January 18th, 2022: Future of the Pitching Staff, Taillon, Krook

Lockout, Day 48: I recommend Dayn Perry’s exhaustive look at the 1972 season, a season that forever changed baseball. Come for the 50-year look back at that historic season, stay for the Yankees’ pinstriped Datsun bullpen car. Anyway, let’s get to today’s post.

1. The future at each position: pitching. With the lockout ongoing, this is as good a time as any to take a step back and look at the future of the Yankees. We examined the infield and the outfield last week, and there are some pretty big decisions coming over the next 12-24 months. Second base and DH are the only position player spots with any sort of long-term certainty.

Pitching is a different animal because there is so much inherent injury risk, which leads to a ton of turnover. It’s unavoidable. The Mets had the championship rotation in place when they went to the 2015 World Series, then it fell apart. Look at the big three the Giants had during their mini-dynasty. The names were the same but the postseason roles changed:

• 2010: Tim Lincecum was the ace, Matt Cain was the No. 2 starter, and Madison Bumgarner was the No. 4 starter.
• 2012: Cain the ace, Bumgarner the No. 2, Lincecum in the bullpen.
• 2014: Bumgarner the ace, Lincecum in the bullpen, Cain not on the postseason roster.

The early-2000s Athletics were the last team to have sustained success built around the same pitching core (Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito). Look how much the Astros, Dodgers, and Braves have changed their pitching staffs the last few years. The name of the game is options. You hope you can come up with a core group of pitchers to build around, but ultimately you need depth and as many viable big leaguers as possible.

So, when we look at the Yankees and wonder who will be the No. 2 starter behind Gerrit Cole in a year or two, just know we’ll probably be asking the same question the year after that, and again the year after that. That’s just pitching. We’ll break down the long-term pitching situation as best we can right now. Really though, this is just a snapshot in time. Let’s get to it.

Starters

Incumbents: Gerrit Cole (signed through 2028), Nestor Cortes (free agent after 2025), Domingo German (free agent after 2024), Jordan Montgomery (free agent after 2023), Luis Severino (signed for 2022 with an option for 2023), Jameson Taillon (free agent after 2022)

Notable prospects: Deivi Garcia, Luis Gil, Luis Medina, Clarke Schmidt, Ken Waldichuk, Hayden Wesneski

Start your rotation with Cole and you’re doing better than most. Cole’s been fantastic in his two seasons with the Yankees (3.11 ERA and 3.20 FIP in 42 starts) while dealing with the weirdness of the pandemic season and the in-season foreign substance crackdown. He’s in his 30s now (turned 31 in September), though he’s shown no signs of slipping. I’ll worry about Cole’s decline when we begin to see signs of it. He’s awesome.

The only wrong opinion about Montgomery is a strong one. If you feel strongly he’s great, he’s going to make you look dumb at some point. And if you feel strongly he’s just a back-end starter, he’s going to make you look dumb at some point. Based on last year, Montgomery is a solidly above-average big league starter, albeit one with an unfortunate knack for big league innings.

Montgomery has two years of arbitration remaining and I think Steven Matz’s four-year, $44M contract with the Cardinals this offseason works as a decent benchmark for Montgomery’s free agent contract. That is exactly the kind of pitching contract the Yankees don’t do. They’ll go big for Cole or CC Sabathia, or do a one-year deal for Corey Kluber or Hiroki Kuroda, but four years for a mid-rotation guy? Nah. They avoid those, so it could be Montgomery is a goner in two years, when he will be 31.

Severino is entering what might be a career-defining season. He missed most of 2019-21 with injuries and will have to stay healthy and pitch well (as a starter) for the Yankees to even consider picking up his $15M club option. There’s a $2.75M buyout, so it’s a $12.25M decision, but even then I don’t think the Yankees would pick it up if Severino settles in as a reliever (even a good reliever). They could re-sign him to a smaller salary, but more injuries or ineffectiveness would likely end his time with the Yankees.

Depending on his health and performance in 2022, Taillon could be heading for one of those 3-4 year contracts the Yankees don’t give mid-rotation guys. Cortes and German are fine depth arms who, realistically, probably won’t reach the end of their team control years in pinstripes. Nothing against them. It’s just that those No. 4-5 starter/swingman types can become unrosterable in a hurry if their performance slips and they start making decent money in arbitration.

If your standard for pitcher development success is producing aces, then the Yankees are a bad pitcher development organization. That’s not a realistic standard though. Aces are rare and no team produces them consistently. The Yankees have done very well developing trade chips and back-end starters, and five of the six pitching prospects listed pitched in Triple-A last year. They are knocking on the door and available as depth options right away.

That said, they all come with questions (Deivi was awful last year, Gil and Medina have issues throwing strikes, Schmidt keeps getting hurt, etc.), and we’ll just have to see how things shake out early in the season. Someone will get hurt, someone will pop and make us wonder when he’ll get called up, etc. You know how it is. The important thing is the organization’s top six – top six! – starting pitcher prospects are all Triple-A ready players. They’re not Single-A kids.

What’s left of this offseason's free agent pitching class leaves much to be desired beyond Carlos Rodon. Next year’s free agent class has incredible depth (Chris Bassitt, Mike Clevinger, Sean Manaea, Joe Musgrove, Noah Syndergaard, etc.) but no slam dunk, no doubt about it ace. I suppose Jacob deGrom could use his opt out clause, but even if he does, I’m sure Steve Cohen will pony up whatever it takes to re-sign him. Carlos Carrasco stands out as a potential Kluber-like reclamation project.

On the trade front, we have to watch the Orioles (John Means), Reds (Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle), and Rockies (German Marquez) closely the next year or two. Eventually Cleveland will put Shane Bieber on the block like they did Clevinger, Kluber, and Francisco Lindor (and Jose Ramirez soon enough too). The Yankees don’t do multi-year deals for mid-rotation starters, but they will trade 3-4 second tier prospects for guys with upside, like Taillon and James Paxton and Sonny Gray.

This is the build-a-pitcher era and the Yankees showed the ability to find under the radar arms and get them to level up last season (Cortes, Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta, etc.). That’s a useful skill. It also can’t be the only way you build a staff, at least not when you have the Yankees resources. High-priced short-term deals and trading prospects for guys with track records and some semblance of reliability and predictability is okay too.

The Yankees have shown a willingness to carry two huge pitching contracts simultaneously. CC Sabathia’s first contract (the original seven-year deal plus the extension to keep him from opting out) and Masahiro Tanaka overlapped for four years, and Tanaka and Cole overlapped for one year. Also, the Yankees reportedly offered Justin Verlander one year and $25M this offseason, so between him and Cole, they were willing to spend $61M on two pitchers in 2022.

We could pick this apart and come up with reasons why the Yankees won’t do that again. For example, signing Tanaka was a special case because he had just turned 25. Tanaka and Cole were a one-year thing, Cole and Verlander would have been a one-year thing, etc. Cole has seven years remaining on his contract. Would they really take on another $20M+ a year pitcher for, say, four or five years? I’m skeptical.

The other issue is there aren’t going to be many pitchers worth a huge free agent contract the next few offseasons. Maybe Syndergaard next winter if he stays healthy and it comes together post-Tommy John surgery this year, or Blake Snell and Julio Urias in two years. Walker Buehler will be 30 when he hits the market in three years. It’ll be awhile until another Cole or Tanaka, a top guy in his 20s, is available. Big money pitchers don’t grow on trees.

I don’t think the Yankees will give out another $20M+ a year multi-year pitching contract for another few years, and I say that mostly because there aren’t many guys scheduled to hit the market who are worth that kind of investment. A high-priced one-year deal like Verlander? Yes, I could see that. But four or five years stacked with Cole? It could happen, sure, but I’ll need to see it to believe it. The Yankees are too cost conscious and risk averse at the moment.

Post-2022 outlook: For the foreseeable future, I expect any meaningful rotation additions to come via short-term (i.e. one-year) free agent deals, or trades for guys under team control. And that’s fine! It limits your market a bit, but you can get some really great pitchers that way. Nothing says you can’t keep those pitchers longer term if it makes sense, and if it doesn’t work out, you can easily move on. It reduces risk without completely eliminating upside.

As much as any team can count on any two starting pitchers, the Yankees can count on Cole and Montgomery anchoring the rotation the next two years. With any luck Severino will stay healthy and perform in 2022, then hang around in 2023 via his club option. Beyond them, the Yankees will see what they have in their upper level prospects, and scour the second tier of free agency and every level of the trade market. Trying to predict what the rotation will look like come 2024 is a fool’s errand. Even 2023 is up in the air.

Relievers

Incumbents: Aroldis Chapman (free agent after 2022), Chad Green (free agent after 2022), Clay Holmes (free agent after 2024), Mike King (free agent after 2025), Jonathan Loaisiga (free agent after 2024), Lucas Luetge (free agent after 2024), Wandy Peralta (free agent after 2023), Joely Rodriguez (free agent after 2022)

Notable prospects: Albert Abreu, Ron Marinaccio, Stephen Ridings, JP Sears, and also every starting pitcher prospect listed earlier

The end of the high-priced reliever era may be upon us. Chapman and Zack Britton, who is unlikely to pitch in 2022 as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery, come off the books next winter. So does Green, who doesn’t make as much as those two but does make good money for a non-closer in his arbitration years (projected $4.1M in 2022). Britton, Chapman, and Green will make roughly $34M this coming season, then become free agents.

I’m not sure the Yankees will carry multiple eight-figure relievers again anytime soon. They have become very good at unearthing and developing relievers – it seems like every year they call up some rando who throws 100 and was selling vacuum cleaners door to door last offseason – and the system is loaded with power arms. Beyond the prospects listed above are Greg Weissert, Mitch Spence, Zach Greene … all dudes with a chance to pitch in a big league bullpen.

There’s nothing wrong with paying big for a top closer (I mentioned Josh Hader as a possible target not too long ago), but the Yankees are at the point now where they don’t need to do it. There was a time when buying a reliever was the only way Mariano Rivera would have a reliable setup man. That is no longer the case. I can see a path forward in which Loaisiga takes over as closer in 2023 with a setup crew that looks nothing like the 2021 bullpen. Holmes and Peralta were not even remotely on the radar at this time last year. Wanna bet the Yankees dig up another Holmes type in 2022?

Relievers and bullpens in general are volatile, so even though the Yankees have been good at building bullpens the last few years, it’s not guaranteed to last. Guys could get hurt, things could break wrong one year, so on and so forth. If it happens, the Yankees will deal with it as best they can. Relievers are their developmental strength. They have more viable bullpeners than roster spots, so it’s an ongoing cycle of trading some and finding places for others.

Post-2022 outlook: Britton, Chapman, and Green will likely be gone come 2023 (Britton has talked about wanting to make good on his contract, so I could see him returning on a lower cost deal), at which point Loaisiga figures to become the No. 1 guy in the bullpen. He has an injury history and isn’t guaranteed to be healthy or effective a year from now, but Loaisiga is really freakin’ good. Having him as a closer in waiting is pretty great.

Trying to predict who will be a dominant reliever a year or two from now is pointless. These guys come out of nowhere (Lucas Luetge, anyone?) and sometimes the guy you hope will be a starter winds up in relief (Schmidt?). Britton and Chapman coming off the books opens the door for another $10M+ reliever, if the Yankees want to go that route. If not, they’ll stick to combing through arms and seeing who sticks. Really the only thing I can say about the bullpen long-term is I trust the Yankees to figure it out, even with the position's inherent unpredictability.

2. Taillon’s rehab. Another year, another offseason injury rehab for Jameson Taillon. I guess technically he completed his Tommy John surgery rehab before the offseason last year, but he was still coming off an injury. This offseason Taillon had ankle surgery soon after the Yankees lost the Wild Card Game, and he says his rehab is going well.

“I feel better than I thought I would be feeling picking up a ball this late in the offseason,” Taillon said during a recent podcast appearance (per Brendan Kuty). “Throwing like 3-4 times a week right now at my physical therapy facility. Feels really great actually. I don’t feel the ankle at all. Obviously, I’m not wearing cleats yet. I’m not pushing off or throwing 95 mph or anything. But I'm super happy with where I’m at. Last time I threw toward the end of the year, I felt it pretty frequently.”

About two weeks ago Taillon posted a video of his latest throwing session, and while he’s not going all out yet, he’s doing more than simply playing catch. Last month he told Lindsey Alder (subs. req’d) they made two tendons into one during the surgery – “They basically attached the two tendons and they’re calling it a supertendon, which is kind of badass,” he said – and he also gave an update on his time frame:

We have a rough timeline of when I can start really playing catch, which would be sometime in like mid to late January. But even the doctor was kind of like, “You guys are the pitching experts.” A typical offseason throwing progression would be like six to eight weeks of playing catch and then four weeks of bullpens. So basically everything I’m doing is kind of a month behind, but I’m not really sure where that will leave us at the end.

So a month behind, which puts Taillon on track to return in late April or early May. When the Yankees announced the surgery, Brian Cashman said Taillon would be “fully operational” after five months, which was late March. I guess “fully operational” means ready to pitch in games? Then a month of minor league rehab games to serve as Taillon’s Spring Training?

Ankle injuries are better than arm injuries, though they’re not nothing either. Pitchers use their legs to generate power, and if the ankle is compromised, it could lead to an arm issue. That’s what I was worried about when Taillon was pitching on the ankle late in the year, but thankfully that didn’t happen. I’ll never forget Chien-Ming Wang hurting his foot, then blowing out his shoulder because his lower half was compromised.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but I have a few quick things to say. First, the April schedule lines up in such a way that the Yankees won’t be able to use off-days to skip their No. 5 starter at all the first month (that’s assuming the lockout ends at some point). Second, I really hope the Yankees give Taillon a full rehab and don’t rush him back like they’ve done a few times with injured guys over the years. If he needs that extra rehab start or two, so be it.

Three, even though this is an ankle injury, Taillon’s offseason throwing program has been compromised, so don’t be surprised if he returns with diminished velocity at first. Maybe 92-93 mph more than 94-95 mph. And given how much he relies on his fastball, those missing 1-2(-3) mph could be a pretty big deal. That’s why I want a full complement of rehab starts and not some predetermined number he may meet before being in regular season form.

And four, this is Taillon’s contract season, so while I understand he will want to get back on the mound and perform as soon as possible, quality is better than quantity. 100-120 above-average innings will do more for his free agent stock than 140-150 average-ish innings. Teams are all about impact these days. They’d rather use six guys who are great in short bursts to get through a game than three guys who aren’t quite as good, but require fewer moves.

The Yankees will have to fight the urge to bring Taillon back quickly, which is easy to say now but not so easy to do when Domingo German runs a 2.5 HR/9 or April or Nestor Cortes can’t get more than 12 outs at a time (hypothetically speaking). And Taillon has to fight the urge to come back quickly to help the team, and also improve his free agent stock. With the expanded postseason on its way, you won’t have to worry quite as much about getting in, so it should – should – be easier to give Taillon any extra time to get ready.

We’ll see what the Yankees do after the lockout, but there’s realistically nothing they can do to turn Taillon from a necessity into a luxury. He’s important, so it’s good his rehab is going well, but he still has a long ways to go here. It’s mid January and he’s looking at a late April or early May return, so that’s still four more months of work. For now, his rehab seems to be going according to plan.

3. Krook’s future. I’ve started to piece together my annual top 30 prospects list and (spoiler) lefty Matt Krook won’t make it. I can’t rank a 27-year-old who walked 60 batters in 106 innings last year – FanGraphs covered 64 players in their Yankees prospects post, but not Krook – but he’s interesting, and there is a chance at some MLB utility here.

Quick background: Krook was the No. 35 pick in 2013 out of high school, but the Marlins didn’t like something in his physical, so they didn’t sign him. Krook went to Oregon, blew out his elbow and needed Tommy John surgery, then the Giants took him in the fourth round in 2016. They sent him to the Rays in the Evan Longoria trade and the Yankees took him from the Rays in last offseason’s minor league Rule 5 Draft. His 2021 season:

In hindsight, Krook was one of the first indications the Yankees were going all-in on sinkers and changeups. In last year’s Rule 5 Draft write-up Eric Longenhagen said Krook has a “great sinker and changeup but poor command and a rough medical history.” Baseball America (subs. req’d) wrote “his sinker has movement that draws comparisons to Zack Britton” in 2019.

Krook’s injuries go beyond the Tommy John surgery, but he stayed healthy and threw a career high 106 innings last year, and he used that sinker and changeup to lead the minors in ground ball rate (min. 100 innings). Among the 178 pitchers to throw at least 80 innings at Double-A and Triple-A, Krook was 17th in strikeout rate and first in ground ball rate. To put it another way:

Krook also had the ninth highest swinging strike rate (14.9%) among those 178 pitchers. He was legitimately excellent, and he got better as the season went on too. Krook allowed two earned runs with a 66% ground ball rate and a respectable 9.0% walk rate in his final six starts* and 33 innings. Opponents hit .160/.223/.210 against him in those six starts.

* Krook skipped his second to last scheduled start to attend his sister’s wedding, so says Conor Foley. You may remember MLB announced the minor league postseason format in July. The wedding date was set before the announcement, so the Yankees let him go home for the wedding, then he returned to make his final start of the year.

A guy with an arm injury history getting better as he got deeper into the season and eclipsed his previous career high workload is encouraging. It would have been understandable if Krook wore down in September. Instead, he was great all year. Here's video of Krook from behind the plate. His ball moves all over the place. Here’s the delivery from the traditional center field camera (GIF via Scranton RailRiders):

Not the prettiest delivery. Krook’s arm swing is very long in the back and he cuts himself off on his follow through. Instead of falling off to the third base side of the rubber, he finishes almost upright. I guess the injuries aren’t too surprising with that delivery. Anyway, Krook surely throws hard given all the strikeouts and ground balls, right? Well, no.

“Kudos to the scouting department on finding Matt. He’s one of those diamonds in the rough,” Double-A Somerset pitching coach Daniel Moskos told Randy Miller (subs. req’d) last May. “... (His) stuff is just really good. It moves all over the place. He’s a taller guy (6-foot-4), but not a guy that relies so much on velocity. He’s anywhere from 89-92, but he gets a lot of overall movement, and so he relies on movement over velocity.”

Krook’s spin rates are low and low spin is what you want on sinkers and changeups because it creates tumbling action. Even at Double-A and Triple-A, you’ll need a ton – a TON – of movement to miss as many bats and get as many grounders as Krook did last year while sitting around 90 mph. He doesn’t light up the radar gun, but he’s tough to square up.

Seeing the delivery and reading how much his ball moves, I understand why Krook’s control has been poor (career 15.0% walks), and that might be his fatal flaw. His control just may never get better. You can survive and even thrive in a relief role with a high walk rate, Aroldis Chapman and Dellin Betances did it for years, but it’s a tough needle to thread. Strikeouts are a must with that many free baserunners. Too many bad things can happen with contact.

Krook will play the entire 2022 season at age 27 and he is Rule 5 Draft eligible again. The fact he was not selected in the minor league Rule 5 Draft last month tells me the Yankees like him enough to put him on their 38-man Triple-A reserve list (a guy with Krook’s Triple-A success would have been a slam dunk pick had he not been protected) though he’s available for the Major League phase, assuming that happens at some point. If a team takes him, so be it. You can't keep everyone.

Should Krook survive the Rule 5 Draft, it might be time to put him in the bullpen and see where it leads, though keeping him stretched out as a starter and letting him accumulate innings works too. The guy threw only 243.2 innings from 2018-21 because of injuries and the pandemic. Give him as many innings as possible and maybe he develops average-ish control, who knows?

Krook’s velocity doesn’t pop, but his pitches move all over the place, and all the strikeouts and ground balls at the highest levels of the minors have my attention. 271 of the 445 hitters Krook faced in 2021 either struck out or hit the ball on the ground (61%). Even as an up and down reliever, that can play, and we know the Yankees are all about sinkers and changeups these days. Age is just a number. Who cares if Krook debuts at 27 if he can get outs? At minimum, he’s a deep sleeper to watch in 2022. There’s ability here.

4. Remembering a random Yankee: Branden Pinder. This week’s random Yankee comes by request and is one of five players in franchise history with a 1.000 batting average. Here’s the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

A Southern California kid from Corona, Pinder played his college ball at Santa Ana College and Long Beach State. He was a starting pitcher with the Dirtbags and not an especially good one, pitching to a 5.04 ERA with 170 hits allowed in 148.1 innings his junior and senior years. Pinder struck out only 103 batters in those 148.1 innings. The numbers weren’t good.

Despite that, the Yankees selected Pinder with their 16th round pick (509th overall) in the 2011 draft, and paid him a $60,000 bonus. Here’s a snippet of Baseball America’s pre-draft scouting report (subs. req’d):

(At) his best he gets good sink on an 88-91 mph fastball that bumps 92. He adds and subtracts from a three-quarters breaking ball that ranges from the mid-70s to the low 80s, and his changeup is decent, but he sometimes struggles to stay on top of his stuff. He has a low three-quarters slot and a crossfire, rotational delivery, and he profiles as a middle reliever.

The Yankees put Pinder in the bullpen and his stuff ticked up immediately. His low-90s fastball jumped into the mid-90s, and he allowed only four runs in 31 innings with Short Season Staten Island in his pro debut. Pinder struck out 38 and walked five, and was suddenly on the prospect radar. Baseball America ranked him the team’s No. 30 prospect going into 2012.

From 2012-14, Pinder climbed from High-A Tampa to Triple-A Scranton, putting up a 3.26 ERA (3.32 FIP) with 22.7% strikeouts and 8.4% walks in 182 innings. That’s not amazing, but it is solid, and it was enough to keep getting Pinder promotions. The Yankees put Pinder on the 40-man roster in Nov. 2014 to protect him from that offseason’s Rule 5 Draft.

“I am very appreciative that the Yankees thought highly of me and protected me,” Pinder told Robert Pimpsner in Spring Training 2015. “But if they did not I would not have been worried … This season is key to me just like every season has been to me.”

Pinder didn’t wow in big league camp that year (6.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K), so he started the season in Triple-A, then was called up for the first time on April 15th. He went up and down six times in 2015, and his transactions log is a fun trip down Remember Some Guys lane:

• April 15th: Called up when Jose Pirela was put on the injured list.
• April 21st: Sent down to make room for Chasen Shreve.
• May 9th: Called up when Chris Martin was put on the injured list.
• May 24th: Sent down to make room for Jacob Lindgren.
• June 19th: Called up when Sergio Santos was put on the injured list.
• June 25th: Sent down to make room for Gregorio Petit.
• July 18th: Called up when Bryan Mitchell was sent down.
• July 25th: Sent down when Nick Goody was called up.
• Aug. 2nd: Called up when Diego Moreno was put on the injured list.
• Aug. 12th: Sent down when Nick Goody was called up.
• Aug. 22nd: Called up when Chris Capuano was designated for assignment.

Phew. Pinder made his MLB debut the day he was called up, throwing a scoreless inning in a 7-5 loss to the Orioles. The inning was highlighted by Everth Cabrera popping up a squeeze bunt and Pinder doubling the runner off third. Here’s the video. About a month later Pinder made a slick play on a weak tapper to get Adam Rosales at first. Here’s that video.

For an up and down arm/last guy in the bullpen type, Pinder was pretty good! He appeared in 25 games with the Yankees in 2015, 17 were scoreless, and only once did he allow more than one run in an appearance (and that was only two runs). The underlying numbers weren’t good (.262/.344/.486 opponent’s line with 14 walks and 25 strikeouts in 27.2 innings), but hey, a 2.93 ERA is a 2.93 ERA.

“Our bullpen guys have been used a lot. There’s no denying that,” then-manager Joe Girardi told Seth Berkman about Pinder and the bullpen shuttle in May. “I think you have to pick your spots where you shut them down and the other guys got to get it done.”

The highlight of Pinder’s season (and career) came in Atlanta on Aug. 20th. That afternoon the Yankees beat the crap out of a Braves team that would go on to lose 95 games, and in the late innings of the 20-6 beatdown, Pinder got an at-bat. Why bother pinch-hitting and warming up another reliever with a lead that big and your mop up guy on the mound?

Pinder got an at-bat against fellow righty Jake Brigham, and he ripped a double into the left-center field gap. Brett Gardner scored from second, giving Pinder an RBI. It was his first (and only) professional at-bat, so Pinder finished with a career 1.000/1.000/2.000 batting line at all levels. Here’s the video and here are the five Yankees with a 1.000 batting average:

• Branden Pinder, 2015-16: 1-for-1 with a double (pitcher)
• Chris Latham, 2003: 2-for-2 (outfielder)
• Larry Gowell, 1972: 1-for-1 (pitcher)
• Mickey Witek, 1949: 1-for-1 (infielder)
• Henie Odom, 1925: 1-for-1 (infielder)

Also, Pinder is the last Yankees pitcher with an extra-base hit! That’s less impressive than it sounds because Yankees pitchers only have two hits since then (singles by Michael Pineda and Luis Severino in 2017), but hey, it’s cool. With the universal DH coming, there’s a pretty good chance Pinder will go down as the last Yankees pitcher with an extra-base hit ever. Neat.

“I hit it and put my head down and ran,” Pinder told George King about the double.

The lowlight of Pinder’s season came three weeks earlier on Aug. 7th. Nathan Eovaldi and R.A. Dickey dueled at Yankee Stadium and the game went to extras tied 1-1. Girardi already used his top relievers (Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller, Justin Wilson) so Pinder got the ball against the middle of Toronto’s lineup in the tenth, and he served up a game-losing homer to Jose Bautista. Here’s the video. That was part of the Blue Jays’ second half run to the AL East title.

“I would have liked to get it more inside, but I didn’t,” Pinder told Dan Martin after the game. “It’s the same thing: Just get ahead and throw strikes. I’m not going to change my approach. They’re all just hitters in the box.”

Girardi told Martin: “He has been throwing the ball extremely well. A good slider against right-handed hitters. You look at the success that part of the order has had against left-handers. I went with the right-hander.”

Pinder, then 26, finished his rookie season with a 2.93 ERA (4.72 FIP) and +0.5 WAR in 27.2 innings. All things considered, turning a 16th round pick into half-a-win is a good outcome. The Yankees did not carry Pinder on their Wild Card Game roster that year (they only had nine pitchers on the Wild Card Game roster), then he came to camp in 2016 to compete for a bullpen job.

Spring Training went okay (7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 6 K) but not okay enough to put Pinder on the Opening Day roster. He went to Triple-A, then was called up to give the bullpen a fresh arm on April 16th. Pinder allowed two runs in an inning in a loss to the Athletics four days later. Two days after that, he was placed on the injured list with an elbow strain. Four days after that, the Yankees announced Pinder needed Tommy John surgery.

"It's frustrating because it's two guys that we thought would help us during the course of the year, so it does affect what we could possibly do,” Girardi told the Associated Press, referring to Pinder and Nick Rumbelow (Rumbelow blew out his elbow in Spring Training and needed Tommy John surgery).

Pinder was transferred to the 60-day injured list on May 9th to clear a 40-man roster spot for Aroldis Chapman, who came off the restricted list following the end of his suspension under the league’s domestic violence policy. After the season, Pinder was designated for assignment to clear a 40-man spot for waiver claim Joe Mantiply.

About a week later Pinder cleared waivers, so he remained in the system as a non-40-man player. He spent the first half of 2017 completing his Tommy John surgery rehab, and he finally got back into games in June. Pinder allowed one run (unearned) in 11.2 minor league rehab innings and struck out 11, though he also walked six and hit five batters.

The Yankees released Pinder on July 27th, ending his seven-year stint in the organization. Billy Eppler’s Angels signed him a week later, and Pinder allowed seven runs with seven walks and only two strikeouts in 8.1 innings the rest of the season. The Angels brought him to camp as a non-roster player in 2018, but he got hurt and then released, and he finished the season with the independent Island Island Ducks. Pinder allowed 11 runs in 10 innings with them.

And just like that, Pinder’s career was over. No team signed him following the indy ball stint in 2018, and he’s been out of baseball since. Tommy John surgery is a routine procedure at this point, but guys on the fringes of the MLB roster like Pinder have the most to lose. If their stuff backs up even a little bit, they’re unrosterable, and that’s what happened here. I’m not sure what Pinder is up to these days. As far as I can tell he's not working for a team or anything like that.

(The minimum salary was $507,500 in both 2015 and 2016, and Pinder finished with one year and 91 days of service time. That puts his MLB earnings in the $776,000 range. If you’re on the roster bubble and you’re going to blow out your elbow, you want to do it at the big league level so you go on the MLB injured list and collect MLB pay. Financially, Pinder is fortunate he hurt his elbow in his first game after being called up and not a few days earlier.)

5. Rapid fire thoughts. As expected, the Yankees signed Dominican shortstop Roderick Arias (Rod-A?) when the international signing period opened this past Saturday. Jesse Sanchez says he received a $4M bonus, again as expected. That leaves a little less than $1.2M in bonus pool space for other signings. Here’s a photo of Arias in Yankees garb. “He’s a five-tool guy with the ability to stay at short and be an impact player on offense. He’s shown some power and can run. His arm is elite. He has a cannon. You can never have enough shortstops. He’s got the potential to be an everyday shortstop and make an impact at that level,” international scouting director Donny Rowland told Dan Martin and Peter Botte about Arias. Ben Badler has several other Yankees signings, though they’re lower profile prospects and I don’t have any info on them. If I come across anything, I’ll be sure to pass it along. For now, Arias is officially (and finally) a Yankee … And finally, just a quick follow-up on the changes at Camden Yards. The Orioles sent out this rendering showing the new left field wall in relation to the old wall. Look at this:

That 90-degree corner by the bullpens looks like something I would make with the stadium creator in MLB The Show when I get bored. Camden Yards now has the deepest straight away left field in baseball, if you can believe that. It’s a spectacular ballpark. One of the very best in baseball. Now it has a weird gimmicky left field because the O’s can’t build a competent pitching staff. Maybe I’ll like it once I see it in action and how it plays. Based on the renderings though, yuck. The ballpark is 30 years old. Why is left field suddenly a problem now? Why does another team’s ballpark bother me this much? Bah. Stupid Orioles.

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