, then they no-showed the last three games, which is a harsh reminder they still have a few too many problem areas. Let’s get to today’s post.

1. More pitcher injuries. The Yankees went April and most of May without a player suffering a new injury. Now they seem to lose a pitcher a series. Even with Clay Holmes returning Monday, the Yankees have 11 pitchers on the injured list, no fewer than seven of whom would be on the MLB roster no questions asked if they were healthy. Lots and lots of injuries. Here’s the latest.

Cortes strains groin

Right as the last post went live, the Yankees placed Nestor Cortes on the 15-day injured list with a left groin strain. He initially hurt it on the third pitch of last Sunday’s start against the Blue Jays, yet he stayed in to throw six innings of one-run ball against a powerful lineup. It wasn’t until the next day that Nestor really felt it, and the Yankees had him checked out.

"During the game, I didn't think it was that big of a deal," Cortes told Sonja Chen. "Obviously, I wanted to compete and give my team the best chance possible, so I grinded through it. I didn't know how bad it was until the MRI. Even the next day, I thought it was okay, but the fact that I was limping, we needed the MRI.”

Cortes is playing catch and going through agility drills, so the strain can’t be that bad. Nestor will throw in the bullpen Wednesday and face hitters in Tampa this weekend. If that goes well, he could come off the injured list late next week. The injured list stint is backdated and Cortes is eligible to return Tuesday, Sept. 6th.

Two things about this. First, Cortes has thrown 131 innings this season, well over his previous career high (115 in 2018), so a little breather late in the season may not be the worst thing in the world. I’d rather the Yankees be able to give Cortes that breather on their own terms, but at least it’s not an arm injury. Coming out of this with a rejuvenated Nestor would be rather cool.

And second, the Yankees traded Jordan Montgomery and three Triple-A starters at the deadline (JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk, Hayden Wesneski), so they’re really thin on rotation depth right now. I’m glad Clarke Schmidt gets to make a few starts, and Cortes and Luis Severino are expected to return reasonably soon, but the Yankees are flying a little too close to the sun here:

1. Gerrit Cole (workhorse)
2. Frankie Montas (reliably eats innings)
3. Luis Severino (out with lat strain)
4. Nestor Cortes (out with groin strain)
5. Jameson Taillon (long injury history)
6. Domingo German (long injury history)
7. Clarke Schmidt (long injury history)
8. Uh, I guess Ryan Weber?

The best case has Cortes and Severino returning soon, and the Yankees having six starters for five rotation spots*. The worst case is someone else gets hurt and the Yankees have to go with Weber (or bullpen games or whatever) the next few turns through the rotation. Fortunately the division lead remains sizable. This would be more nerve-racking in a closer race.

* A six-man rotation in September could be a real possibility in that case, or maybe more like a 5.5-man rotation where one guy works long relief and makes occasional spot starts.

A little breather for Cortes isn’t a bad thing and Severino’s rehab is going well, and he is on track to return Sept. 12th, the first day he’s eligible to be activated. The Yankees are more or less at the limit of their rotation depth though. Things could get messy with another injury. This is the risk the Yankees took at the deadline to improve the team elsewhere.

"Hopefully it's not something that costs him more than a couple starts, and hopefully something maybe that serves him well and gives his body a little break," Aaron Boone told Chen. "He's up and moving already. I actually threw with him out here. He's doing agility drills. He's hitting the ground already in the rehab process, so hopefully it's not something that costs him too much time."

Chapman sidelined by infection

I thought it was odd Aroldis Chapman didn’t pitch in the 13-4 game last Thursday and now we know why: Chapman has an infection in his leg stemming from a new tattoo. He’s on antibiotics and has been resting at the hotel, away from the team. The Yankees were able to backdate the injured list stint a few days. Chapman is eligible to return Thursday, Sept. 8th.

"I don't have tattoos, I don't know. I mean, that's a personal choice, like usually a pretty safe thing to deal with,” Boone told Chen. “But this is more of an unfortunate situation that has turned into an infection, so I mean, my focus is on trying to get him right and healthy. Hopefully, he's good in several days, but we've got to get our arms around it and get the infection out of there. It's gotten a little bit worse over the last two days."

Getting an infection after a tattoo is uncommon and I seriously doubt Chapman, in a league full of 20-somethings with money, is the only player getting a tattoo in-season (Chapman told Chris Kirschner this isn't the first time he's gotten a tattoo during the season). Seems like a “that’s just bad luck” thing more than a “he was being irresponsible” thing. Either way, Chapman will miss a little while, though Boone says the Yankees expect him back this season.

I think the big takeaway is that, similar to the Cortes injury and the rotation, the Yankees are at the limit of their bullpen depth. Chapman went on the injured list Saturday and the Yankees did not have anyone immediately available to replace him because they didn’t bring a taxi squad to the West Coast, and couldn’t get anyone to Oakland in time for Saturday’s game. They played with 25 players on the 26-man roster that night.

Maybe there’s a good reason for not bringing a few extra bodies on a long, far away trip. From where I sit, I don’t see why you’d skip on a taxi squad. The larger point is the Yankees are running short on pitching depth, hence the Anthony Banda signing Sunday (more on him in a bit). Their only healthy and call up eligible 40-man roster pitcher in the minors is Deivi Garcia, and he’s allowed 46 runs in 48.1 innings this season, so he’s not really an option.

Regardless of the reason, willingly playing down a man while in the middle of a not yet decided division race is a terrible look. It’s one thing to play shorthanded because Anthony Rizzo’s back is acting up and he’s day-to-day. It’s another to put someone on the injured list and play with 25 guys on your 26-man roster. I hope Chapman feels better soon. I also hope the Yankees stop being so apathetic. Playing even one game with a short roster when there are mechanisms in place to avoid exactly that is inexcusable, man.

Britton suffers minor setback

Zack Britton made his second minor league appearance with Low-A Tampa on Saturday night and he packed a lot into 10 pitches. He gave up an infield single, a ground ball single back up the middle, got a 4-3 double play, and exited with an injury. Fortunately his arm is healthy. Britton left with a cramp in his glute and he’s expected to continue his rehab stint this week.

“It’s hot and humid down here,” Britton told Dan Martin (Zack also tweeted about it). “Arm feels great though. Whole body is getting back into playing shape.”

The radio broadcast said Britton stopped mid-delivery, dropped the ball, kicked it in frustration, and exited with the trainer. When I heard that, I was hopeful it wasn’t his arm because he didn’t actually throw a pitch, and fortunately it’s just a leg cramp. Good reminder Tommy John surgery rehab isn’t just about the elbow. It’s getting the entire body ready. Drink more fluids, Zack.

Prior to this little setback Boone told Martin he believes Britton will need 8-9 rehab appearances before rejoining the Yankees. An aggressive rehab (which this has been) with one day between rehab games would have put Britton on track to return the week of Sept. 12th. Figure this slows him down some, and he gets a little extra rest at some point, and maybe it’s the week of Sept. 19th? Even if it’s the week of Sept. 26th, the Yankees would still have 10 games to play.

Also, I didn’t learn this until last week, but apparently Britton did not have full blown Tommy John surgery. He had a relatively new ligament repair procedure in which they use suture tape to repair the existing ligament rather than replace it outright. If the ligament snaps, then you're out of luck and need Tommy John surgery, but if it’s a small enough partial tear, the suture tape procedure is an option.

Bryan Hoch provided the details a few weeks ago, and while it’s since been squeezed out of the update on MLB.com, Thomas Carannante preserved it:

Manager Aaron Boone said on June 7 that Britton threw a bullpen session ‘the other day,’ but the left-hander is still ‘a ways out.’ Britton will throw another bullpen in a few days. He needs several sessions, according to Boone, and there is optimism he could return this season. Britton underwent left elbow surgery on Sept. 8, a procedure that used suture tape — an alternative to Tommy John surgery — and was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles. He began a flat-ground throwing program in February.

Well, that helps explain Britton being able to expedite his rehab. He’s not breaking in a new ligament. The benefits of the suture tape are a less invasive procedure and a shorter rehab. I mean, it’s still a long rehab, but 12 months is better than 14-16 months, maybe more in some cases. Good news it was just a leg cramp this week. I’m not counting on Britton to provide anything this year, but I certainly hope he’s at least an option at some point.

2. Weekend thoughts. It was hard to tell which team is actively trying to drive fans away this past weekend, wasn’t it? Considering the quality of the competition, one hit in a 17-inning span against the Athletics is far, far worse than going hitless in 16 straight innings against the Astros. Splitting a four-game series with an A’s team not even pretending to compete, especially after winning the first two games, is straight up unacceptable. Garbage baseball from a team that has been playing garbage baseball for too many weeks now. Here are a few thoughts on the last few games now that Lou Trivino found the correct jersey.

Domingo’s dominance

Shoutout to Domingo German. I didn’t expect much when he came off the injured list following his latest shoulder issue and he did get smacked around in Houston in his season debut, but he has been arguably the Yankees’ best starter the last few weeks. German has a 2.08 ERA (3.38 FIP) in his last six starts and 34.2 innings. Yeah, the A’s stink, but he faced the Mariners, Cardinals, Red Sox (in Fenway Park), Rays, and Mets in the previous five starts. That ain’t easy.

"When you're coming back from an injury and you've been gone for quite some time, you have doubts because you don't know how you're going to come back," German told Sonja Chen after Saturday’s game. "But the work that I've been able to do in between starts, working on the sharpness of the pitches, being able to mature as a pitcher, I think, has allowed me to get the results from all that work, and I think every outing I've been able to do that."

There are differences (some not so small) between pre-injury 2021 German and post-injury 2022 German. He is throwing slightly fewer fastballs in favor of more curveballs and sliders, but nothing that can’t be explained by normal fluctuation. These 2021 to 2022 changes stand out more:

• Fastball velocity: 93.4 mph to 92.9 mph
• Strikeout rate: 23.9% to 17.8%
• Swinging strike rate: 14.4% to 9.7%
• Ground ball rate: 42.2% to 36.9%
• Average exit velocity: 89.4 mph to 89.5 mph
• Barrel rate: 7.8% to 6.9%

Those declines are enough to push the rates from league average (or even a bit better than that) to below average. The strikeout and ground ball rate declines are significant, especially with no improvement in contact quality. For all intents and purposes, hitters are hitting the ball against German the same way as last year, and now they’re putting it in play way more often.

The velocity decline isn’t huge and can be explained by the shoulder injury and long layoff, and maybe German is still building arm strength. It feels like something has to give with all the other stuff though. Either German starts getting more weak contact (preferably on the ground) or striking out more batters (or both!), or the ERA will rise. Not sure “let hitters put a lot of balls in play with average exit velocity” will lead to much more than back-end starter results, particularly with a home run happy home ballpark.

For now though, German has been excellent over the last month or so, and against some very good teams too. He’s been excellent and efficient. German needed only 79 pitches to get through a career high 7.2 innings against the A’s, and he’s averaged only 14.5 pitches per inning in August. The MLB average is 16.5 pitches per inning. Good work, Domingo.

Bullet dodged with Trevino

Hoo boy did the Yankees avoid disaster with Jose Trevino’s injury. Trevino took a 94.1 mph Jared Koenig fastball to the right foot (it is the fastest pitch Koenig has thrown this season by 0.6 mph) and with the way he hopped around and limped afterward, I thought something was broken. Thankfully x-rays came back negative and it’s just a bad bruise.

“We feel fortunate we dodged something serious,” Aaron Boone told Dan Martin on Saturday and yeah, I’d say they’re fortunate.

Between his bat and his glove, Trevino is high on the list of the most indispensable Yankees. He went into Monday’s game hitting .271/.309/.429 (111 wRC+) at a time when the average catcher is hitting .229/.297/.368 (89 wRC+), and while I don’t fully trust catcher defense stats, this is something else:

1. Jose Trevino, Yankees: +17 DRS
2. Adley Rutschman, Orioles: +13 DRS
3. Cal Raleigh, Mariners: +11 DRS
4. J.T. Realmuto, Phillies: +8 DRS
5. Several tied at +7 DRS

I’d argue the drop-off from Trevino to his replacement (Kyle Higashioka and his .240 OBP) is larger than the drop-off from any other non-Aaron Judge player on the roster to his replacement. Maybe the drop-off from Andrew Benintendi to Aaron Hicks is larger, but eh. I think Trevino is better at catcher-ing than Benintendi is a corner outfielder-ing, if that makes sense.

Anyway, the point is losing Trevino for any length of time would have been devastating. He has been a godsend and a revelation this year. The best move the Yankees made this past offseason and I don’t think it’s even close.

Rizzo on the mound?

I thought there was a chance, albeit a very small one, Boone would put Anthony Rizzo on the mound for an inning when the Yankees were up 13-1 in the seventh inning against the Athletics last Thursday. Alas, it did not happen, possibly because Greg Weissert’s rough debut turned it into a slightly less comfortable 13-4 game in the bottom of the seventh.

Rizzo has been begging Boone to let him pitch all season and position player pitchers are at an all-time high, so much so that they’re pitching in wins. Infielder Hanser Alberto has pitched six times this year – six! – and all six times came with the Dodgers leading (the average margin of victory is 10.5 runs in those six games). Teams are really pushing the envelope with position player pitchers, eh?

Here are the number of position player pitching appearances in a win over the last few years, not including Shohei Ohtani, Brooks Kieschnick (the OG two-way guy), and Rick Ankiel:

• 2022: 14
• 2020-21: 0
• 2019: 5
• 2000-18: 7
• 1969-99: 0

There have been a few “position player pitches in a win because it’s an emergency” situations in recent years, like Phillies infielder Wilson Valdez getting a win in a 19-inning game in 2011, or Orioles utility man Stevie Wilkerson getting a save (!) in a 16-inning game in 2019. It also happened twice (Shane Halter in 2000 and Andrew Romine in 2017) because someone did the “play all nine positions in one game” bit.

Anyway, more position players have pitched in a win in 2022 than 1969-2021 combined. The last Yankees position player to pitch in a win was Rocky Colavito in 1968, and there’s a story behind that. Boone is pretty risk averse and has only used a position player to pitch three times as Yankees manager: Austin Romine in the 2018 ALDS and July 2019, and Mike Ford in Aug. 2019. All three were in extreme blowout losses. The average score of those three games was 18-3.

Teams are increasingly comfortable using position players to pitch in a win and I know Rizzo has been on Boone all year about getting on the mound (he once struck out Freddie Freeman, you know), and I thought maybe he’d relent with a big lead in a pitcher friendly ballpark against a very bad lineup. No dice. The only logical conclusion is Boone hates fun.

Weissert’s rough debut

Think Greg Weissert, this year’s breakout Triple-A reliever, was nervous in his big league debut Thursday? He hit batters with his first two pitches and managed to sandwich a balk in there. His night went hit batter, balk, hit batter, fly out, walk, walk. Weissert threw only five of his 15 pitches for strikes.

“I’m okay. I sat down and recognized last night, I looked back and saw that I was moving a little fast. I wasn’t stepping off and just taking a breath and just kind of taking it all in. I was letting it get on top of me a little bit,” Weissert told Janie McCauley on Friday. “But I’m anxious to get back out there and kind of right my wrongs and leave a better impression on everybody the next time. I was obviously a little nervous with the anticipation of everything building up and all the years in the minor leagues – seven years – and the long inning right before, the whole buildup of it. I didn’t take a moment to just step back and kind of realize where I was and take it all in.”

The YES Network cameras caught Aaron Judge sitting next to Weissert and joking around with him following his rough debut, so nice leadership there, then Weissert bounced back with a solid outing Sunday. He retired all six batters he faced with three strikeouts. His slider, the pitch he made his name with in the minors, bumped 3,000 rpm. Touched 97 mph with the fastball too. Weissert wasn’t doing that last year. He was topping out around 93-94 mph.

A few weeks ago I said Weissert had likely done enough to earn a 40-man roster spot after the season, even if only so the Yankees could trade him rather than lose him for nothing as a minor league free agent. Now Weissert has a chance to pitch his way into the future plans. The bullpen has been decimated by injuries and innings are there for the taking. Weissert misses a ton of bats with the slider and the newfound velocity could be a game changer. His breakout is not quite as loud as Ron Marinaccio's last year, but their paths are similar.

Yankees sign Banda and Shreve

When I saw Tyler Duffey (Rangers) and Vinny Nittoli (Blue Jays) opted out of their minor league contracts Sunday, I wondered whether the Yankees would pounce. They didn’t even wait that long. A little later in the day the Yankees signed lefty Anthony Banda and put him directly on the big league roster. They also signed old buddy Chasen Shreve to a minor league deal.

Banda, 29, had some prospect shine a few years ago (he went to the Rays in the Brandon Drury three-team trade with the Diamondbacks in Feb. 2018) but he’s now on his fourth organization of 2022. He started the season with the Pirates, went to the Blue Jays in a cash trade in July, got released a few weeks later, then signed a minor league deal with the Mariners. Banda opted out last week and now he’s a Yankee.

"Anthony had an out in his deal with Seattle," Boone told Max Goodman. "It's somebody that I know our front office has had their eye on here for a little bit. He's  made some mechanical adjustments that hopefully are good ones for him and hopefully it can serve us well too."

Squint your eyes and there are things to like about Banda’s low spin changeup and the angle on his mid-90s four-seamer, but eh. This strikes me as a “we have a lot of injuries and need bodies and this guy’s freely available” move. I mean, Banda came to the Yankees having allowed 17 runs and 50 baserunners in 26 big league innings this season, and he didn’t exactly jump out in his Yankees debut Sunday. At some point you are what your numbers say you are.

As for Shreve, he allowed 19 runs and 39 baserunners in 26.1 innings with the Mets before they released him on July 8th. He’d been sitting around unsigned since then. Shreve is still the same fastball/splitter/sometimes slider guy he was with the Yankees, and at this point he’s just an arm for Triple-A Scranton. Their staff has been thinned by all the big league team's recent injury replacement call ups.

I’m not sure Banda makes it through September or Shreve gets called up period, but I guess I should note they are both eligible for the postseason roster. The postseason eligibility deadline is 11:59pm ET on Wednesday. It’s a hard deadline. If the player isn’t in the organization (not on the MLB roster necessarily, just in the organization) within 40 hours of this post going live, they can’t be on the postseason roster. The Yankees will have to make any additional moves soon.

(To clear a 40-man roster spot for Banda, the Yankees called up Luis Gil and put him on the 60-day injured list. He’ll get a few weeks of service time and big league pay, though it doesn’t change anything as far as his timeline for free agency or arbitration eligibility.)

Miscellany

Even when the results weren’t there during the homestand, I thought Oswaldo Cabrera’s at-bats were good, and now the results are coming. He is 7-for-20 (.350) with two doubles and a triple on the West Coast trip so far, and he hit three balls in Oakland that would have been homers at Yankee Stadium according to Statcast (video). Also, Cabrera went 25 plate appearances between strikeouts at one point, spanning his last at-bat of the Blue Jays series and his last at-bat of the A’s series. The kid has to be in the lineup every single game. He’s young with plenty of energy, so I don’t want to hear anything about the need for rest, and also versatile enough that finding a place to play him will never be an issue. One of the few non-Judge bright spots on offense … Trevino was charged with a catcher interference Friday night, the eighth of the season for the Yankees (Trevino and Higashioka have four each). Not only is that the most in baseball this year, Katie Sharp says it’s the most by any team in any season in the era of reliable play-by-play data for catcher defense, which dates back to the 1950s. Catcher interference has been creeping up all around baseball and my theory is it’s tied to framing. Catchers focus so much on presenting the pitch that they sometimes reach a little too far, and run into the bat. I dunno, just a theory. Either way, eight catcher interferences through 126 team games is wild. Remember when this used to happen once or twice a year? Somehow this is all Jacoby Ellsbury’s fault … And finally, I can’t help but feel bad for James Kaprielian. He is a shell of what he was with the Yankees and before all the injuries. There is more to life than Statcast profiles but this is unplayable:

For a short period of time in the 2016 Arizona Fall League, Kaprielian flashed top of the rotation upside with a 94-97 mph fastball and two swing and miss breaking balls. All sorts of elbow and shoulder injuries, including Tommy John surgery, have greatly subtracted from the quality of his stuff, and he’s mostly getting by on guts right now. Poor guy. That was a brutal outing Thursday (eight runs and 86 pitches in 2.2 innings).

3. Previewing September call ups. September is a few days away (how?) and soon teams will expand their active rosters to 28 players. They get one extra position player and one extra pitcher. That’s all. In the old days (i.e. 2019) teams could activate their entire 40-man roster in September. I wrote a thing at CBS defending September call ups in 2015. I think it holds up.

Rosters expand Thursday and it is mandatory. You didn’t have to activate extra players under the old rules. Now you must add the extra pitcher and position player. The Yankees have an off-day Thursday, so we won’t see their two extra players until Friday. They open a three-game series in Tampa that night. An annoyingly important series, that is.

In the old days teams would call up all the up and down players who went up and down all season. Now teams have to be picky, and whoever gets those extra roster spots on Sept. 1st isn’t a lock to keep them the rest of the season. Relievers will be swapped out as always. Maybe the bench players too depending on the team’s needs.

So, with all that in mind, let’s try to figure out who the Yankees could call up when rosters expand later this week, and also later this month as players (hopefully) get healthy.

Position Players

Well, we know who it won’t be later this week: Matt Carpenter or Harrison Bader. They’re weeks away from returning. Carpenter still isn’t putting any weight on his broken foot (he has to keep it elevated and use a scooter to get around) and Bader is up to only 85% body weight on the anti-gravity treadmill, according to Randy Miller. He’s making progress, but is still a ways away. We won’t see these two Friday.

Fortunately, the Yankees have plenty of call up candidates on the 40-man, and unless they surprise us with Oswald Peraza (or really surprise us with Everson Pereira), they’ll call up either Miguel Andujar or Tim Locastro. I can’t see Ben Rortvedt as a third catcher, and Estevan Florial’s 10-day waiting period expires Sunday. Even if they’re planning to recall Florial, the Yankees need someone in the interim, and Andujar and Locastro are the obvious choices.

Seeing how the 14th position player doesn’t figure to play much, my guess is it’ll be Locastro. His speed can be leveraged as a pinch-runner and he’s a better outfield defender than Andujar. The Yankees have not played Andujar anywhere other than left field in a long time, so he’s not really infield depth at this point. Locastro makes more sense as a pinch-runner specialist. I think it’ll be him.

Carpenter and Hader are expected back at some point, the latter before the former. The extra bench guy, whoever it ends up being, is just keeping the seat warm for Bader. At least that’s the hope. Carpenter is still a few weeks away. We’ll worry about his roster spot when he’s ready to return. Locastro as a placeholder for Bader seems most likely to me.

(The fact Locastro took Marwin Gonzalez’s roster spot when Marwin went on the paternity list Monday makes me feel pretty good about this. Gonzalez can spend up to three days on the paternity list, so the entire Angels series, meaning Locastro can simply stay with the Yankees and be the extra September position player when they begin the Rays series Friday.)

Pitchers

Things are more uncertain on the pitcher side because the Yankees have so many injured pitchers. The only healthy and call up eligible pitcher on the 40-man roster in the minors is Deivi Garcia, who’s allowed 46 runs in 48.1 minor league innings this year. The Yankees have 11 pitchers on the injured list and nine won’t be activated on Sept. 1st for various reasons:

• Albert Abreu: Not eligible to be activated until Sept. 5th.
• Scott Effross: Not eligible to be activated until Sept. 5th.
• Nestor Cortes: Not eligible to be activated until Sept. 6th.
• Aroldis Chapman: Not eligible to be activated until Sept. 8th.
• Miguel Castro: Not eligible to be activated until Sept. 11th.
• Luis Severino: Not eligible to be activated until Sept. 12th.
• Luis Gil, Chad Green, and Mike King: Done for the season.

The other two pitchers on the injured list, Zack Britton and Stephen Ridings, can be activated at any time, but they are still rehabbing season-long injuries and aren’t MLB options yet. Also, Luke Bard was sent down to clear a roster spot for Clay Holmes on Monday. Bard can’t be recalled until Sept. 12th because of the 15-day waiting period (15 days for pitchers, 10 for position players).

At minimum, the Yankees must call up a pitcher Friday to keep a seat warm for a few days until Abreu and/or Effross return, and likely longer than that. They were still in their shutdown periods as of Friday, according to Miller. The extra pitcher, whoever it ends up being, might hang around until Chapman returns. Maybe even until Severino returns. So, based on all that, I see three options for the extra pitcher when rosters expand later this week.

Just call up Deivi. Has he earned a call up? No. Is he a Major League pitcher right now? Almost certainly no. But Garcia is on the 40-man roster and thus represents the path of least resistance, so the Yankees could call him up and hide him in the back of the bullpen. With any luck they’ll run into a blowout win at some point (lol) and can use Deivi to eat up a few innings.

Add someone to the 40-man. Ryan Weber is the obvious candidate seeing how he’s been up and down a few times and can go multiple innings*, but maybe it’s Shane Greene or Chasen Shreve instead. Jimmy Cordero has pitched well with the RailRiders in his return from Tommy John surgery and could be another candidate. Point is, a non-40-man roster pitcher could get the call.

* Weber started for Triple-A Scranton on Sunday, lining him up perfectly to come up and give length right away on Friday.

How do you clear a 40-man spot for this pitcher? Designating Bard for assignment is the easiest move. He can’t be recalled until Sept. 12th anyway. Oswaldo Cabrera’s emergence has made Gonzalez expendable, though there is value in his versatility and the ability to leave him on the bench for days at a time. I assume Andujar is in the 40-man crosshairs too. Maybe even Deivi?

The Yankees have some 40-man flexibility at the moment. We just have to keep in mind Britton, Bader, and Severino are expected to return in September and they’ll need spots when they come off the 60-day injured list. Maybe Castro too. We can worry about that when the time comes. For now, I think cutting Bard and calling up Weber is more sensible than rolling the dice with Deivi.

Sign or claim someone. As noted earlier, the Yankees have about 40 hours from the time this post goes live to bring in players from outside the organization and have them be eligible for the postseason roster (the deadline is 11:59pm ET on Wednesday). I don’t think a notable addition is likely just because that’s always the case this time of year, but you never know.

The Angels released journeyman righty Jesse Chavez on Monday, specifically so the 39-year-old could hook on with a contender before the postseason eligibility deadline. Even at 39, he remains a competent last guy in the bullpen type, throwing 54.2 innings with a 3.62 ERA (3.29 FIP) and surprisingly good strikeout (25.6%) and walk (6.8%) rates this year. He’s rubber-armed and has experience in every role imaginable. When you have Anthony Banda in your bullpen, you can fit Chavez.

I looked at a few waiver claim salary dump candidates a few weeks back, most notably Rich Hill and Drew Smyly. Of course, they have to actually be put on waivers, and I don’t know if that will happen. Tyler Duffey (Rangers) and Vinny Nittoli (Blue Jays) recently opted out of their minor league deals and are available. The Red Sox just designated Austin Davis and Hirokazu Sawamura for assignment, though they may not hit waivers in time to be on the roster Friday.

Point is, these are the kinda players available at this point in the season. Guys like Duffey and Davis and Banda. So yes, the Yankees could always bring in someone from outside the organization to fill that extra pitcher spot later this week. If they do, it’s unlikely to be anyone meaningfully better than what they already have. It’ll just be another warm body for the stretch run.

Chapman, Cortes, and Severino could rejoin the Yankees fairly soon, meaning whoever comes up as the extra pitcher later this week may not stick around long. Banda and Greg Weissert are the candidates to go down when big league roster spots are needed (Banda is out of minor league options and would be designated for assignment, not optioned).

* * *

With the caveat that I generally don’t know what I’m talking about, Locastro and Weber or a similar non-40-man roster pitcher are most likely to be called up when rosters expand Friday. Locastro provides more as a bench guy than Andujar, and the only 40-man pitcher in the minors who is eligible to be called up is pretty much unrosterable (Deivi). Clearing a 40-man spot for Weber will be easy enough. I miss the days of mass call ups. A lot of players who could help the Yankees in September will be stuck in the minors. Sucks.

4. Mining the news. There are a couple bits of Yankees and Yankees-adjacent news out there I want to touch on, so let’s get to ‘em.

More on Torres for Lopez

As we know, the Yankees and Marlins discussed a Pablo Lopez trade prior to the deadline, with Miami bringing up Oswald Peraza, Gleyber Torres, and Anthony Volpe in talks. More details are beginning to trickle in. Ken Rosenthal (subs. req’d) says the Marlins proposed Peraza and Torres for Lopez and Miguel Rojas, a price the Yankees considered too steep.

The Yankees have had interest in Rojas in the past, but he’s signed at $5M next season, and he’s hit .250/.304/.364 (86 wRC+) with 12.9% strikeouts in close to 1,000 plate appearances the last two years. Defensively, he’s solid rather than spectacular at short. Don’t the Yankees already have almost the exact same player in Isiah Kiner-Falefa? Yes, they do, and that’s not a skill set they should look to replicate.

The Torres for Lopez framework is something the Yankees could look to revisit this offseason, especially since the Marlins are reportedly open to trading from their rotation depth (they'll listen on everyone except Sandy Alcantara and top prospect Eury Perez, supposedly). Jameson Taillon will be a free agent after the season and, as long as he finishes the year healthy (a big IF), I assume the Yankees will pick up their $15M club option for Luis Severino. In that case, next year’s rotation looks like this:

1. RHP Gerrit Cole (signed long-term)
2. RHP Frankie Montas (arb-eligible)
3. RHP Luis Severino (club option)
4. LHP Nestor Cortes (arb-eligible)
5. RHP Domingo German (arb-eligible)
6. RHP Clarke Schmidt (pre-arb)

Solid with a chance to be great, but there’s always room for improvement, and Lopez bumping German and Schmidt down the depth chart a peg would be neat. Also, the Yankees would get to keep Lopez in 2024, which will be nice when Montas and Severino hit free agency after 2023. You never have to try all that hard to see how another starter would fit, and that’s the case here.

Either because it’s the player’s fault or the team’s fault (likely a combination of both), Gleyber’s production has fallen well short of his talent level the last few years, and the Yankees have gotten burned badly by hanging onto young hitters too long in recent years. Miguel Andujar, Clint Frazier, and Gary Sanchez all saw their trade value evaporate. Torres is heading down that road.

The fact so many young Yankees hitters keep stalling out is very bad in the big picture, and while I don’t think that is the reason to trade Torres, it is part of the equation. Do we believe the Yankees can get the most out of Gleyber? It could happen, perhaps after a normal non-lockout offseason working with the new hitting coaches. I’d be lying if I said I feel confident.

And of course, trading Torres for Lopez would hardly be giving him away. Even beyond the developmental concerns, the Yankees are deep at the non-first base infield positions with Peraza and Volpe on track to join Kiner-Falefa, Oswaldo Cabrera, DJ LeMahieu, and the presumably untradeable Josh Donaldson next year. You don’t have to try hard to see things going bad with that group. You can also understand the Yankees trading from the infield to get help elsewhere.

My guess – I emphasize this is only a guess – is Gleyber’s days with the Yankees are nearing an end. I think the Yankees like their infield depth and believe it would be easier (i.e. cheaper) to add to it through free agency than adding another starting pitcher, and I also think they’re wary of watching another good young hitter go belly up and lose all value. Torres for Lopez didn’t happen at the deadline. Don’t be surprised if it pops up again this winter.

(Lopez has a 5.14 ERA in his last eight starts and a 4.61 ERA in five starts in August. If he did that after a trade to the Yankees, we’d hear it’s because he can’t handle New York. Because he did it while still with the Marlins, no one cares. Sometimes players have bad stretches and it has nothing to do with where they’re playing.)

MLBPA takes step to unionize minor leaguers

The MLBPA took an initial step toward unionizing minor leaguers over the weekend, the union announced. Long story short, they sent non-40-man roster players an authorization card, and if 30% sign it, there would then be a formal vote to unionize. A majority vote (there are over 5,000 minor leaguers under contract during the season) would force MLB to recognize the union according to National Labor Relations Board laws. This could be a watershed moment for baseball.

"Minor Leaguers represent our game's future and deserve wages and working conditions that befit elite athletes who entertain millions of baseball fans nationwide," MLBPA chief Tony Clark said in a statement. "They're an important part of our fraternity and we want to help them achieve their goals both on and off the field."

MLB has not commented on the MLBPA’s efforts to unionize minor leaguers, which is a bit surprising. Surely they knew this was coming, right? Bit weird the league hasn’t released even a token “we are gathering more information” statement, but whatever. The following has happened within the last few months and years:

• MLB agreed to pay $185M to settle a class action lawsuit in which minor leaguers were seeking pay for Spring Training, Extended Spring Training, and Instructional League.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee is exploring stripping MLB’s antitrust exemption with regards to minor leaguers. Commissioner Rob Manfred is expected to testify in front of the committee at some point.
• MLB successfully lobbied Congress to pass the “Save America’s Pastime Act,” allowing them to classify minor league players seasonal employees, and thus pay them below minimum wage.
• MLB eliminated 40 minor league teams in 2021 and they’re already looking to cut more roster spots. Further minor league contraction is part of their endgame.

To be fair to MLB, the league raised the minor league minimum wage last year and required teams to provide minor leaguers with housing this year, so conditions are improved in the minors. That said, they still aren’t great. The quality of the housing varies wildly from organization to organization, and salaries remain well south of minor leaguers in other sports. The minimum salaries:

• NFL practice squad: $11,500 per week (roughly $207,000 per year)
• NHL American Hockey League: $51,000 per year
• NBA G-League: $38,000 per year
• MLB Triple-A: $700 per week (roughly $18,200 per year)

So yeah, there’s still a lot of room for improvement, and without union representation, it will be difficult for minor leaguers to make meaningful gains. The MLBPA says its six-player executive board, which includes Zack Britton and Gerrit Cole, voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionizing minor leaguers. They’re putting their full weight behind this effort.

I’m no labor expert and, just from reading up on this, it sounds like the MLBPA’s involvement comes with good and bad. On one hand, minor leaguers were unlikely to ever successfully unionize without the MLBPA’s help. On the other hand, the interests of MLB players and minor leaguers don’t always align. One union bargaining on behalf of both parties could lead to some headaches and internal friction in the future. I guess we’ll see.

There’s a long way to go before minor leaguers are unionized (MLB will drag this out as long as possible) but the ball is rolling. MLB does not feel this way, but minor leaguers are an investment, not an expense. Improve the quality of their time in the minors and you’ll get better, more productive players down the road. That’s an easy plus for fans and baseball in general.

Sauer’s 17 strikeouts

Right-hander Matt Sauer, who I dropped out of my top 30 prospects list this year, had a whale of a start with Double-A Somerset last Thursday. He struck out 17 in eight innings of one-run ball and did it on only 95 pitches. 95 pitches and 75 strikes (79%). Sauer allowed two hits and did not walk a batter, and struck out 17 of 26 batters faced (65%). Here’s video.

Now for a few factoids. The 17 strikeouts are …

• … a Somerset franchise record. That includes their time as an independent league team. The franchise has been around since 1998.
• … the most in baseball this season, Majors or minors. The previous high was 14, done multiple times by multiple pitchers at multiple levels.
• … the most in the minors since Reds prospect Randy Wynne had 17 strikeouts on Aug. 20th, 2019. The last MLB pitcher with 17 strikeouts was Chris Sale on May 14th, 2019.

"I never thought a (franchise) record was on the table at all," Sauer told Ethan Sands. "I was just trying to go out there and do my job, throw strike one. This is only my third start at Double-A, so it's really a blessing and an honor that I was able to do this. I just want to keep it going for the rest of the year. I just got to build off of this."

Sauer, 23, has been good more than great this season, pitching to a 4.15 ERA (4.14 FIP) with a 29.0% strikeout rate and an 8.6% walk rate in 106.1 innings at mostly High-A (only 18 innings at Double-A so far). His strikeout rate was 26.8% prior to the 17-strikeout game, so that’s quite a jump after only eight innings. I guess a start like last Thursday’s will do that.

Neither MLB.com nor Baseball America (subs. req’d) included Sauer in their midseason top 30 Yankees prospects list. The Yankees like him, so much so that they paid him a $2.5M bonus as their second round pick in 2017, but enough to put him on the 40-man roster after the season? I dunno. They didn’t last year, but now Sauer is in Double-A and striking out 17 dudes in a game.

Overreacting to one game is no way to evaluate prospects and Sauer’s amazing 17-strikeout performance is just that. An amazing 17-strikeout performance. Even if he were on the 40-man bubble, I doubt that one game would push him onto the roster. Heck of an outing though. Nice reminder that even non-elite prospects are capable of amazing things.

MLB World Tour: Korea Series coming in November

Here’s a cool thing: MLB is sending a team of All-Stars to South Korea for a four-game exhibition series against Korean All-Stars in November, MLB and the Korea Baseball Organization announced last week. They’re calling it the MLB World Tour: 2022 Korea Series. Here’s the logo:

“South Korea’s rich baseball history and its knowledgeable, fun-loving and highly engaged fan base make it an ideal place to showcase our Major League Players as we continue expanding our game globally,” MLBPA senior director of player operations Leonor Colon said in a statement. “Among today’s elite Major League stars are first-class South Korean athletes who are also premier standouts in international tournaments like the World Baseball Classic.”

The exhibition series will help celebrate the KBO’s 40th anniversary, and it’ll be the first time MLB sends players to Korea since 1922. They’ll play two games at Sajik Stadium in Busan (home of the Lotte Giants) on Nov. 11th and 12th, and two games at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul (home of the Kiwoon Heroes) on Nov. 14th and 15th. (The World Series will end no later than Nov. 5th.)

MLB has sent an All-Star team to Japan for what is called the MLB Japan All-Star Series every few years since 1986, and they were about due for another one this year. The Japanese team won five of six in the most recent edition in 2018. MLB is trying to grow the game globally and Korea will be new territory. (There are games on the schedule for Paris in 2025!)

The 2022 Korea Series rosters will be announced in a few weeks and, based on the MLB Japan All-Star Series, we should use the term “All-Star” loosely. Guys like Vidal Nuno and Erasmo Ramirez were on the team MLB sent to Japan in 2018. There were legit stars on that team, most notably Ronald Acuna and Juan Soto, but it certainly wasn’t a true All-Star team.

I’m sure MLB would like to send a Yankee or two to Korea, but it’s not a given. The last Yankee to participate in the MLB Japan All-Star Series was Mike Myers in 2006, though Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams both went in 2002. Aaron Judge won’t do it and risk injury with his big free agent payday coming up. Maybe someone like Jose Trevino goes? We’ll find out soon enough.

(Send your requests for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com. The random Yankee series is on hiatus, but feel free to send in requests for when it returns.)