April 25th, 2022: Offense, King, Cole, Green, Prospects, Ellsbury

The off-day vibe is always better after a sweep, isn't it? The Yankees played their best, most complete series of the (very) young season over the weekend, and Tuesday they begin a stretch of six games against the Orioles and Royals (combined 11-19). Time to fatten up the win-loss record a bit. Here is Tuesday morning’s post Monday night. It’s an off-day and I don’t see any reason to make you wait.

1. Weekend observations. For all my bitching and moaning, the Yankees have won five of their last six games and are tied with the Blue Jays and Mariners for the American League’s best record. They are 3-1-1 in their five series. The Yankees can be maddening, but all in all, things are going okay. Here are a few thoughts on the last few games.

The offense awakens

For one series, at least. Each game it got a little better too. The Yankees scored four runs Friday night and three came on two Aaron Judge homers, so that was the tried and true “the Yankees will only go as far as Judge and Giancarlo Stanton take them” formula. Stanton’s slumping right now, so it was up to Judge to do the heavy lifting, and he did.

On Saturday, the Yankees received contributions from two guys who haven’t done much (a Josh Donaldson homer and a Kyle Higashioka sac fly), and also three clutch two-strike hits. Hitting with two strikes is really hard. The league average last season was a .167/.243/.272 line with two strikes. Then this happened on Sunday:

• Isiah Kiner-Falefa RBI single in an 0-2 count (video).
• Kiner-Falefa game-tying double in a 1-2 count (video).
• Gleyber Torres walk-off single in a 1-2 count (video).

How anyone hits Emmanuel Clase, I have no idea. The guy averages 99.3 mph with his cutter. It is a vicious pitch, yet Kiner-Falefa was able to get to one in on his hands, and Gleyber poked one the other way. That’s the value of contact right there, still having a chance in two-strike counts. Kiner-Falefa and Torres are the two best non-DJ LeMahieu contact guys on the roster.

“He’s gotten us a lot of big hits with runners out there, and no bigger than today,” Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch about Kiner-Falefa after Saturday’s win. “He’s been terrific. He’s playing at a really high level.”

Sunday’s win was the blowout win the Yankees have needed all season. It was a) the first time they scored six runs since Opening Day, b) the first time all year they scored more than five runs without the help of the automatic runner in extra innings, and c) only the third time they played a game decided by more than three runs. Every game the Yankees play is close. It wears on you.

Anthony Rizzo opened the scoring Sunday with a two-run home run in the first inning. The pitch was down below the zone …

… and homers like that make me wonder what convinced the Yankees they would be okay without any quality lefty bats from like 2019 through the 2021 trade deadline. They had so few players who could hit a little chip shot homer into the short porch. Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks, with a little Mike Ford and Rougned Odor sprinkled in. That’s really it.

LeMahieu pulled a homer to left (he did that three times in 2021) and now has two homers in 58 plate appearances despite the ball being dead. He didn’t hit his second homer until his 134th plate appearance last year. The Yankees hit three homers Sunday (Tim Locastro!) and six in the three-game series. They hit six homers in their previous 11 games.

“I just feel like we were ourselves today,” LeMahieu told Greg Joyce after Sunday’s game. “That’s kind of what we expect. It’s not always going to happen like that, but we were due for a breakout game like that.”

If we’ve learned anything from the last 179 games, it’s not to get too high when the Yankees have a good series. They’re still fully capable of laying an egg against the Orioles this week, like they did last week. For at least one series, it was refreshing to see solid all-around play. The pitching continued to be great, the defense was solid, and the offense showed up. Series like that remind you how dangerous the Yankees can be.

“I feel like we’ve been playing pretty good baseball overall from a pitching, baserunning, defensive standpoint,” Boone told Joyce. “Feel like the offense is starting to click a little bit. But to have back-to-back games where I really feel like they were complete games from a defensive, pitching, running the bases, and offensively, that’s nice.”

King of the Hill

I’m gonna take back what I said in the mailbag last week: Mike King does have the best stuff in the bullpen. He was electric Friday night, striking out eight of the 10 batters he faced in three scoreless innings. King struck out seven straight batters at one point, one short of Ron Davis’ franchise record. Mike King? Mike King!

“I’ve always talked about, if I have four hopefully plus pitches and only two of them are working, I can get through a lineup,” King told Hoch after the game. “When I have all four, it allows me to do some fun stuff, toy around with players and keep them off balance.”

The sinker/sweeper combo is King’s bread and butter, though he got strikeouts with four different pitches Friday. Look at the pitch types and locations of the strike threes:

Up and down, both sides of the plate, and even a few mistakes down the middle. Chad Green will strike you out with fastballs up. Wandy Peralta will get you with changeups down. They’re one-trick ponies and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just that they have clear strengths and stick to them. These days King is what, a three or four-trick pony? He has so many weapons. It’s remarkable what he’s become.

“He’s got all the pitches. He’s worked hard at his craft and he walks out there with a lot of confidence. When you’ve got that kind of arsenal, if he’s pounding the strike zone, he’s capable of performances like that,” Boone told Hoch. It also helps when your top two pitches do this (GIF via Rob Friedman):

King’s season high is 45 pitches on April 11th. He threw 42 pitches in those three innings Friday and I would’ve loved to see him finish the game (“I’ll take my three innings and bounce,” King jokingly told Hoch after the game). The workload meant he was going to be unavailable Saturday and Sunday, plus today is an off-day. The Yankees weren’t going to have King until Tuesday anyway, so max him out and give the rest of the bullpen a breather, you know?

That would have been ideal, though I understand not pushing it. It’s still very early in the season and King is so important, plus I’d rather let Aroldis Chapman start an inning fresh than ask him to clean up someone else’s mess. A four-inning save for King would have been rad. The Yankees have had one four-inning save since 2016, and they haven’t had one in a non-blowout since Al Aceves in 2009. Would’ve been cool, but three dominant innings is pretty cool too.

Cole’s great start

Sunday afternoon Gerrit Cole started without Higashioka behind the plate for the first time since last July 23rd, and he had his first excellent start since last Sept. 1st. COINCIDENCE? Yeah, probably, but it always amuses me when Cole pitches well with someone other than Higashioka. See what happens when you branch out a little? Variety is the spice of life.

“It was seamless,” Cole told Joyce about working with Jose Trevino. “We got kind of a two-headed monster back there right now. That fluidity throughout the entire series, both with Higgy and Jose just communicating, there was a lot of continuity on what we wanted to do with the hitters. Everybody was in a good spot based on our preparation.”

Cole struck out nine Guardians in 6.2 shutout innings and did not allow a runner to reach second base. He got multiple swings and misses with four different pitches. That’s Gerrit Cole. That’s also what happens when you work ahead in the count. The MLB average is 61.1% first pitch strikes. Here are the numbers on Cole:

• Sunday: 62.5% first pitch strikes (15 of 24 batters)
• First three starts: 42.0% (!)
• 2021: 66.8%
• 2018-20: 63.8%

Get ahead in the count and good things happen, especially when you have Cole’s stuff. It really is that simple. Last year Cole held hitters to a .173/.177/.293 line when he got ahead in the count. It was .188/.346/.400 when the hitter was ahead, which is excellent relative to the league average (.283/.476/.509 when the batter is ahead) but not good overall. Strike one is a big deal.

“He's Gerrit Cole. He's one of the best pitchers in the sport,” Boone told David Adler following Sunday’s game. “So he wants to do his thing, and there's that pressure of breaking through and having this kind of outing. But I also feel like it's been right there on the surface.”

As I said last week, I wasn’t worried about Cole. Just annoyed with his start to the season, which included some residual annoyance from the end of last season. One great start does not make a season, and I’m not giving Cole the “Yankees ace” label back yet, but this was a step in the right direction. Now go out and do it again in five days, and again five days after that.

“I haven't been kidding when I've said it's about to pop,” Boone told Adler. “I feel like he knows he's there. I think he's frustrated and pissed a little bit that he hasn't gone out and had that game yet. But I feel like mentally he knows he's there. That's part of the reason I've been heartened even after these first few starts, is I feel like he knows this has been coming.”

Green tumbling down the depth chart

One way or another, Chad Green’s time with the Yankees will end later this year. He’ll be a free agent after the season and it’s hard to see the Yankees re-signing him given how well they put together bullpens. If the Yankees didn’t re-sign David Robertson back in the day (twice), they won’t re-sign Green. Wherever he lands, I hope he gets a nice big contract.

I think there’s a decent chance the Yankees trade Green this summer rather than wait until free agency to move on. I mentioned this last week: Green is sliding down the bullpen depth chart, and right now he’s no better than fourth among righties behind King, Clay Holmes, and Jonathan Loaisiga. He might even be behind Miguel Castro.

Also, the Yankees are building their bullpen not only around strikeouts, but weak contact on the ground. Green does not do that. He’s a fly ball guy and home run prone (as we saw Saturday), so he doesn’t fit the team’s preferred profile. Also, Green’s velocity is down. He’s more 94-95 mph these days, not 97-98 mph like in the past. A graph:

It was a short Spring Training and maybe Green will regain velocity in a few weeks. That would be great. At the same time, pitchers lose velocity with age, and Green turns 31 next month. This was always the concern, right? Green was excellent as an upper-90s fastball-only guy, but what happens when he loses a tick? The last season-plus tells us it equals dingers.

Four years ago the Yankees traded free agent-to-be Adam Warren to the Mariners for international bonus money at the deadline. Warren was still effective (2.70 ERA and 3.29 FIP for the Yankees that year) and the Yankees were in the division race at the time, but he was far down the bullpen depth chart, and essentially overqualified for low leverage work. It was also a chance to get something for Warren before losing him as a free agent.

I could see something similar happening with Green. Saturday’s homer aside, Green is still effective, but he’s also something like the fifth best reliever in the bullpen, and the Yankees do have more arms waiting in Triple-A. Assuming no draft pick compensation as a free agent, whatever Green brings back in a trade could be worth more than the 15-20 innings he’ll throw down the stretch in August and September (and October?).

Trading a good (not even great) rental reliever at the deadline is a piece of cake. There is always a team looking to bolster its bullpen for the stretch run. We’ll see where the Yankees and Green are at in a few weeks. Right now though, he’s been pushed down the depth chart, and it’s not hard to see him getting pushed out of the picture entirely in a few weeks.

Miscellany

Carlos Beltran’s first series as a YES Network analyst is in the books and he was okay. He was insightful, which I figured would be the case, though I thought he was a bit robotic and short on personality. Hopefully Beltran comes out of his shell as he gets more comfortable … Considering he had major ankle surgery in October, Jameson Taillon has looked really good so far this season. He’s the rare Yankee who didn’t have an injury setback or need a few weeks to get going once he did return. The three homers are an eyesore, though 13 strikeouts and one walk in 14.1 innings will play. Taillon’s velocity and pitch mix (and a new cutter) are right where they need to be. You can’t tell he’s coming off surgery. I was a little nervous about him coming back ahead of schedule, but Taillon looks good … It was a cool play, but let’s not dive headfirst into first base anymore, okay Nestor? I immediately thought bad things when I saw Cortes make this face …

… on that play Saturday afternoon. “Under this body, there’s a guy that’s athletic,” Cortes jokingly told Joyce after the game. Two runs with 25 strikeouts in 15.2 innings for Nestor so far. He is so very fun. The Yankees need more players like him, and I don’t just mean the production … Jose Ramirez went into this weekend’s series hitting .426/.472/.830 (278 wRC+), then the Yankees held him to 1-for-11 in the three games. The one hit came when Cleveland was already down 6-0 on Sunday. Ramirez was a complete non-factor. Also, the Yankees got rookie contact machine Steven Kwan, who I acquired as part of my Offseason Plan, to swing and missed a bunch (relatively speaking). Some numbers:

• Kwan vs. Yankees: 4 misses on 19 swings (21.1%)
• Kwan vs. all other pitchers: 4 misses on 73 swings (5.5%)
• MLB average: 26.5%

Cortes got Kwan to swing and miss three times all by himself. Amazing. The Yankees pitching staff has been outrageously good so far. As for the Guardians, they are 0-6 against the Yankees and Giants, and 7-2 against central teams this year. Never change, AL Central.

2. Prospects thoughts. Jasson Dominguez, Oswald Peraza, and Anthony Volpe (i.e. the top three prospects in the system) are hitting a combined .183/.259/.314 in 170 plate appearances this season. Yikes! If you’re looking for panic, this isn’t the right place. I’m not freaking out about any prospect three weeks into the season, same way I’m not over the moon prospect to know TJ Rumfield is hitting .354/.439/.583. Anyway, here are a few quick thoughts on prospect happenings.

Garcia & Gil struggling

Why do we pay attention to Spring Training? It is all lies, man. Deivi Garcia and Luis Gil looked excellent in camp, and now they’re getting smacked around in Triple-A. The numbers, they’re bad. Real bad (three starts each):

• Garcia: 10.1 IP, 14 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 7 BB, 8 K, 2 HR
• Gil: 8 IP, 12 H, 14 R, 13 ER, 9 BB, 11 K, 2 HR

What’s that, 23 runs and 42 baserunners in 18.1 innings combined? Yeesh. In years past I would chalk it up to being only three starts and the weirdness of Spring Training (remember, Garcia and Gil are on the 40-man roster and got a late start because of the lockout), but Deivi was brutal last season, and what if Gil’s following the same path? That would be a nightmare.

I kinda hope the rough start hastens Gil’s move to the bullpen. That’s likely his long-term home given the career-long strike-throwing issues (13.9% walks in the minors and 14.1% above Single-A), and his truly elite fastball gives him a chance to dominate in a relief role. From my top 30 prospects post:

My Take: I think that, at worst, the Yankees have a super high strikeout reliever in Gil. Keep running him out there as a starter in Triple-A just to see whether the control clicks, but we have a pretty good idea of the kid’s floor now, and it’s an impact reliever. Gil’s fastball alone is enough to dominate in relief. Add in the plus slider and he can really be something.

It’s only three starts, but the control isn’t clicking. This is Gil’s final minor league option year and the Yankees pulled the plug on Dellin Betances, a similar huge stuff/bad control guy, as a starter midway through his final minor league option year*. Give Gil a few more starts just to see whether he settles in, then transition him to the bullpen? I could see it, and it would make sense.

* The Yankees did that in what they thought was Dellin’s final minor league option year, I should clarify. Betances was given a fourth option year for reasons I still don’t fully understand, though the Yankees never used it. He was in the big leagues for good in 2014.

With Garcia and Gil struggling, who’s the No. 6 starter right now? Probably Clarke Schmidt, who figures to go to Triple-A when the rosters cut down to 26 players next Monday. Manny Banuelos, personal fave Matt Krook, and Hayden Wesneski have pitched well for the RailRiders. They’re not on the 40-man roster, but I think all three are spot starter options, if necessary.

For now, Garcia and Gil have started horribly in Triple-A. It’s only three starts each and hopefully they’ll settle in soon, but after the year Deivi had last season, this is discouraging. He really could have used a strong start to build confidence. Gil getting roughed up throws a wrench into the rotation depth chart. When the time comes (and it will come, that's baseball), the Yankees will have to fill in the gap another way.

Sweeney’s continued adjustments

Trey Sweeney, last year’s first round pick and my No. 7 prospect, is on the High-A Hudson Valley 7-day injured list with what I’ve heard is a minor lower body issue. Apparently he felt something while legging out a single on April 14th. Sweeney resumed fielding drills over the weekend. He should be back soon enough. No need for alarm.

Sweeney went 8-for-32 (.250) with a double, a triple, and two home runs in seven games prior to the injury. One of the homers was an absolute tank job (video). The home run swing shows us Sweeney is continuing to tone down the big bat waggle that was considered a red flag heading into the draft. Here’s the side-by-side-by-side look (full-size GIF):

In college last spring, Sweeney’s hands were all over the place before he started his swing. The Yankees worked with him to calm that down after signing and the bat waggle was much less pronounced during his pro debut. Now it’s down to basically nothing. Sweeney looks like every other hitter. The extraneous movement is gone and, obviously, the power’s still there.

Player development in action, baby. This player is talented and we like him, but there are a few things we thinkhwe can improve, so let’s improve them. Sometimes it can take a while (I mean years) for these adjustments to kick in. Sometimes they can happen seemingly overnight. All things considered, Sweeney got the bat waggle under control quickly. Only 40 pro games.

Here, for reference, is what Baseball America (subs. req’d) wrote about Sweeney prior to last summer’s draft:

Scouts have wondered what he might do against tougher competition on a consistent basis … He has a big leg kick and a big bat tip in a noisy swing, but if he’s able to quiet it down, what he does at the plate could translate to the next level.

Sweeney has quieted it down, so that box is checked. Will what he does at the plate translate to the next level? We’ll see. Sweeney has to prove himself as he climbs the ladder like every other prospect. But this red flag, all the pre-pitch movement that created questions about his ability to handle pro stuff/velocity, is no longer there. Credit to Sweeney for ironing it out so quickly.

Diaz’s sweeper

Righty Wellington Diaz went viral late last week because he threw a mind-bending sweeper (i.e. the whirly) and made some poor High-A hitter look foolish. Look at this (GIF via Eli Fishman):

Diaz is not a top prospect. He’s not much of a prospect at all. Diaz turns 25 today and is a reliever who’s allowed 27 runs with 57 strikeouts and 30 walks in 43.1 Single-A innings since last Opening Day. Eric Longenhagen had Diaz as an honorable mention in his Yankees prospect list last year and said he “is a hard-throwing sinker guy who’s up to 95.” That’s it.

As I write this, the combined strikeout rate for High-A and Low-A in the early going this season is 28.3%. It was 26.4% last year. That’s because guys like Diaz, fringe reliever prospects at best, are throwing pitches like that. They’re throwing them to kids still figuring out their swing and still learning how to develop an approach at that plate. And then they see pitches like that. Lord.

Hitting analytics are slowly catching up, though they’re still way behind pitching analytics. Also, it’s easier for a pitcher to work on things than a hitter. All a pitcher needs is a mound, which he can build himself in his backyard, to get to work. A hitter needs to see live pitching to work on his craft and that is in short supply, especially high quality upper level pitching.

Deadening the baseball and banning the shift and all that is worth a conversation. But the single biggest reason the game is what it is today (low batting averages, three true outcomes, etc.) is the pitching. It’s so good! Stringing together 3-4 hits against these guys seems impossible some days, so you have to hit homers. The pitching is so good. So good it’s almost unfair.

Diaz’s sweeper made for a fun GIF, and it is fun. It’s a sick pitch. It’s also eye-opening because that’s the kinda stuff fringy bullpen prospects feature in Single-A nowadays. Remember when 95 mph and a good slider meant you were a closer? Now that barely gets you noticed in Triple-A. I have no idea how MLB goes about “fixing” this. I just know I feel sorry for the hitters.

Miscellany

Peraza was the youngest player on a Triple-A International League Opening Day roster this year and he started at second base Friday night. It was his third career game at second and his first since he was in the Dominican Summer League in 2017. He’s played every other game of his career at short. I wouldn’t read much into it. Not yet, anyway. If it continues at a notable pace, then we can talk. For now, I think it was as much about getting Oswaldo Cabrera a little time at shortstop as anything … Super early helium alert: Steven Jennings, who the Yankees selected from the Pirates in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft. He’s allowed two runs with 11 strikeouts in one walk in 10.2 innings with Double-A Somerset. Jennings, 23, was the No. 41 pick in the 2017 draft and was mostly 88-92 mph as a starter with Pittsburgh. Apparently he’s living in the 93-95 mph range out of the bullpen this season. His slider has always been touted as his best pitch. It’s only 10.2 innings, but if the new velocity sticks (or even continues increasing), Jennings could be next to come down the organization’s reliever assembly line … And finally, I have no idea what the Yankees plan to do with Miguel Andujar. He is 17-for-49 (.347) with three homers in 13 Triple-A games. He has nothing to prove at that level and isn’t being challenged. With the deadened ball, Andujar’s ability to make contact with anything and spray the ball to all fields has heightened value. Is there really no way to fit him on the roster? Can't send down Ron Marinaccio this week and go with a five-man bench before rosters go back to 26 players next Monday? The Yankees aren’t doing anything against the rules by keeping Andujar in Triple-A. Just feels like nothing is being accomplished. He's stagnating.

3. 2022 draft prospect: Wisconsin HS SS Gavin Kilen. 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 we’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.

Wisconsin is becoming a hitter hotbed. The state has produced four big leaguers in recent years (Jarred Kelenic, Gavin Lux, Owen Miller, Ben Rortvedt) as well as a 2021 first round pick (Noah Miller, Owen’s brother). All except Owen were drafted out of high school, and they all train (or at one time trained) at Hitters Baseball, a famed data-driven facility outside Milwaukee.

Kilen is another Hitters Baseball disciple and his father, Chris, was a successful college pitcher and a 58th round pick of the Twins in 1993. He blew out his arm and never played professionally, however. Chris converted the family’s spacious garage into a batting cage. It’s pretty neat (watch the embedded video for a full look). Here are Kilen’s current draft rankings:

• Baseball America (subs. req’d): No. 77
• FanGraphs: No. 35
• Keith Law (subs. req’d): Not ranked in top 30
• MLB.com: No. 69

Listed at 5-foot-11 and 190 lbs., Kilen is a left-handed hitter, and he jumped onto the radar last summer, when he did not strike out a single time against top of the line competition in the five-day Area Code Games. His exit velocities in showcase events have reached 100 mph. Here’s video and here’s a snippet of MLB.com’s free scouting report:

He has outstanding hand-eye coordination, feel for the barrel and a quick left-handed stroke built for hitting line drives, though scouts would like to see him add some muscle and drive the ball more consistently. He projects to hit 12-15 homers per season but presently hits too many ground balls.

Kilen's speed and arm strength are more average than plus, so there are some questions about his long-term future at shortstop. His proponents believe the Louisville recruit has the actions, hands and instincts to remain at short. Others think he's destined to become an offensive-minded second baseman.

Opinions are split on Kilen’s glove. MLB.com’s report says “there are some questions about his long-term future at shortstop” while Baseball America (subs. req’d) calls him “one of the better defensive shortstops in the class,” adding “evaluators have called him a lights-out defender.” Not sure who to believe there.

Even if Kilen has to move to second base, that’s fine. The bat is the calling card either way. The Yankees have had success getting their contact-oriented hitting prospects to add power these last 2-3 years (Oswaldo Cabrera, Diego Castillo, Anthony Volpe, etc.) and Kilen fits that profile to a T. Get him to 20-homer power and he might really be something. I like him. I’m a fan.

The Lux comparisons are inevitable as a lefty hitting Wisconsin high school shortstop, and that’s the dream scenario. The high-contact bat develops power and proves to be a much better player than anticipated. Sometimes these cold weather state kids who don’t face great competition fly under the radar. Mike Trout is the gold standard there, but Volpe fits too. Maybe Kilen is next.

4. Remembering a random Yankee: Mike Vento. This week’s random Yankee is a request and it sends us real deep in the random Yankee weeds. Here’s the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

Vento grew up in Albuquerque and the Reds selected him in the 10th round of the 1996 draft out of high school. He did not sign and instead went to a junior college, but he had a poor season around injuries, and the Yankees took him in the 40th round in 1997. That time Vento signed.

A righty hitting corner outfielder, Vento hit .300/.372/.519 with 20 doubles and 20 homers in 130 games with High-A Tampa in 2001, earning him Florida State League MVP honors. He struggled in Double-A the next year, then slashed .303/.357/.470 with 33 doubles and 14 homers in 132 games split between Double-A and Triple-A in 2003. 

After that season, Baseball America (subs. req’d) ranked Vento as the No. 22 prospect in the system. Here’s part of their scouting report:

Vento was limited to 64 games in 2002 after breaking his nose and suffering a second-degree concussion in a home-plate collision. In 2003, he took advantage of his first opportunity in Triple-A after Juan Rivera was promoted to New York. Vento continued to rake in the Arizona Fall League, though a shoulder injury relegated him to DH. Built along the lines of Shane Spencer, Vento makes consistent hard contact and shows above-average power. He has made strides to improve his plate coverage and is no longer as pull-happy, though he still doesn't draw many walks. Vento will spend a full season in Triple-A and be on call in case of emergency in New York. He's not a first-division corner outfielder, though he could fill a reserve role.

The Yankees added Vento to the 40-man roster in Nov. 2003 and he spent all of 2004 and most of 2005 in Triple-A, hitting a combined .284/.350/.443 with 65 doubles and 27 home runs in 252 games. Good numbers but not WOW numbers, especially for a corner outfielder on the light side of the platoon. Vento was a depth piece and not much more.

On Sept. 2nd, 2005, the 27-year-old Vento was summoned to the big leagues for the first time. He made his MLB debut as a pinch-runner on Sept. 13th. The Yankees were up 15-2 in the sixth inning in Tampa, and Vento entered as part of wholesale changes. Remember when the old Sept. call up rules allowed teams to replace their entire starting lineup in blowouts? Those were the days.

Vento was stranded at third base and remained in the game to play right field. He batted for the first time as a big leaguer in the eighth inning. Matt Lawton was on first with one out. I can’t find any video of the game, so I couldn’t see it for myself, but here’s Tyler Kepner describing the unusual double play Vento hit into:

Vento had an unusual major league debut, bouncing to short for a fielder's choice in his first at-bat in the eighth, then getting doubled off first base. Vento watched the play as he ran to first, and started trotting off the field after he crossed the bag safely.

The fielders had reacted as if the forceout at second were the last out of the inning, and Vento said it confused him. But it took him only an inning to redeem himself.

With one out in the ninth, Vento made a running catch in right-center. He fired to first to double off Alex Gonzalez, ending the game, a fitting conclusion to a laugher.

"My mind went back to normal," Vento said. "Everything just felt like it was on fast-forward."

Joe Torre told Kepner that Vento was “nervous as a cat” during his MLB debut. Also, when he entered the game, Vento became the 51st different player used by the Yankees that season, setting a new franchise record. The Yankees have broken that record several times since (thanks in part to the COVID outbreaks, the current record is 59 in 2021), but using 50 different players back then was basically unheard of.

Anyway, Vento did not play again until the final day of the regular season, when Torre pulled all his regulars in the middle innings to avoid last second injuries heading into the postseason. Vento went 0-for-1 with a strikeout on the day and 0-for-2 with a strikeout and that weird double play in his month as a big leaguer that season.

The Yankees dropped Vento from the 40-man roster after the season and he eventually signed a minor league contract with the Nationals. His Yankees career consisted of two at-bats and seven defensive innings in right field. Excluding pitchers, Vento is one of three Yankees to make more outs than plate appearances. The list:

• Trey Amburgey, 2021: 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and a double play
• Mike Vento, 2005: 0-for-2 with a strikeout and a double play
• Jim Deidel, 1974: 0-for-2 with a double play

Oof, poor Amburgey. You may remember he got hurt running out that double play (video). He signed a minor league deal with the Reds this offseason and is hitting .236/.263/.418 in 14 Triple-A games.

As for Vento, he signed with the Nationals and played well enough in Spring Training 2006 that they put him on the 40-man roster to prevent him from using an opt out. Vento started the year in Triple-A, was called up in late May, and went 5-for-18 (.278) with a double in nine games. That was his last stint in the big leagues. He finished 5-for-20 (.250) in 11 career games.

From 2007-09, Vento bounced from Triple-A with the Blue Jays to the Sinon Bulls (now the Fubon Guardians) in the Chinese Professional Baseball League to the Camden Riversharks of the independent Atlantic League to Triple-A with the Nationals again. Vento has been out of baseball since 2009 and I have no idea what he’s doing these days. Probably wondering why the fielders acted like the inning was over on that weird double play.

5. Rapid fire thoughts. The Jacoby Ellsbury grievance has been settled. It was settled quite a while ago, in fact. Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman report the two sides reached a settlement in time to lower Ellsbury’s luxury tax hit in 2020, and allow the Yankees to stay under the $248M second threshold. Settlement terms are unknown, though Ellsbury’s luxury tax hit was $21.85M and the Yankees had a $263.3M luxury tax payroll in 2020, per FanGraphs. Let’s say the settlement allowed them to finish just under the threshold at $247.9M. That equals $15.4M in savings (plus the Yankees didn’t have to pay tax on that). The Yankees withheld $26M in real dollars ($21M salary in 2020 plus $5M buyout of 2021 club option), so subtract the $15.4M from the $26M and Ellsbury got $10.6M in the settlement. Figure somewhere in that neighborhood. Of course, the guy made over $150M in his career, so he might not even have noticed the direct deposit. Anyway, that’s all wrapped up now. The Ellsbury grievance is no more … And finally, you can scratch Michael Conforto off the list of possible outfield targets if the Yankees trade Joey Gallo or suffer an injury or whatever. Conforto recently had shoulder surgery and will miss the season. Rough. He hurt himself during a workout in January. Conforto reportedly turned down a long-term extension last year and definitely turned down the $18.4M qualifying offer this offseason. The outfield is up in the air beyond 2022. Maybe the Yankees will target Conforto as a buy low guy on a one-year prove yourself deal next offseason? He’d make sense as a lefty bat who knows (and has thrived in) New York, and would fit well into a possible plan to get under the luxury tax threshold in 2024. I guess we’ll see. Conforto’s injury also means the 2022 draft order is final. No picks are moving around because no team is signing him now.

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