August 31st, 2021: Judge, Britton, Turner, Gil, Kluber, Parker

Aug. 31st already, huh? That happened fast. Still feels like we just got to 2021. The regular season ends in four weeks and five days, and I still have no idea what to expect from this Yankees team during that time. They could dominate, they could fall flat on their face. Nothing would surprise me. The Yankees are on pace to go 94-68 with 31 games remaining. Let’s get to today’s thoughts.

1. Judge’s MVP case. Let me start by saying Aaron Judge won’t (nor should) win MVP this season. It should go to Shohei Ohtani, who has redefined “valuable” this year. Ohtani is (probably) going to lead baseball in homers, he’s been a top five hitter overall, and he’s thrown over 100 innings at close to an ace level. This is once in a lifetime stuff. Easiest MVP call I can remember.

“To see what he’s doing this year, especially the past two nights, is pretty impressive,” Judge told Brendan Kuty during the Angels series in June (Ohtani went deep in the first two games at Yankee Stadium). “It feels like any pitch that is over the plate is going to get hit and it’s going to get hit hard. He’s a generational talent, that’s for sure.”

As for Judge, he is having his best season since his historic rookie year, both in terms of quantity and quality. His 117 games played and 504 plate appearances are his most since 2017. The only time Judge has missed was his COVID-19 absence last month. The performance stacks up well to the rest of his career (ignoring the weirdness of 2020):

• AVG: .294 (career high)
• OBP: .383 (behind .422 in 2017 and .392 in 2018)
• SLG: .537 (behind .627 in 2017 and .540 in 2019)
• wRC+: 151 (behind 174 in 2017)
• HR: 29 (behind 52 in 2017)
• WAR: +4.5 (behind +8.3 in 2017, +5.1 in 2018, and +4.6 WAR in 2019 with a month still to play)

Judge is also running the lowest strikeout (25.6%) and swing and miss (11.8%) rates of his career, and it’s not all that close either. His previous career lows were 28.1% strikeouts during the short 2020 season and 13.1% swings and misses in 2017. Judge has shaved five percentage points off his strikeout rate the last three years. That’s pretty cool.

Given the raw production, Judge is a safe bet to finish in the top 10 of the MVP voting this year. Maybe even the top five, depending how September plays out. It’s also pretty easy to build an MVP narrative for Judge, and the MVP is a narrative award. Many (not all) voters prefer to vote for players on contenders, who dealt with some sort of added pressure, etc. 

In Judge’s case, he was the Yankees best player (by A LOT) in the first half of the season, and helped keep them in the postseason race. From April through June, there were too many nights where, if Judge didn’t do something, the Yankees had little chance to score. The Yankees’ position player win probability added leaderboard from April through June:

1. Aaron Judge: +1.79
2. Gary Sanchez: +0.81
3. Tyler Wade: +0.30
4. Gio Urshela: +0.21
5. Mike Tauchman: +0.15

I don’t like win probability as an evaluation tool because it lacks so much context (the identity of the pitcher, who’s on deck, etc.). To me, it’s more of a “hey look at this” stat that tells a story, and in this case the story WPA tells is Judge was indispensable the first three months. He carried an underwhelming offense. Now here is the current AL championship probability added leaderboard:

1. Ryan Pressly: +2.67
2. Kendall Graveman: +2.46
3. Adam Ottavino: +2.14 (lol what a bad trade)
4. Aaron Judge: +2.13
5. Vlad Guerrero Jr.: +2.07

Championship probability added is win probability added on steroids. Win probability measures a player’s contributions to an individual win. Championship probability measures contributions to winning the World Series, and no position player in the league has helped inch their team closer to a championship than Judge because he kept the Yankees afloat early on. His impact was enormous. (Gerrit Cole is sixth on the list with +2.04 CPA.)

“He’s almost won an MVP and he’s been Rookie of the Year, and I think that’s what his ceiling is. To be one of, if not the best player in the league. He’s a guy that is a real MVP candidate,” Aaron Boone told Ryan Chichester in May. “... I guess MVP is his ceiling. He’s a special offensive player to go along with being a great right fielder.”

Furthermore, Judge is going to finish the year having played close to (or more than) a month’s worth of games in center field, allowing the Yankees to field their best lineup. And he’s done it seamlessly too. Has there been a single moment or play when Judge made you say “okay, this guy shouldn’t be in center?” It hasn’t happened once. He’s played center well.

Judge doesn’t get enough credit for his defense nationally. My sense is most non-Yankees fans view him as a big lumbering slugger who hits homers and strikes out a bunch, because it’s easy to stereotype home run hitters who strike out a bunch as one-dimensional players. That isn’t the case with Judge, who’s great defensively and has even stolen six bases in the second half.

The raw stats are great and they’re supplemented by a strong “valuable” narrative. Judge was the single biggest reason the Yankees hung around the race while underperforming in the first half, and he is the single biggest reason they’ve made this big surge in the second half. Giancarlo Stanton has been a great sidekick and the rotation has been awesome, but Judge is the centerpiece here.

Again, I don’t expect Judge to win MVP and I don’t think he should win either. Ohtani is having a transcendent season. In a non-Ohtani year though, then yeah, Judge would be very much in the MVP mix. He’s been the best player on one of the best teams in the league, and it was a team that tried like hell to play its way out of contention in the first half. Judge didn’t let them.

“I feel like this year -- and obviously he’s been pretty hot lately -- but he’s had less stretches where he carries us and less of those couple weeks where he really struggles,” Boone told Ken Davidoff in Oakland. “I think he’s probably playing at his best right now. He’s physically in a good place. Really focused from a game-planning standpoint. He has a really good idea each and every day of what he’s looking for in the box. I feel like he’s executing his plan in the box. He’s playing really well.”

2. Britton’s surgery. The Yankees placed Zack Britton on the 60-day injured list yesterday*, officially ending his season. The good news is Britton avoided Tommy John surgery, the obvious worst case scenario. Turns out his elbow ligament is not compromised at all. He needs to have bone chips removed and that’s it, reports Jon Heyman. All things considered, that’s good news. (The Yankees have not yet confirmed Heyman's report, for what it's worth.)

Britton had bone chips removed from his elbow in Spring Training and I guess they either didn’t get all of them, or he developed new ones/shook others loose. I have no idea how these things work. What I do know is pitchers who have bone chips removed from their elbow early in the offseason are usually ready for Spring Training (Masahiro Tanaka had bone chips taken out after 2015 and 2019 and was ready for camp). Britton will have a month head start.

As poorly as Britton pitched this season, losing him is not insignificant. The Yankees had a month to get him right before the postseason, and when Britton’s right, he’s still an excellent late inning reliever. Now there’s no chance to get him on track and have him contribute, and lighten the setup load on Jonathan Loaisiga and Chad Green. It’s up to others to pick up the slack.

“Something that’s happened this season is, we’ve found out about some other people that have worked themselves into the conversation and worked themselves into more meaningful roles,” Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch yesterday. “If it’s the fifth inning one night or the eighth inning another night, you play the matchup game a little bit. Wandy Peralta has earned opportunities. Clay Holmes has really earned opportunities. We’re able to have a little bit of flexibility there. Most of those guys are capable of getting more than three outs on certain nights.”

There’s not much more to say about Britton’s injury at this point. Sucks to lose him, glad he’ll be able to return next year. Paying him $14M to not pitch next year and then become a free agent after the season would’ve sucked. For the Steinbrenners, anyway (what do I care?). Get well soon, Zack. Hopefully this surgery clears up all the problems we saw this season.

* I completely lost track of the 40-man roster during the COVID outbreak. When Brody Koerner was outrighted over the weekend, I thought that cleared a spot for Corey Kluber, but nope. That cleared a spot for Holmes to come off the COVID list (Koerner was put on outright waivers last week and it takes a few days to clear). Britton went on the 60-day injured list to clear a spot for Kluber yesterday. The 40-man is full right now. I’m sure of it because you can only use the 60-day injured list when the 40-man is full.

3. Missing out on Turner. A thing I wish I’d written about/the Yankees had pursued: trading for Trea Turner at the deadline. The Yankees pursued Trevor Story (and settled for Anthony Rizzo after missing out on Story), so they were open to adding a shortstop, and Turner might be the best shortstop in baseball right now. He’s not a rental either. He’s under control next year.

There were three reasons to pursue Turner. One, he’s great! The guy is hitting .322/.368/.514 (135 wRC+) with 20 homers and 26 steals in 30 attempts. He’s a very good defender too. Yes, Turner would have been another righty hitter in a lineup loaded with righty hitters, but he’s a low-ish strikeout guy (17.7%) with elite speed. He’s nothing like the other guys in the lineup.

Two, the upcoming free agent class is loaded with shortstops, though the bloom has come off the rose a bit. Carlos Correa has been great but Story, Javier Baez, and Corey Seager have all been less productive than usual and/or hurt. Plus I’m not sure the Yankees are willing to hand out another big money long-term deal just yet. I’ll need to see it to believe it.

And three, the other free agent shortstops, the stopgap types, are terrible. Freddy Galvis, Jose Iglesias, Andrelton Simmons … yuck. I would much rather stick with Gleyber Torres at shortstop than make any of those guys an everyday player. So, if you’re not going to spend big on a free agent shortstop, the rest of the market is unappealing. There’s no middle ground this winter.

Turner would have upgraded the 2021 and 2022 Yankees without adding another big long-term deal to the books. And come 2023, Oswaldo Peraza and/or Anthony Volpe could be ready to take over, plus Turner could have netted the Yankees a compensation draft pick were he to sign elsewhere as a free agent*. Turner would have been the ideal stopgap shortstop and I’m mad at myself for not pushing for it sooner (or at all). My bad.

* Assuming compensation draft picks tied to free agency are still a thing with the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. It would suck if they aren’t with Joey Gallo, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and Jameson Taillon all set to become free agents next offseason.

Of course, what I write doesn’t matter. As far as we know the Yankees did not pursue Turner, and even if they did, I’m not sure they could have beaten the package the Dodgers gave up. It’s difficult to unravel that package because Los Angeles also received Max Scherzer in that trade and he’s a significant player. Here’s the trade package anyway:

• C Keibert Ruiz (top 20 global prospect)
• RHP Josiah Gray (top 50 global prospect)
• RHP Gerardo Carrillo (top 10 team prospect)
• OF Donovan Casey (top 20 team prospect)

Maybe knock Ruiz or Gray out of the package to account for no Scherzer, and that’s what it would have taken to get Turner alone? Something like Peraza (the top 100 prospect), Luis Gil (the top 10 team prospect), and Everson Pereira (the top 20 team prospect)? I dunno. That’s ballpark-ish, and I don’t want to spend too much thinking about it now that a trade is impossible.

The Yankees gave up four good prospects to get 1.5 years of Gallo, but Turner is a better player and he plays a more premium position, so the Nationals could have rightfully demanded more for 1.5 years of Turner than the smorgasbord of second tier prospects the Yankees gave up for 1.5 years of Gallo. I’m not sure the Yankees could have gotten Turner without Peraza or Volpe, and hey, Turner is so good it would have been worth considering.

It’s pretty clear the Yankees did not want to part with their top prospects at the deadline, plus they would have needed the Nationals to pay the remainder of Turner’s $13M salary to make the luxury tax plan work, and money always complicates things. But gosh, Turner would have been such a great fit this year and next. What a ballplayer he is.

I have no idea what the Yankees are going to do at shortstop next year. It feels like they won’t hand out a big contract (because they have several on the books already), won’t sign a stopgap free agent (because they all stink), and won’t stick with Torres (because they actively tried to get a new shortstop at the deadline). The future at an important position is cloudy.

4. Sept. call ups. Tomorrow rosters expand and each team will be able to add two players to their active roster. I don’t think the 14-pitcher/14-position player September mandate is in effect this year, and I say that because the 13-pitcher/13-position player mandate wasn’t in effect from April through August. I assume teams can use the extra roster spots however they want.

The Yankees opted to bring Corey Kluber back yesterday rather than wait until tomorrow, so poor Albert Abreu was sent down to clear a roster spot. The 10-day rule still applies in September, so Abreu can’t come back up tomorrow. It’ll be someone else. I have no idea who’s on the road trip taxi squad other than Abreu. Here are the 40-man roster players currently in the minors:

• RHP Albert Abreu: Waiting out the 10-day rule (eligible to return next Thursday).
• OF Jonathan Davis: Played for Triple-A Scranton this past weekend (also can’t be called back up until Saturday because of the 10-day rule).
• OF Estevan Florial: Played for Triple-A Scranton this past weekend (eligible to return from the 10-day rule tomorrow).
• RHP Deivi Garcia: Started for Triple-A Scranton on Saturday (he’s also been very bad this year and the Yankees don’t want to call him up).
• RHP Luis Gil: Pitched for Triple-A Scranton on Sunday.
• 1B Chris Gittens: On Triple-A Scranton's injured list (not sure what’s up).
• RHP Brooks Kriske: Pitched for Triple-A Scranton on Sunday.
• RHP Luis Medina: Pitched for Double-A Trenton last Thursday.
• IF Oswald Peraza: Played for Double-A Trenton this past weekend.
• RHP Nick Nelson: Pitched for Triple-A Scranton on Sunday.
• RHP Clarke Schmidt: Pitched for Triple-A Scranton last Wednesday.

Did the Yankees really not bring a taxi squad out to the West Coast? If they did, it’s a bunch of non-40-man roster guys. All the 40-man players played in the minors this past weekend. They’re not with the Yankees. I guess Medina and Schmidt could have joined the Yankees as taxi squaders in Oakland, though it seems unlikely, especially in Medina’s case. Huh.

Thursday is an off-day. Maybe the Yankees just won't add the two extra players tomorrow, and instead kick the can down the road to Friday? Gleyber Torres is expected to return that day, so he’ll get one of the extra roster spots. Gil could also be called up that day to fill the other extra roster spot, and he’d be available to pitch. He wouldn’t be tomorrow after throwing 78 pitches Sunday.

Playing one game down two players, which is essentially what the Yankees would be doing by not adding a 27th and 28th man tomorrow, seems ridiculous. You get extra roster spots! Use them! At the same time, they can almost certainly survive it. The Yankees never bothered to call a player up when DJ LeMahieu went on the paternity list earlier this year, so they’re cool playing shorthanded for a short period of time. We’re talking one game here.

I see three possible outcomes for tomorrow. One, the Yankees don’t bother to add the two extra players and wait until Friday. Two, they make 40-man roster moves so they can add whichever non-40-man players are on the taxi squad (if any) to the active roster. This seems unlikely. The 40-man is tight as it is and I don’t see the Yankees making a move(s) just for one game.

(Also, the downside to the one-day call up is it starts someone’s 10-day clock. I wouldn’t worry about that though. The 10-day rule goes away in case of an injury, and the Yankees have other players they could call up in the interim. Would they really play two men (or even just one man) short tomorrow just to avoid starting someone’s 10-day clock? That would be a silly reason.)

Or three, they’re going to fly two of Florial, Garcia, Kriske, Medina, Nelson, Peraza, or Schmidt out to Anaheim to spend one day on the roster. Calling up Gil wouldn’t make sense (they won’t pitch him on two days rest) and neither would calling up Garcia (capital-S Struggling) nor Medina (not MLB ready). This is possible. It’s how call ups used to work in the pre-taxi squad days (but why operate like the pre-taxi squad days when you have a taxi squad?)

I assume Abreu will be brought back once his 10 days are up next Thursday. He’s pitched well enough and is kinda sorta working his way into the Circle of Trust™. Gil joining the roster Friday as a stopgap until Abreu is eligible to return makes sense, though leaving Gil in Triple-A so he could continue his development with regular work is justifiable. Maybe it’s Kriske or Nelson on Friday rather than Gil. I don’t think it will be, but it is possible.

What happens with the extra roster spots tomorrow is a bit of a mystery and hey, mysteries are fun. Come Friday, Torres will be back to claim one of the two extra spots permanently. The other spot will go to an extra pitcher, presumably Gil and presumably on a temporary basis while Abreu waits out his 10 days. I’m curious to see what the Yankees do tomorrow. Playing short would be a bad look for a team in the race but it also seems entirely plausible.

5. Gil in the bullpen. Two weeks ago I answered a mailbag question about Luis Gil pitching out of the bullpen down the stretch and my answer boiled down to “as long as the Yankees have the rotation depth to put Gil in the bullpen, hell yes.” Gil’s fastball would play very well in relief, and if that’s the best way he can help the Yankees, do it. It’s crunch time and I’m all for it.

The Yankees apparently feel the same way. Gil kinda sorta moved into a relief role with Triple-A Scranton over the weekend. I say kinda sorta because yes, he did come out of the bullpen and pitch in relief Sunday, but he threw a starter’s workload (78 pitches in 4.2 innings). It was not a short relief outing. It was closer to being the bulk guy behind an opener.

“He’ll pitch like a starter. We just want him to see what it’s like to pitch out of the pen,” Aaron Boone told Dan Martin over the weekend. Makes sense, right? Gil has never pitched out of the bullpen (outside the Dominican Summer League way back in 2015, anyway). You don’t want him doing it for the first time in a meaningful MLB game. Let him try it in Triple-A first.

The Yankees are not doing anything new here. For as long as I can remember they’ve had their top starting pitching prospects pitch in relief near the end of the Triple-A season to prepare them for a potential call up. They did it with Deivi Garcia in 2019, but he pitched poorly and was never called up. That’s why they do it in Triple-A first. In case the player struggles with the adjustment.

Because there are only two extra roster spots in September, I’m not sure where Gil fits, exactly. Corey Kluber returned Monday and effectively took one of those extra spots, though Gil could be the fill-in until Albert Abreu is eligible to return next Thursday. Otherwise it seems like it would take an injury to get Gil back into the big leagues*. I think this is the master plan 14-man pitching staff in September:

• Closer: Aroldis Chapman
• Setup: Chad Green, Jonathan Loaisiga, Wandy Peralta
• Middle: Albert Abreu, Clay Holmes, Lucas Luetge, Joely Rodriguez
• Long: Andrew Heaney
• Starters: Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Corey Kluber, Jordan Montgomery, Jameson Taillon

Those are your 14 pitchers, then Gleyber Torres returns later this week to take the 14th position player spot. What happens once Domingo German, Mike King, and/or Luis Severino return? Beats me. Worry about that when they actually get healthy and are ready to return. Point is, the Yankees currently have more competent MLB pitchers than roster spots. Gil’s the odd man out.

* Boone said the Yankees will likely use a spot sixth starter to give everyone extra rest during the 20 games in 20 days stretch in a few weeks. I assume Heaney is first in line to make that spot start(s), though Gil would be an option as well.

It’s too bad (too dumb, really) MLB cut down on September roster spots because the Yankees really could use them. It would allow them to carry all these pitchers who deserve to be in the big leagues. Gil should be a September call up. Abreu deserves a roster spot too. As things stand, the Yankees can only carry one or the other. That’s unfortunate.

The Triple-A season typically runs until mid September, but this year it runs until Oct. 3rd because the season was pushed back. It’s not like Gil (or Abreu or anyone else) will have to shut it down because there’s nowhere to pitch come mid September. They can keep going right through the end of the MLB season and easily stay sharp. That’s nice.

Other than a stopgap until Abreu can return, Gil has no clear path to MLB innings in September, though one injury can change that in a hurry, and the Yankees want him to be prepared in case a spot opens up in the bullpen. If nothing opens up, that’s okay. Gil can stay in Triple-A and continue pitching through the end of the month. The Yankees want to cover their bases though, so he’s working out of the bullpen now. Smart, sensible move.

6. Remembering a random Yankee: Jesse Orosco. By request, this week’s random Yankee is a pitcher who spent one month of his 24-year career in pinstripes. Here’s the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

Orosco was a Southern California kid through and through. He grew up in Santa Barbara, was drafted by the Cardinals out of Santa Barbara High School in 1977, then was drafted again out of Santa Barbara City College in 1978. The Twins took Orosco in the second round that year, then sent him to the Mets in Feb. 1979 as the player to be named later in the Jerry Koosman deal.

Back then there were two drafts each year, one for players who graduated in the summer and one for players who graduated in the winter. Orosco graduated in the winter and was drafted in the 1978 January draft, so he was traded 13 months later. Two months after that, he was in the big leagues. Orosco made his MLB debut at age 21 on April 5th, 1979.

The Mets used Orosco as an up-and-down arm from 1979-81. It wasn’t until 1982 that he stuck for good, and by 1984, he was the team’s All-Star closer. Orosco had a 1.47 ERA in 110 relief innings in 1983, earning him a third place finish in the NL Cy Young voting, and he famously threw the final pitch to close out the 1986 World Series.

“If you ever get a chance to throw the last pitch, that's a dream come true,” Orosco told George Vecsey after closing out Game 7. He threw 5.2 innings in the World Series that year and did not allow a run.

From 1982-89, Orosco was simply one of the best relievers in baseball. Those eight seasons he pitched to a 2.58 ERA and averaged -- averaged -- 84.3 innings and 59 appearances per year. The Mets traded Orosco to the Dodgers in the big Bob Welch three-team, eight-player trade with the Athletics in Dec. 1987, then he signed with Cleveland as a free agent in Dec. 1988.

Orosco’s effectiveness began to wane with Cleveland in the early 1990s and he went from relief ace to lefty specialist, and he was damn good at it. From 1992-2002, Orosco appeared in 589 games but threw only 424.1 innings, and held lefties to a .225/.303/.352 batting line. He went from Cleveland to the Brewers to the Orioles to the Cardinals to back to the Dodgers.

With his 46th birthday a few weeks away, Orosco signed a one-year deal worth $800,000 with the Padres in Nov. 2002. "I didn't think I'd be able to throw this long. Things have worked out great and I'm going to get myself well-prepared to try to reach back and do this for another year or so,” he told the Associated Press after signing the contract.

The Padres were very bad in 2003 and Orosco allowed 22 runs in 25 innings, though he held lefties to a .228/.290/.351 line with a 25.8% strikeout rate. Look past the unsightly 7.56 ERA and this was a player with a useful skill. The Yankees were in the market for bullpen help at the trade deadline and had already added Armando Benitez in a trade with the Mets.

On July 22nd, the Yankees acquired Orosco from San Diego for a player to be named later, and apparently that player was never named. It has since gone into the record books as “conditional trade,” whatever that is. Orosco did not have a no-trade clause, but Padres then-GM Kevin Towers promised Orosco he would not trade him without his consent.

"I have mixed emotions. It was a tough decision (to leave home). Kevin gave me some time to think about it,” Orosco told the Associated Press following the trade. "… I don't know how much longer I'll be doing this. To have a chance to win another ring, it's too much to pass up.''

Brian Cashman released a statement following the trade: “We look forward to Jesse Orosco coming back to New York and providing another choice in the bullpen for Joe Torre as he matches up in late-inning situations.”

The Yankees and Red Sox fought for the AL East title pretty much all year in 2003, and Boston’s lineup was loaded with quality left-handed hitters (Johnny Damon, Trot Nixon, David Ortiz, Todd Walker, etc.). Orosco joined the Yankees right in the middle of a Red Sox series too. His first three appearances in pinstripes:

• July 25th: Faced Damon and Walker.
• July 26th: Brought in to face Nixon but righty Gabe Kapler pinch-hit.
• July 27th: Faced Ortiz and Nixon while intentionally walking righties Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar.

Orosco spent a month with the Yankees and was used as a lefty specialist to the extreme. He appeared in 15 games with the Yankees and that July 27th outing against the Red Sox was the only time he faced more than two batters in a game. His batters faced by appearance: 2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1. 15 appearances, 24 batters, 13 outs.

Despite his success against lefties with the Padres, lefties hit .267/.400/.533 with more walks (four) than strikeouts (three) against Orosco during his time with the Yankees. His best game as a Yankee was his first. Orosco entered with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth inning of a tie game at Fenway Park on July 25th, and struck out Damon. Here’s the video.

''Thanks, Joe,” Orosco jokingly told Jack Curry about Torre bringing him in with the bases loaded to make his Yankees debut. “I even told him, 'Way to throw me on the hot coals my first day out.' I'm glad it all worked out.''

Orosco’s worst moment as a Yankee came on Aug. 15th. He was brought in to face lefties B.J. Surhoff and Jay Gibbons with the Yankees nursing a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning in Baltimore. Orosco allowed a double to Surhoff and game-tying single to Gibbons. Gibbons then scored the go-ahead run on a Larry Bigbie single against Jeff Nelson. (The Yankees came back to win the game on an Aaron Boone homer, so Orosco didn’t take the loss.)

Because he was having so much trouble with lefties, the Yankees designated Orosco for assignment on Aug. 26th. The move cleared a roster spot for fellow lefty Felix Heredia, who the Yankees claimed off waivers from the Reds one day earlier. "I'm not going to go and just beg for a team right now. If it's over, it's over,” Orosco told ESPN following the move.

Another team did want Orosco though. Hours before the postseason eligibility deadline on Aug. 31st, the AL Central leading Twins sent the Yankees a player to be named later for Orosco*. It all came full circle for the then-46-year-old, who was originally drafted by Minnesota. He also reunited with Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, a teammate with the 1981-85 Mets.

* The player to be named later became righty relief prospect Juan Padilla. He appeared in six games with the 2004 Yankees, then was lost on waivers to the Reds. Padilla had a 1.49 ERA in 36.1 innings with the Mets in 2005, but blew out his arm that year and was never the same. He never made it back to the big leagues.

"We still think he has the ability to get hitters out,” Gardenhire told the Washington Post after the Orosco trade. “He has a veteran presence and experience, and we wanted to supplement the bullpen a little from the left side."

Orosco allowed three runs in 4.2 innings with Minnesota in September (lefties went 1-for-6 against him). He was not part of their postseason roster, however, so the Yankees did not see him in the ALDS. For as long as he pitched, Orosco pitched in the postseason in only four years: 1986 Mets, 1988 Dodgers, 1996 Orioles, and 1997 Orioles. He won rings with the Mets and Dodgers.

After the 2003 season Orosco signed a minor league contract with the Diamondbacks, though he never made it to Spring Training. He announced his retirement on Jan. 21st, 2004. Orosco is still the all-time leader in games pitched (1,252) and relief appearances (1,248), and he is one of only 29 players to appear in a game in four different decades.

Orosco retired with 144 saves and a 3.16 ERA in 1,295.1 innings across 24 seasons and nine teams. His career +22.9 WAR is 20th all-time among pitchers who made at least 80% of their career appearances in relief, and he banked roughly $16M in player contracts. Orosco threw 0.3% of his career innings and made 1.2% of his career appearances as a Yankee.

7. Rapid fire thoughts. Corey Kluber returned from the injured list last night and looked pretty good, at least through the first 12 batters and 45 pitches or so. He unraveled quick and Aaron Boone did that thing where he leaves a pitcher in too long, and let things get out of hand (no one was even warming up after the walk to load the bases). Kluber was better than I expected after such a long layoff though. The trademark breaking ball was sharp and his location was good. Not great, but good, and good is a good starting point in the first start back. He can build on that. Kluber has six more regular season starts remaining to show he’s worth a postseason rotation spot (assuming the Yankees play more than one postseason game) … A trade! The Yankees acquired righty Jason Parker from the Reds as the player to be named later in the Luis Cessa/Justin Wilson trade, they announced yesterday. Parker, 23, was a 16th round pick in 2019 and he has a 4.05 ERA (4.28 FIP) with 27.0% strikeouts and 9.8% walks in 80 High-A innings this season (he spent last year at home, not at the alternate site). Because he’s pitching in High-A Southeast, we have Statcast data. Parker’s averages:

• Sinker: 90.1 mph and 2,466 rpm (weirdly high spin for a sinker, usually you want low spin on sinkers to get downward action)
• Slider: 80.3 mph and 2,633 rpm (very good spin)
• Also a handful of four-seamers and changeups (fewer than 40 of each thrown all year)

Statcast classifies the breaking ball as a slider but it’s more of a curveball with downward break. Here’s video (Parker is No. 8). He’s a spin rate guy and the Yankees have had success turning unheralded arms like this into legitimate prospects (no outlet ranked Parker among their top 30 Reds prospects this year). Parker’s not great or anything, but he’s more than I expected the Yankees to get in the Cessa/Wilson trade (I expected them to get nothing but salary relief like the Adam Ottavino trade) … And finally, the Rays beat the Red Sox in the opener of their four-game series at Tropicana Field last night. My preference going into the series was a Red Sox sweep to keep the Rays close, but with the AL East deficit nearly doubling over the last 72 hours, it's time to root for a Rays sweep. That would help bury Boston and give the Yankees breathing room for home field advantage in the Wild Card Game, and also make it more likely they avoid the nightmare scenario of having to send this lineup out there against an extreme swing and miss pitcher (Chris Sale) in a win or go home game. A split wouldn’t move the needle much for the Yankees in either direction. That’s the worst outcome. No matter what happens in Tampa, the Yankees have to handle their own business for any of it matter. As the baseballers like to say, control what you can control.

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