May 30th, 2022: Taillon, LeMahieu, Gallo, Greene, Prospects

The 23 games in 22 days stretch is over and the Yankees went 15-8. I would’ve happily signed up for that going into those 22 days. The Yankees split four games in Tampa this weekend with like 3.5 Major League hitters in their lineup, which is a good outcome, except they won the first two games and I’m annoyed they didn’t win the series. Sequencing matters. Speaking as a fan, I’d rather lose the first two and win the last two than the other way around even though it all counts the same. Whatever. Here are Tuesday morning’s thoughts Monday night since it’s an off-day.

1. Weekend thoughts. It is incredible how the Yankees never win any sort of trash talk battle. Following Thursday’s game Rays infielder Taylor Walls called the Yankees “very beatable,” and then he went out and beat the Yankees on Saturday (drove in the go-ahead run with a fielder’s choice) and Sunday (go-ahead homer, great play to save a run). He called the Yankees beatable and then beat them. 18 games over .500 and still getting dunked on like that. Some things about this team never change. A few thoughts on the last few games.

Taillon’s transformation

What a season Jameson Taillon is having. Two hits allowed in eight shutout innings Friday night, and the Rays only had one runner reach second base and none reach third base. Taillon struck out five and only six of the 25 batters he faced hit the ball out of the infield. He now owns a 2.49 ERA (3.04 FIP) through nine starts and 50.2 innings. He’s been marvelous.

“He was great,” Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch after the game. “He was in control of the game and had a little bit of everything going. Just another great performance from one of our starters.”

Taillon went eight innings one day after Nestor Cortes went eight innings plus one batter. The Yankees are the only team this season to have starters complete eight innings in back-to-back games, and those two are the first Yankees to do it since CC Sabathia and Ivan Nova in July 2013. 15 teams do not have a single eight-inning start this season. Nasty Nestor has two.

When the Yankees acquired Taillon, they tried to turn him into an elevated four-seam fastball guy, kinda like Gerrit Cole. That didn’t work. Taillon changed things up at midseason last year, right after that disaster start in Philadelphia (four runs and one out), and he’s changed things up even more this year. Look at his diverse pitch mix. Taillon’s a legitimate six-pitch pitcher now:

See how scrunched together his pitches are this season? Taillon is throwing his changeup about 7% of the time. He’s throwing everything else (four-seamer, two-seamer, curveball, slider, and the new cutter) at least 11% of the time each. Taillon rarely throws the two-seamer to lefties and rarely throws the changeup to righties, otherwise he shows everyone five pitches.

“Just being able to take the ball and take my turn in the rotation is big,” Taillon told Hoch after the game. “This year, it just seems to me like I’ve found a better pitch mix. I’m sequencing my pitches better, moving the ball around and not letting the hitters keyhole in one area.”

The elevated fastball thing didn’t work and Taillon essentially reverted back to who he was with the Pirates, meaning a pitcher with a low strikeout rate (19.2%) but also a low barrel rate (6.4%). He’s a contact manager more than someone who will overpower hitters, though we do see a lot of swings and misses against his fastball. Taillon’s stuff, location, and execution are so good.

It’s a little too early now but at some point later this season we’re going to need to discuss the merits of signing Taillon to an extension. He’s a free agent-to-be and, if we assume Steve Cohen won’t let Jacob deGrom get away once he opts out, Taillon will be one of the best available free agent starters along with Chris Bassitt, Joe Musgrove, and Noah Syndergaard. Good pitchers are always worth keeping.

An extension is a conversation for another time. Right now, Taillon is performing like one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he’s doing it only seven months after a pretty major ankle surgery. He’s always been talented, Taillon was the No. 2 pick in the 2010 draft for a reason, and the Yankees pitching machine (what a time to be alive) is getting the best out of him. This rules.

LeMahieu’s wrist

Not gonna lie, I was worried about DJ LeMahieu’s wrist. He received a cortisone shot last week and it didn’t help initially, and that’s usually bad news. Those things typically provide immediate relief (immediate as in before you leave the doctor’s office). LeMahieu had to sit another few days, then he returned Saturday and ripped a double in his first at-bat, and I felt better.

“It was good to be out there. It’s all good. I’m ready to keep going,” LeMahieu told Dan Martin. “From where I was a couple days ago to playing and being out there, I feel really good.”

LeMahieu is 2-for-8 in his two games back with several well-struck balls, and he seems healthy enough. That said, his May slump has dragged his season batting line down to .250/.325/.375 (109 wRC+). Hopefully this wrist injury explains the slump and LeMahieu gets going now that he’s feeling good, because the Yankees really need the offense.

Gallo’s demotion

No matter how Boone tries to spin it – and try to spin it he did – there is no way to look at Joey Gallo hitting ninth Saturday as anything other than a demotion and quasi-wake up call. The Yankees are without Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson, they were facing a right-handed pitcher, and they’ve had a hard time scoring runs. And yet Gallo hit ninth behind:

• A guy who’s spent most of the year in Triple-A (Miguel Andujar).
• A guy who was unemployed three days prior (Matt Carpenter).
• The shortstop with zero home runs (Isiah Kiner-Falefa).
• The defensive-first catcher (Jose Trevino).

Hitting ninth against Shane McClanahan, an extremely tough lefty, on Sunday would not have raised many eyebrows. But ninth against a righty on Saturday? Behind those guys? That’s about as clear a message as Boone can send that Gallo isn’t getting it done. Maybe the message is to the front office (go get someone!)? I doubt it, but maybe.

“The nine hole – if you’ve covered me you know – is a place I value. I think there’s a pretty good fit there, especially as you turn over the lineup when he’s going well, his ability to get on base,” Boone told Kristie Ackert. “Just trying to space out our lineup a little bit in our lefties a little bit better. I think maybe it’s a spot that he can potentially thrive in for us.”

Gallo hit 38 homers last season and was an All-Star, and the Yankees have constantly said they’re not worried about him and they expect him to get going soon, blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda, yet he’s hitting ninth in a decimated lineup against a righty. There's no chance – zero – that happens if Boone feels good about Gallo and how he’s going at the plate.

Since returning from his minor groin issue earlier this month, Gallo has turned into a weak ground ball machine. He’s rolling over on everything and pulling it into the shift. Some of his year-to-year numbers are downright disastrous (this is among 287 players with least 400 plate appearances last year and 100 plate appearances this year):

• Average exit velocity: 91.5 mph to 88.0 mph (eighth largest decline)
• Swinging strike rate: 14.7% to 18.9% (fifth largest increase)
• Pull rate: 44.8% to 61.8% (largest increase)

Gallo is hitting .167/.270/.300 (72 wRC+) this season and .162/.290/.364 (86 wRC+) in 365 plate appearances as a Yankee. That is terrible and especially bad for a corner outfielder. I know about the defense (which has been good more than Gold Glove caliber) and base running. Bottom line, the Yankees didn’t trade four prospects for Gallo to bat him ninth against Tampa.

It’s a minor miracle the Yankees are where they are while getting so little production from four positions. Kiner-Falefa’s never hit and you can’t expect much from the catchers. Aaron Hicks at least has the wrist surgery excuse (though he’s been dreadful). Gallo? There’s no excuse. It’s a bust of a trade even though none of the prospects the Yankees traded have done anything notable (the Rangers called up infielder Josh Smith on Monday).

The trade deadline is two months away and Gallo will have to get molten hot and stay molten hot between now and then to convince me the Yankees don’t need an outfielder at the deadline. They really need two, but I don’t expect them to cut bait on Hicks given the three years remaining on his contract. Gallo’s a rental and the evidence is mounting that he’s not part of the solution.

I’m sure Padres GM A.J. Preller still wants Gallo, making them a natural trade partner. The only problem is the Yankees either need an outfielder in return, or need to have another deal lined up to bring in an outfielder. Maybe a three-team trade? Gallo to the Padres, Padres (and Yankees?) prospects to a third team, third team outfielder to the Yankees? It’s possible, sure.

The Yankees just signed Carpenter out of a retirement home. As much as we may want them to, they can’t just dump Gallo (or Hicks) and replace him from within (Estevan Florial can absolutely be worse). Replacing him is another conversation for another time. For now, Boone batting Gallo ninth – ninth! – is the clearest sign yet he’s running out of leash.

Miscellany

Just to expand a little bit on the “it’s a minor miracle the Yankees are where they are while getting so little production from four positions” thing, here are the numbers:

• C+SS+LF+CF: .225/.300/.318 (83 wRC+) with one homer every 56.5 PA
• All other positions: .248/.326/.470 (131 wRC+) with one homer every 19.4 PA

And those numbers are boosted by Aaron Judge’s 16 games in center field. A bat is a clear need at the trade deadline, with the outfield the easiest place to get it. Two bats would be ideal, but let’s start with one … Gleyber Torres in 2021: nine homers in 516 plate appearances. Gleyber Torres in 2022: nine homers in 164 plate appearances. The power’s there, now he just needs to get the AVG and OBP up a bit more (he's hitting .243/.282/.467 and 116 wRC+). I know the Yankees are rotating their players, but Torres should play every game even after everyone gets healthy. Donaldson is 36 and has a shoulder issue, and LeMahieu is 33 and has a wrist issue. Rest them and prioritize the 25-year-old who’s having a bounceback season … All the bullpen injuries mean Boone’s managerial decisions will be that much more important and that’s, uh, not great. If you’re willing to let Luis Severino pitch his way into trouble in a one-run game against a division rival, your backup plan can’t be Ron Marinaccio. Let’s let the kid string together more than one (1) good appearance before throwing him into the fire. Hopefully the starters keep going eight innings and Boone has to make fewer decisions.

2. Yankees sign Greene. The early-2010s farm system reunion continues. Late last week the Yankees signed righty Shane Greene to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Scranton. Greene and Greg Bird are in Triple-A and Manny Banuelos was just called up to the big leagues. What’s Slade Heathcott up to these days? (Becoming a commercial pilot, apparently.)

“Obviously, he’s been a really good pitcher in the league. A back end guy, a closer,” Aaron Boone told Kristie Ackert about the Greene signing over the weekend. “So we’re seeing what he’s got. Get with us, I know our guys always have some things that they feel like they can tweak or maybe help a guy with obviously a ton of experience and a ton of success. I just know it was intriguing for us to get him and we’ll see what we’ve got.”

Greene, 33, struck out five and walked one in two otherwise spotless innings in his first game back with the RailRiders (video). He started the season with the Dodgers and did get into one game with them, throwing two scoreless innings two weeks ago. Greene allowed five runs in 7.2 innings with their Triple-A club before being designated for assignment and released.

During the shortened 2020 season Greene had a 2.60 ERA (3.81 FIP) in 27.2 innings with the Braves. He then sat unsigned until last May, and when he did pitch, he allowed 19 runs in 23.2 innings with the Braves and Dodgers. Those guys who sign late always seem to struggle, don’t they? A full Spring Training is pretty important.

Anyway, two things about Greene. One, it seems he fell victim to modern pitcher development. Teams saw a low-90s sinker/low-80s slider reliever with middling strikeout (23.0% from 2019-21) and ground ball (42.9% from 2019-21) rates last year and said “we don’t need him, we have guys in our farm system who can do that for the league minimum.” Greene doesn’t stand out enough and had to wait until pitchers got hurt to find a job.

And two, the fact the Dodgers picked Greene up last season and then brought him back this season leads me to believe there’s something there that can be tweaked. The Dodgers know what they’re doing with pitching and the Yankees do too. Greene may not be a hot commodity, but two smart teams saw enough to sign him. There’s something worthwhile in there.

Aroldis Chapman (Achilles) and Jonathan Loaisiga (shoulder) are out and Chad Green (elbow) is done for the season, so if nothing else, the Yankees needed a warm body to replace the call ups in Triple-A. As a guy with 6+ years of service time, Greene’s contract likely includes an opt out date(s). June 1st is too close. June 15th might not be. He’ll want to be able to leave soon if the Yankees don’t call him up.

Greene is a veteran dude and he was freely available, and the bullpen is decimated, so why not? He fits the Yankees’ sinker/slider profile and who knows, maybe they can get him back to where he was a few years ago, even if only for 20-30 innings. We can’t dismiss a signing like this given the team’s recent track record with pitching. Greene may not help much or at all, but maybe?

3. Prospect thoughts. Have a birthday, OF Elijah Dunham. My No. 27 prospect went 4-for-4 with a double and a homer Sunday, which was also his 24th birthday. Here’s video. Dunham is hitting .266/.345/.531 (125 wRC+) with seven homers and 11 stolen bases in 33 games with Double-A Somerset. The kid knows how to fill up the stat sheet. Now a few thoughts on a few prospects.

Dominguez’s torrid month

The first two weeks of the season weren’t pretty, but the OF Jasson Dominguez train is officially off and running. The Yankees’ No. 2 prospect now owns a .274/.343/.459 (129 wRC+) batting line and he’s been a monster since those bad first two weeks:

• First 12 games: .204/.218/.278 (41 wRC+) with 36.4 K% and 1.8 BB%
• Last 27 games: .311/.400/.553 (170 wRC+) with 30.0 K% and 11.7 BB%

The strikeout rate is still high, though the Florida State League strikeout rate is 28.0%, so it’s not that far above the league average. In those last 27 games Dominguez has nearly as many extra-base hits (14) as singles (18), plus he’s walking and stealing bases*. His ground ball rate, which was over 60% earlier this year, has been whittled down to 54.5%.

* Fun fact: Dominguez is 7-for-9 stealing bases this season and he has more steals of third base (four) than second base (three).

Everything beyond the slash line is trending the right way. Dominguez has cut down on his chases and ground balls as the season has progressed, and he’s putting up 100+ mph exit velocities on the regular. He and Blue Jays OF Gabriel Martinez are the only teenagers to rank in the top 20 in AVG, OBP, SLG, and wRC+ in the Florida State League.

“It’s definitely not a massive swing adjustment,” Tampa manager Rachel Balkovec told Randy Miller about Dominguez last week. “I would say it’s more probably a mindset adjustment and an approach to his training that’s just a little bit more specific, a little bit more focused in certain areas that he specifically needs to work on. He always works hard, but it’s focusing on what he needs to get done.”

Dominguez is hitting .125/.200/.188 against lefties and .312/.379/.528 against righties this year, a split that jibes with reports that he’s more comfortable on the left side of the plate. Frankie Cervelli and Eduardo Nunez gave up switch-hitting around Dominguez’s age, so giving it up that young is not unheard of, though I’d stick with it unless he says he’s too uncomfortable as a righty to continue. A great switch-hitter is so valuable. If you think it can work, then keep trying. And if he has to drop it, at least he’ll be on the heavy side of the platoon as a lefty hitter.

It was too early to panic when Dominguez started slowly and it’s too early to celebrate now just because he had a great month. Dominguez is the most hyped prospect since Bryce Harper, but all the usual prospect development stuff still applies. It’s a long-term, multi-year process that involves ups and downs. Right now he’s on an up. A few weeks ago he was on a down. Given his age relative to the competition, Dominguez has had a fantastic first two months of 2022.

“No one’s going to argue getting moved up, but I don’t think he’s itching to get out of here. He’s really just had a turnaround in the past couple weeks,” Balkovec told Miller about a possible Dominguez promotion (I could see it after the Futures Game). “He’s one of those toolsy guys and we’d like to see that all come together. I tell Jasson it’s using all of his powers, really realizing what potential he has and not being timid or afraid to really lean into that.”

Warren promoted

RHP Will Warren, this year’s breakout pitcher, was promoted to Double-A Somerset over the weekend. He’ll make his first start later this week. Warren, last year’s eighth round pick, had a 3.60 ERA (3.08 FIP) with 30.0% strikeouts and 6.4% walks in eight starts and 35 innings with High-A Tampa. Not overly dominant, but enough to warrant a new challenge.

“The Yankees are tough with moving guys through. There’s a lot of talent in our organization,” Warren told Mike Ashmore two weeks ago. “So I set the goal that I wanted to set myself apart and be (at the highest level out of Spring Training) I could, so High-A was my goal. It happened. I think I just worked my tail off to show off what I’ve got, that this is the guy they drafted and that they’re going to get for however long. I’ve changed a lot in that small amount of time, and I’ve learned a lot from talking to older guys. I always want to be a student of the game.”

It’s not often an eighth round pick who is an actual prospect reaches Double-A two months into his first full pro season. Maybe an organizational depth guy gets moved like that (a senior sign to save bonus pool money, that kinda thing), but not an actual prospect like Warren. The quick promotion is a very strong indication the Yankees really like the kid.

Is it possible Warren reaches the big leagues this year? Angels RHP Chase Silseth made his debut earlier this month and he was an 11th round pick last year who, like Warren, is a college guy who made big gains in a short time in pro ball. Silseth tore up the minors and was called up straight from Double-A. He has a 3.07 ERA in 14.2 innings thus far (but a 4.98 FIP). (Silseth is the first and still only 2021 draftee to reach the big leagues.)

Even with the bullpen injuries, the Yankees aren’t as desperate for pitching as the Angels, but if the Angels can call up last year’s 11th rounder, why can’t the Yankees call up Warren? If the Yankees think he can get them 3-6 outs at a time, or even go through the lineup once, why wouldn’t they consider calling him up when they’re trying to win a World Series?

Warren is ostensibly behind LHP Ken Waldichuk and RHP Hayden Wesneski on the call up depth chart, plus there is 40-man roster stuff to consider. Warren doesn’t have to be added to the 40-man until after 2024. Do it now and that’s a spot tied up two years earlier than it needs to be. I think we sweat the last few spots on the 40-man too much, but this is a consideration.

For now, Warren’s breakout season landed him in Double-A sooner than C Austin Wells, who was drafted a year earlier and has done nothing but mash in pro ball. Warren has forced the issue so far, and while I wouldn’t expect to see him in the big leagues later this year, I also didn’t expect to see him in Double-A in May, so what do I know?

Seigler breaking out?

C Anthony Seigler, who fell out of my top 30 prospects this year, might be having a breakout season. Emphasis on might. He owns a .268/.446/.464 (164 wRC+) batting line split between Low-A Tampa and High-A Hudson Valley. Seigler has three homers in 128 plate appearances after hitting five in 391 plate appearances from 2018-21. He also has more walks (23.4%) than strikeouts (19.5%).

There are 137 catchers with at least 100 minor league plate appearances this season. Here’s the wRC+ leaderboard:

1. Austin Wynns, Phillies: 188 wRC+ (31-year-old journeyman with MLB time)
2. Henry Davis, Pirates: 183 wRC+ (No. 1 pick in 2021 draft)
3. Jakson Reetz, Brewers: 168 wRC+ (26-year-old journeyman in Double-A)
4. Austin Wells, Yankees: 168 wRC+
5. Anthony Seigler, Yankees: 164 wRC+

Seigler turns 23 next month and he was promoted to Hudson Valley last week to replace Wells, who went on the injured list after taking a foul tip to the groin (gah). That leads me to believe either Wells will be out a while, or he will be sent to Double-A Somerset when he returns. I don’t think the Yankees would bump Seigler up only as a short-term injury fill-in.

Anyway, Seigler is 8-for-21 (.381) with Hudson Valley after hitting .237/.426/.434 (154 wRC+) with a 6.3% swinging strikeout rate in 25 games with Tampa. Over 1,000 players have at least 100 minor league plate appearances this year and Seigler’s swinging strike rate is 25th best. I do want to note his unusual average exit velocity numbers with Tampa:

• Ground balls: 95.3 mph (on 15 grounders)
• Line drives: 85.4 mph (on 22 liners)
• Fly balls: 90.4 mph (on 19 fly balls)

The MLB average is 93.8 mph on line drives, 85.9 mph on grounders, and 92.1 mph on fly balls. Line drives are usually the hardest hit balls (duh), but not for Seigler with Tampa. Weird. It’s such a small sample that we can’t draw any conclusions. I just found this unusual (because it is) and thought I would mention it. (Too bad we don’t have Statcast at High-A to see the trend.)

When the Yankees selected Seigler with the No. 23 pick in 2018, he was billed as a hit over power guy with contact skills from both sides of the plate. He missed a lot of time with injuries the last few years and, when he did play, he didn’t hit and the reviews on both sides of the ball were terrible. Now Seigler’s healthy, and he’s looking like that hit over power switch-hitter.

The Yankees had success getting a few forgotten prospects on track last season (Diego Castillo and Hoy Jun Park, most notably) and maybe Seigler is this year’s version? Plus catchers tend to be late bloomers. Add in all the time Seigler lost to injuries and he might be even more late bloomer-y than most. We’ll see where this goes. If nothing else, Seigler is in the middle of (by far) the best stretch of his career right now.

(If you need a laugh, here’s Seigler getting thrown out at second to end Saturday’s game. He thought he hit a walk-off homer. Flipped his bat and everything. Then he realized it stayed in the park and tried to hustle to second. He’s gonna hear about that kangaroo court.)

Miscellany

SS Roderick Arias, this year’s $4M international signing and my No. 11 prospect, will begin his pro career in the Dominican Summer League, international scouting director Donny Rowland told Randy Miller. He’s also injured. Rowland said Arias has been shut down the last few weeks with what he describes as “nothing major” and a “little tweak he’s got going on.” The DSL season begins Monday, so we’ll find out whether Arias is healthy enough to play pretty soon … I neglected to mention this the last few weeks: RHP Yoendrys Gomez, my No. 21 prospect, did indeed have Tommy John surgery last August. Given the timing, he figures to miss the entire season. Gomez, 22, threw 127.2 innings from 2018-22 because of injuries and the pandemic. Lotta lost development time, but with the way pitchers develop these days, he still has plenty of time to carve out a big league career … The Yankees did a weird thing Sunday: LHP Matt Krook came out of the bullpen behind an opener. An opener in Triple-A? Are the Yankees preparing Krook to work behind an opener in case they use him that way in the big leagues? He's pitched out of the bullpen a bunch earlier in his career, so he’s done it, but I guess there’s no harm in getting him reacquainted with that role … And finally, congrats to RHP Yorlin Calderon. The 20-year-old 2018 international signing made his first career full season league start with Low-A Tampa last week, and he threw a seven-inning no-hitter. He struck out seven. Where do you go from there? Guess Calderon has to throw a perfect game next time out.

4. 2022 draft prospect: Texas HS SS Jett Williams. The 2022 MLB Draft will take place during the All-Star break and the Yankees hold the No. 25 pick. Here are the draft prospects I’ve already profiled. Some will be players the Yankees are reported to have interest in, some are players who fit the team’s M.O., and some are players I happen to like.

Listed at 5-foot-8 and 178 lbs., Williams is one of the smallest players in the draft class, at least among players with a chance to go in the bonus pool rounds. He was the most impressive hitter on the showcase circuit last year and he annihilated top tier pitching despite playing through an achy right shoulder. Here are his current draft rankings:

• Baseball America (subs. req’d): No. 41
• FanGraphs: No. 59
• Keith Law (subs. req’d): No. 14
• MLB.com: No. 26

Baseball’s longstanding bias against short players is pretty much gone now that sub-6-footers like Mookie Betts and Jose Ramirez are contending for MVPs. Similar to Anthony Volpe, Williams is said to have a “the more you watch him, the more you like him” quality. Here’s some video and here’s a chunk of MLB.com’s free scouting report:

With quick hands, feel for the barrel and a quality right-handed stroke, Williams rarely swings and misses and makes line-drive contact with ease. He has no problem handling premium velocity or quality breaking pitches, and his size belies his power. He should produce at least 15 homers per year with his bat speed and deceptive strength, perhaps more if he gets more aggressive about pulling pitches.

Williams has at least plus speed and knows how to use his quickness on the bases and in the field. He has the hands and actions for shortstop, but he didn't throw well during the summer when his shoulder was bothering him. Some evaluators believe he has solid arm strength when healthy and can stay at short, while others think his arm is more fringy to average and he'll wind up at second base or center field.

Williams really did a number on the top high school arms last summer. He posted mid-90s exit velocities at multiple showcases, where the average is typically in the 82-84 mph range. He did that while rarely swinging and missing and playing hurt. Williams raised his stock quite a bit last year and he continued to build on it this year. The young man’s had himself a great 10 months.

The two most important offensive traits are bat-to-ball skills and hard-hit ability. Plate discipline and approach are important too, though they can be taught (to a certain extent). Contact and exit velocity are more innate and Williams appears to have both. He’s likely to play somewhere up the middle too, adding positional value. The kid brings a lot to the table.

Teams are always far ahead of the public and my guess is Williams is much higher on club draft boards than public rankings. The contact/power combination is very good and he projects to stay up the middle. Who cares if he’s short? If anything, that can be a plus because he has a smaller strike zone. I can see Williams interesting the Yankees given their recent draft tendencies.

5. Remembering a random Yankee: Freddy Guzman. By request, this week’s random Yankees was the designated pinch-runner on the last World Series championship team, though he didn’t do much pinch-running. Here’s the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

Originally signed by the Padres as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic in March 2000, Guzman was one of 19 players in San Diego’s international class found to have falsified his identity. The Padres thought they signed 16-year-old Pedro de los Santos. Eventually they discovered they really signed 19-year-old Freddy Guzman.

Despite being older than originally believed, Guzman ranked among San Diego’s best prospects from 2004-06, mostly because he had a .353 OBP and went 224-for-263 (85%) stealing bases in the low minors. That includes a minor league leading 90 stolen bases in 2003. Guzman made his MLB debut in Aug. 2004 and went 16-for-76 (.211) with five steals in a 20-game look.

Rather than compete for the center field job in 2005, Guzman blew out his elbow in Spring Training and missed the entire season with Tommy John surgery. The Padres traded for Mike Cameron, so Guzman didn’t have a place with the team when he returned in 2006. He spent a month in Triple-A, then was sent to the Rangers in a very minor four-player trade.

Guzman spent most of 2006 and 2007 in Triple-A with Texas, then all of 2008 in the minors with the Tigers (the Rangers sent him to Detroit for Chris Shelton in Dec. 2007). He became a minor league free agent after 2008, and bounced from the Mariners to the Red Sox to the Orioles in the first four months of 2009 while hitting .223/.273/.294 with 45 steals in 101 Triple-A games.

The 2009 Yankees were a juggernaut that hit their stride in June, took over sole possession of first place in the AL East in July, and stretched their lead to “they have this in the bag” territory in August. At that point they started planning their postseason roster, so a few hours prior to the 11:59pm ET postseason eligibility deadline on Aug. 31st, they acquired Guzman from the O’s.

“What would happen if Brett Gardner starts a game in the playoffs? We didn’t have that 80 runner off the bench. We were kicking it around: what if we could get somebody from another club and pop him in our system?” Brian Cashman told Tyler Kepner soon after the trade. Here’s more from Kepner:

The Yankees bought Guzman from the Baltimore Orioles for $50,000. According to Cashman, they gave specific instructions to Dave Miley, the manager for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre:

“Run this guy every chance you get, and when we have a chance to make room for him up here, we’ll do it.”

$50,000 is the waiver claim fee and a standard amount for minor cash trades. Guzman was assigned to Triple-A Scranton, went 7-for-7 stealing bases in six games, then was brought up to the big leagues on Sept. 14th. “We would like to see him. That’s why he’s here,” Joe Girardi told Jack Curry. With the AL East wrapped up, it was audition time. (Random Yankee Anthony Claggett was designated for assignment to clear a 40-man spot for Guzman.)

Guzman appeared in 10 games down the stretch, all off the bench, and eight times he pinch-ran (he played the field late in blowouts the other two times). Because the Yankees had a big division lead, none of those eight pinch-runner appearances were important, but Guzman did go 4-for-5 stealing bases (and 1-for-6 at the plate). He did what he needed to do late in the season.

And yet, it was not enough on the ALDS roster. The Yankees opted to carry random Yankee Damaso Marte as a second lefty in the bullpen (along with Phil Coke) because the Twins had three dangerous lefty bats in Jason Kubel, Joe Mauer, and Justin Morneau. “In the end, the one thing you don't ever want to be short on is pitching,” Girardi told Marc Carig.

The Yankees swept the Twins, then added Guzman to the ALCS roster against the Angels. They dropped random Yankee Eric Hinske because they felt they were more likely to need an extra runner than an extra bat. They had Gardner on the bench and I remember thinking the Angels, with their speed and small ball game, got into the Yankees’ heads, and rather than just be themselves, the Yankees were going to try to play Anaheim’s game. It all worked out though.

“We thought we could use another speed guy in this round,” Girardi told Kepner. “We’ve had some success doing those types of things late in games, and in a seven-game series, we felt that it could come up late in games. As we saw, the games against Minnesota were very close, and sometimes you could use a couple of pinch-runners. And if Gardy gets a start, then you don’t have a pinch-runner. It just frees us up to do some more things.”

Fast Freddy pinch-ran twice in the ALCS. In Game 2, he ran for Hideki Matsui with two outs and the score tied 2-2 in the ninth, though he did not try to steal a base and was stranded. The game went to extra innings, Alex Rodriguez hit a game-tying home run in the 11th, and Guzman got an at-bat as the next batter. He struck out. When his lineup spot came up again in the 13th, random Yankee Jerry Hairston Jr. pinch-hit, and started the game winning rally with a single.

In Game 5, the Yankees were trailing 7-6 with two outs and the bases empty in the ninth inning when Angels manager Mike Scioscia opted to intentionally walk (!) A-Rod. Rodriguez had an all-time great postseason that year, but putting him on base was crazy. Worst he can do is tie the game! It almost backfired too. Guzman ran for A-Rod, then Brian Fuentes walked Matsui and hit Robbie Cano with a pitch to load the bases. Alas, Nick Swisher popped up to end the game.

“That’s one of the situations that you know you have to do it because if there’s a ball in the gap, you have to make sure that guy can score. Alex runs the bases very well, but sometimes it’s that extra step that can tie or win a game for you,” Girardi told David Waldstein about pinch-running for A-Rod, a move that was criticized because it took his best hitter out of a game that could have gone to extra innings.

(For the record, I was fine with pinch-running for A-Rod. You can’t play for the hypothetical extra innings scenario, especially when there’s already two outs in the ninth. Scoring that run is the only priority.)

Those two ALCS pinch-running appearances represent the only postseason action of Guzman’s MLB career. The Yankees dropped him from the roster after the ALCS and re-added Hinske because they needed the bench bat for DH-less games in Philadelphia during the World Series. Guzman appeared in 12 total games as a Yankee and walked away with a World Series ring. Not bad.

The Yankees let Guzman go in a 40-man roster cleanup move soon after the World Series. He signed with the Phillies soon thereafter, though they released him in Spring Training, and he did not play anywhere in 2010. Guzman went to winter ball after the season and eventually hooked on with a team in the Mexican League, and he played there every season from 2011-17.

Here’s the weird part: Guzman made it back to the big leagues in 2013! The Rays signed him out of the Mexican League and put him directly on their big league roster as their late season pinch-runner. He appeared in one game. He pinch-ran for Matt Joyce down a run in the 11th inning on Sept. 18th, stole second, then scored the tying run on a David DeJesus single.

That was Guzman’s final big league game. Other than one game with the Rays, Guzman played in the Mexican League every year from 2011-17 before calling it a career. He joined the Nationals as their Dominican Summer League hitting coach the next season and he’s still with them in that same role.

6. Rapid fire thoughts. Cole Tucker, who I wrote about as an outside the box shortstop target in the offseason, was designated for assignment over the weekend. He has been very bad this year, going 16-for-99 (.162) with 37 strikeouts and five walks between Triple-A and MLB. Tucker has a minor league option remaining and the Pirates haven’t exactly stood out with their player development (former Pirate Kevin Kramer ripped the organization Monday). If the Yankees can get Tucker, a 25-year-old switch-hitter who has played every position except first base and catcher, on waivers, I say go for it. Stash him in Triple-A and see whether the player development folks can un-Pirates him. The Yankees would need to clear a 40-man roster spot, but I don’t think anyone will miss David McKay (Luis Gil could go on the 60-day injured list, though the Yankees would have to call him up and let him accrue service time and big league pay).

(Send your requests for Tuesday's random Yankee series and questions for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com.)