Thoughts after the Yankees trade Mike Tauchman to the Giants

Sorry Tauchman, but this is a one Mike town. (Getty)

In last week’s mailbag I mentioned it was probably time to discuss Mike Tauchman’s roster spot because he was redundant with Brett Gardner, and because the Yankees had too many square pegs forced into round holes. Trying to turn this ship around will be more difficult than it needs to be without a more functional roster.

Apparently the Yankees agreed. Tuesday evening they sent Tauchman to the Giants for lefty reliever Wandy Peralta and a player to be named later. The Giants have two outfielders on the injured list (Jaylin Davis and LaMonte Wade Jr.) and Mike Yastrzemski is nursing an oblique issue, so they need outfield help. Both teams addressed roster needs.

“Tauchman is a guy we’ve had longstanding interest in, and we talked to (the Yankees) about him this offseason and this spring,” Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told Kerry Crowley following the trade.

Tauchman is a classic “don’t fall in love with bench players” cautionary tale. He had that insane run in 2019, hitting .387/.452/.712 (203 wRC+) in 126 plate appearances from July 4th through Aug. 21st, and he’s never come close to replicating. He’s hit .217/.318/.289 (69 wRC+) in 177 plate appearances since then, and he swings through a lot -- A LOT -- of fastballs.

Also, Tauchman put up +19 DRS (!) in 694.1 defensive innings in 2019. In his other 381.1 career innings, he’s at -2 DRS. The 2019 numbers would lead you to believe he is the best defensive outfielder on the planet and no. Just no. Tauchman doesn’t bring anything to the table Gardner doesn’t, and he’s already 30, so it’s not like he’s an up and coming kid with upside.

“Hopefully for (Tauchman), it's a situation that he goes out there and can help a Giants team that's off to a really good start,” Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch. “I know they're getting a really good player. We saw what he did for us in ’19, and we know what kind of athlete and defender he is.”

I’ve been tough on Tauchman the last few years but it’s never personal, and I wish him good luck in San Francisco and hope he’s looking forward to growing a post-Yankees beard. Also, fun fact: Tauchman picked off Jimmy Garoppolo in high school. Maybe they’ll get together and reminisce now that they play in the same city. Anyway, let’s break down the trade.

1. Filling Tauchman’s roster spot. The Yankees summoned Tyler Wade to fill Tauchman’s roster spot -- Wade was on the road trip taxi squad and was able to join the team immediately -- and I think he’s staying long-term. Wade gives the Yankees an actual backup infielder …

… and improves the defense, plus he can pinch-run. That was half Tauchman’s job right there. Tauchman had 16 plate appearances in 22 team games. Unless there’s an injury, it’s hard to see Wade playing more than that. Aside from the pre-Gleyber Torres days in April 2018, the Yankees have never used Wade as anything more than a backup infielder. That’s not changing.

With Tauchman gone and Thairo Estrada recently traded (also to the Giants, coincidentally enough), the Yankees have three position players on the 40-man roster in the minors: Miguel Andujar, Estevan Florial, and Oswald Peraza. Peraza is not an MLB option. He’s never played above Low-A. Andujar certainly is though, and Florial can do the speed/defense extra outfielder thing in a pinch.

Non-40-man depth options include utility men Derek Dietrich and Andrew Velazquez, and outfielders Socrates Brito and Ryan LaMarre. Jay Bruce’s retirement -- we spent all Spring Training debating Bruce vs. Tauchman and neither made it through April -- cleared a 40-man spot, so the Yankees could easily bring up any of these guys, if necessary. I hope it’s not.

I’d like the Yankees to swap out Mike Ford and Rougned Odor for Andujar and Dietrich, though I won’t get my hopes up. For now, the Yankees replaced Tauchman with another light-hitting lefty bat, though this one fills a more pressing need as a good defensive infielder. Gardner and Wade makes more sense than Gardner and Tauchman.

2. Who is Wandy Peralta? Peralta has spent parts of six seasons in the big leagues with the Reds and Giants, and last year he had a 3.29 ERA (4.22 FIP) with middling strikeout (21.9%), walk (9.6%), and ground ball (45.9%) rates in 27.1 innings. In the early going this season he’s allowed five runs in 8.1 innings, but it’s 8.1 innings, so who cares.

The 29-year-old Peralta is a contact manager more than a bat-misser. Here is the top of the exit velocity leaderboard since Statcast launched in 2015 (min. 500 balls in play):

1. Luis Avilan: 83.7 mph (former Yankee)
2. Brent Suter: 84.0 mph
3. Ryan Yarbrough: 84.5 mph
4. Kenley Jansen: 84.8 mph
5. Dellin Betances: 84.9 mph (former Yankee)
6. Julio Urias: 85.3 mph
7. Matt Bowman: 85.4 mph (current Yankee)
8. Aaron Loup: 85.4 mph (former Yankees target)
9. Tony Watson: 85.6 mph (former Yankees target)
10. Rafael Montero: 85.6 mph
11. Sergio Romo: 85.6 mph
12. CC Sabathia: 85.7 mph (former Yankee)
13. Jose Alvarez: 85.8 mph
14. Wandy Peralta: 85.9 mph (current Yankee)
15. Adam Ottavino: 85.9 mph (former Yankee)

Notice a pattern? Darren O’Day is just short of the 500 ball-in-play minimum, but he’s at 85.7 mph. Point is, the Yankees like strikeouts and weak contact (who doesn’t?). If you can do both like Betances and Ottavino, great! If not, well one or the other works too. Peralta falls into the weak contact category.

Peralta is a true three-pitch lefty with a mid-90s fastball, an upper-80s changeup, and a low-80s high-spin slider. He’ll also vary his leg kick to mess with hitters. Here’s some video. Peralta has thrown roughly 75% fastballs the last few years. Knowing the Yankees, I bet try to talk him into scaling back to, say, 50% fastballs, and working hitters over with the slider and changeup.

Also, Peralta has a minor league option remaining, which is important. Tauchman did not and was locked into a roster spot. Peralta can easily go up and down, so he’ll join Albert Abreu, Deivi Garcia, Mike King, Brooks Kriske, and Nick Nelson on the Scranton shuttle. He’s under team control through 2023, but eh, don’t worry about team control for middle relievers.

If the Yankees could send Tauchman to Triple-A, they would’ve kept him. They couldn’t though, and at some point roster construction has to take priority over playing favorites. Tauchman’s trade value wasn’t all that high and I think Peralta, a legitimate Major League middle reliever, is a pretty good return compared to what out of options bench guys usually fetch.

“We're excited about Peralta,” Boone told Hoch. “We think he can be an important member of our bullpen. We'll just see how the days unfold and how we start to integrate him.”

3. Stanton in the outfield? With Tauchman traded, Giancarlo Stanton is one step closer to playing the outfield, something he has not done since Game 1 of the 2019 ALCS. Stanton didn't play the outfield at all in Spring Training and the reasoning was “why play one or two games in the outfield now when he’s not going to play the outfield again anytime soon?”

Gardner will draw any outfield starts when a regular sits and the Yankees won’t give up the DH to put Stanton in the outfield in anything other than an emergency (or a blowout?). They would sooner stick Wade in the outfield for a few innings than give up the DH (Wade has 13 starts and 146 career innings in the outfield and has dabbled in all three spots).

Yes, the Tauchman trade makes it more likely Stanton will play the outfield simply because there is one fewer outfielder on the roster. But also no, I don’t think Stanton playing the outfield is imminent, or even something the Yankees want to do, really. Giancarlo in the outfield feels like the kind of thing the Yankees will do if they have to, but they aren’t planning on it.

More than anything, the Tauchman trade is good news for Clint Frazier. Clint has started six of the last seven games after starting only four of the previous nine games. Gardner is still going to get spots starts against righties, but now there’s no need to get that other extra outfielder into a game every once in a while. Frazier won’t have to look over his shoulder as much now.

4. Florial’s future. If necessary, the Yankees can summon Florial to be their speed and defense extra outfielder, and he might be better at it than Tauchman. Florial is a great runner, he’s probably the best defensive outfielder in the organization, and he’ll put a mistake in the seats. Unless you count Spring Training, Tauchman hasn’t hit a home run since Sept. 8th, 2019.

It’s not difficult to connect the dots and see Florial taking over as the fourth outfielder next year. Tauchman’s gone and Gardner may retire after the season, so there you go, Florial is the extra outfielder in 2021. The Yankees would surely bring in a veteran for competition/depth, but we can start to see the path clearing for Florial to assume a role with the MLB team.

For now though, Florial just needs to play and get at-bats after the lost minor league season. Spending the summer at the alternate site was better than nothing, but it’s time to face pitchers who aren’t your buddies. Ideally, Florial gets 500-ish at-bats in Triple-A this year and gets his feet wet as a Sept. call-up, setting him up to take over as the fourth outfielder next year.

5. Who’s the player to be named? Beats me. I wouldn’t expect a top or even mid-range prospect. Maybe it’s a recently signed international prospect? The signing period opened Jan. 15th and players can not be traded until six months after they sign their first pro contract. They can be included in trades as players to be named later in the interim though. I dunno. We’ll see.

I’m not expecting the player to be named later to be much. Players like Tauchman, who are out of options and aren’t an MLB roster lock, typically return a fringe top 30 prospect in a trade. If the Yankees get one of those as the player to be named on top of Peralta, then gosh, they made out really well. (Here is MLB.com’s top 30 Giants prospects, if you want to set yourself up for disappointment before the player to be named is named).

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