December 8th, 2020: Urshela, Hot Stove, Odorizzi, Catchers, Rule 5 Draft, Sanchez, Sugano

On this date in 2009, the Yankees acquired Curtis Granderson in a three-team trade with the Tigers and Diamondbacks. The Yankees got Granderson, the Tigers got Max Scherzer, and the D-Backs got Ian Kennedy and Edwin Jackson. Granderson is one of my all-time favorite Yankees. He was a fun player and a likable dude. Hard to believe it's been 11 years since the trade, isn't it? Man does time fly. Let's get to today's thoughts.

1. Gio’s surgery. The “why didn’t he have this surgery weeks ago?” surgery has arrived. Unlike James Paxton’s back injury last year, we knew Gio Urshela had a bone spur in his elbow when the season ended, yet it was determined he did not require surgery at that time because he was asymptomatic. Urshela missed 10 days because of the elbow in September.

“If something changes on that, I’ll let you know,” Brian Cashman said during his end-of-season press conference (video link) when asked about Urshela potentially having surgery. “But that’s the current landscape.”

Urshela had surgery to remove the bone spur last Friday -- Gio made the announcement himself on Instagram and the team later confirmed it -- seven weeks after the season ended. The Yankees say the anticipated recovery time is three months, putting him on track to return in early March. He’ll miss the first few weeks of Spring Training.

All I know about bone spurs is what I’ve learned following baseball. I know they can hide tucked away in elbows and ankles and wherever else for years and not present any problems, but once they flare up, they usually don’t get better on their own. Surgery is almost always necessary to remove them once they act up. They don’t often become non-issues on their own.

I’m relieved Urshela had the surgery now rather than in, say, March or June or August, when it would be a real big inconvenience and leave the Yankees shorthanded and without one of their best players. Assuming the 2021 season isn’t delayed by the pandemic, Gio will miss the start of Spring Training but should be okay for Opening Day. It’s fine. It stinks, but it’s fine.

Mostly, I’m just annoyed Urshela is just now having a surgery he could’ve had seven weeks ago, and maybe that’s unreasonable. I’m no doctor, but I know surgery is usually a last resort, and if a doctor says you don’t need surgery, you don’t have surgery. It’s just that the Yankees have done this “he’s fine, he doesn’t need surgery” …

… “oh wait yes he does” thing too many times in recent years and it’s annoying, and also kinda worrisome. I don’t know whether “misdiagnose” is the right word, but injuries being more severe than initially believed has been a recurring theme the last 3-4 years. It shouldn’t be a pleasant surprise when a player gets hurt and returns on schedule. It should be the norm.

Anyway, the Yankees were always going to have to add infield depth this offseason because there isn’t much behind Tyler Wade and Thairo Estrada. Re-signing DJ LeMahieu would help a ton, but even then the Yankees would have to put Miguel Andujar at third base should Gio miss time during the regular season, with Estrada and Wade the only backup plans.

A depth pickup, specifically a veteran on a minor league contract a la Matt Duffy this past year, is in the offing. I’m not sure who that player will be, exactly, but it is an obvious need now. The Yankees can’t go into Spring Training with their current infield and risk another injury pushing Estrada and Wade into the starting lineup. Infield depth is the top priority behind pitching.

Urshela will probably be fine and be in the lineup on Opening Day. Three weeks of Grapefruit League at-bats should be plenty. The Yankees just have to add depth to protect themselves in case he suffers a setback. I’m cool with Andujar at third in the interim. The Yankees don’t have a whole lot of in-house infield options beyond their starters though. The time to fix that is now.

UPDATE (Dec. 9th): Ken Davidoff has the details on Urshela's bone spur saga. Gio was originally scheduled to return to New York to have it removed in late October, but he tested positive for COVID-19 and had to quarantine at his home in Colombia. He had the surgery once he tested negative and was cleared to travel.

"I got COVID in Colombia. That’s why I had to stay there, for quarantine. I stayed there in Colombia because I got COVID," Urshela told Davidoff, adding his symptoms were bad for three days. “... I had a lot of symptoms. Fever, chills, headaches. My body felt tired. I lost my sense of smell and taste.”

The original point stands -- the injuries that prove more serious than expected are really frustrating -- but it doesn't apply to Urshela. He was going to have the bone spur removed not long after the season, but the pandemic got in the way, and delayed everything. That's a bummer, but the most important thing is Gio (and his girlfriend, who got it as well) is okay.

2. Winter Meetings rumblings. The virtual Winter Meetings are underway and yesterday actually felt Winter Meetings-y. There were two notable trades plus a bunch of rumors. Eventually a few rumors (and trades?) will involve the Yankees. Here are some thoughts on the latest hot stove happenings and what they mean for the Yankees.

Lynn traded to White Sox

Late last night the Rangers traded Lance Lynn to the White Sox for righty Dane Dunning and lefty Avery Weems, according to multiple reports. Lynn gives them a real good 1-2-3 punch alongside Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel. We'll see what the Twins and Cleveland do the rest of the winter, but the ChiSox look like the AL Central favorite on paper.

The Yankees equivalent to Dunning and Weems is Clarke Schmidt and a low minors upside arm like Yoendrys Gomez. Dunning and Schmidt are very comparable as former first round picks who had Tommy John surgery and slot into the 50-75 range of a top 100 prospects list nicely. When I wrote about Lynn as a trade target last month, I noted it would probably take a Schmidt-type prospect and two others. I was close.

Joel Sherman hears the Yankees were not in the mix for Lynn and that doesn't surprise me because they have avoided the "multiple years of a prospect for immediate short-term MLB help" type trades the last 18 months or so. It allows them to preach "sustainable success" like every other team trying to lower expectations, but it also leads to them doing things like using J.A. Happ out of the bullpen in Game 2 of a postseason series.

Trading Schmidt should be on the table -- he has an injury history beyond Tommy John surgery and he probably won't be an full-fledged MLB starter without restrictions until 2022 at the earliest -- but I don't think the Yankees would trade him for one year of a player, even one as good as Lynn. Is a worthwhile pitcher with multiple years of control out there? I'm not sure. Hard to think the Rays would trade Blake Snell to their chief competitive rival. 

Anyway, I am more annoyed about Lynn going to the White Sox, a team the Yankees may have to go through to win the 2021 World Series, than I thought I'd be. More accurately, I'm more annoyed about the Yankees not pursuing Lynn than I thought I'd be. I never really expected them to land him, but damn yo, not even gonna do more than due diligence?

Gray on the trade block

The Reds are in cost-cutting mode -- they non-tendered Archie Bradley last week and salary dumped Raisel Iglesias yesterday* -- and it sounds like former Yankee Sonny Gray will be next to go. They are "working hard" to trade him, according to Sherman, backing up a previous Ken Rosenthal (subs. req'd) report. Gray is owed $10M each of the next two years with a $12M club option for 2023.

Lance McAllister hears the Reds want to get their payroll down into the $120M to $125M range -- they were set to open 2020 with a franchise record $166M full season payroll -- and, if true, they still need to cut another $15M to $20M. You can understand why Gray, who has been quite good in his two years in Cincinnati, is on the trade block then. (I reckon third baseman Eugenio Suarez is available too.)

The Yankees badly need rotation help and the Reds version of Gray would be an enormous upgrade. He's very good, he's affordable for multiple years, and he's in his prime. The on-field fit is obvious. I can not, however, under any circumstances see the Yankees pursuing a reunion with Gray. That ship has sailed. The Yankees weren't happy, Gray wasn't happy, and fans weren't happy the first time around. Sometimes things don't work despite everyone's best intentions.

"We are going to move him if we get the right deal because I don’t think it is going to work out in the Bronx. I don’t feel like we can go through the same exercise and expect different results," Brian Cashman told Sherman about Gray in Nov. 2018. "Until someone walks through your door and lives (life as a Yankee), it is hard to know. You try to vet every aspect. You plan and work at it and sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t."

The obvious parallel here is Javy Vazquez, though that's not really fair. Vazquez and Gray are different people and different pitchers, and they behave and react to situations differently. Vazquez 2.0 flopping doesn't mean Gray 2.0 would flop. I do think Vazquez 2.0 will factor into the team's decision-making though. When something doesn't work the first time, maybe don't try it again, you know? They learned that lesson.

Furthermore, the Yankees would have to give up prospects to reacquire Sonny. The free agent pitching market is weak, and with Lynn off the board, Gray becomes the best starter available in trades. With that contract, he should net a pretty nice package. Imagine the Yankees giving up a big prospect package to bring back a pitcher who didn't work out the first time he wore pinstripes? Can't see it. Not at all.

* The Angels took on Iglesias and his $9.125M salary and gave up Noe Ramirez, a generic middle reliever who wouldn't have raised any eyebrows had he been non-tendered last week. Seeing how the Halos just took on a $9M-ish reliever, I'm going to say the "Adam Ottavino to the Angels" trade in my Offseason Plan was reasonable. Go me. 

Phillies listening on Wheeler

Over the weekend Phillies owner John Middleton shot down a rumor that the team is listening to trade offers for Zack Wheeler -- “If they offered me Babe Ruth, I wouldn't trade him,” Middleton told Buster Olney, which is smart because Babe Ruth has been dead for 72 years -- though Jeff Passan (subs. req’d) and Rosenthal (subs. req’d) have since backed up Olney’s original report, and Buster usually doesn’t miss on these things. 

To me, it seems Middleton is pushing back on an unpopular idea that wasn't supposed to leak, or he was out of the loop entirely and caught by surprise. Either way, the Yankees should check in to see whether Wheeler is actually available. He is expensive (owed $96.5M the next four years) and he has a scary injury history, but he’s also really good (3.53 ERA and 3.34 FIP in 448.2 innings the last three years) and checks all the analytical boxes.

I wrote about Wheeler as a trade target prior to the 2019 trade deadline, and, for what it's worth, Andy Martino says the Yankees and Mets nearly completed a Wheeler trade at the time, but it fell apart for whatever reason. Seeing how many potential Yankees-Mets trades fell apart at the last minute in recent years (Jay Bruce and Neil Walker in separate trades in 2017, etc.), I'm not sure I buy it. Feels like classic "we tried" Wilpon era Mets messaging.

Anyway, yeah, the Yankees should at least check in with the Phillies about Wheeler. Money is their greatest and most plentiful resource, pandemic or no pandemic, and if Philadelphia is willing to take pennies on the dollar to unload Wheeler's contract, he'd make a world of sense for the Yankees. He's good, he's already done the New York thing, and he strikes me as someone who could benefit greatly from sharing a clubhouse with Gerrit Cole.

3. Odorizzi as a free agent target. By projected 2021 WAR, six of the top 10 free agent starters have already signed. Trevor Bauer and Masahiro Tanaka, who rank 1-2 on that list, remain unsigned. The other two unsigned top 10 starters are Corey Kluber and James Paxton, and they dealt with serious arm injuries this past season. The free agent pitching class was pretty weak to begin with. Now it’s even less appealing.

Among the unsigned free agent starters worth a discussion is Odorizzi, who was limited to four ineffective starts (10 runs in 13.2 innings) by injuries in 2020. He suffered an abdominal strain in Summer Camp, took a liner to the chest in August, then went down with a blister in September. Blisters can be chronic but Odorizzi has no history with them. As far as injury-plagued seasons go, Odorizzi’s doesn’t carry much long-term concern.

Two years ago Odorizzi, 31 in March, had a career year with the Twins. He threw 159 innings with a 3.51 ERA (3.36 FIP) and a career best 27.1% strikeout rate. Posting a career best 0.91 HR/9 (8.8% HR/FB) in the year of the dinger was unusual and probably not his new normal -- Odorizzi has a career 1.22 HR/9 (10.5% HR/FB) -- especially for a guy with a 35.0% ground ball rate (33.1% career). He was very good in 2019 though. Absolutely.

Odorizzi’s career year came with a velocity spike he attributes to a new offseason workout program. “I did a new training program this past offseason. I worked with a gentleman in Plant City, Florida, named Randy Sullivan. That was at the Florida Baseball Ranch … With the changes I made, I have consistent velocity that’s about 2-2.5 mph harder than what I’d normally thrown,” he told David Laurila in Oct. 2019. The velocity spike remained in 2020:

Even with the velocity uptick, Odorizzi sits 92-94 mph, which isn’t eye-popping. His spin rates are average across the board and, according to the data as Baseball Prospectus, Odorizzi is about average at tunneling. He has four pitches he uses regularly (four-seamer, curveball, splitter, and a cutter/slider hybrid) and he uses them how most pitchers use their arsenals these days: Odorizzi elevates heaters and buries breaking ball and offspeed pitches below the zone. Here's his pitch selection by location in 2019 (2020 was short and weird):

Odorizzi logged nearly 1,000 innings as a league average starter (102 ERA+) before the velocity spike took him to another level last year, and several analytically-inclined teams are after him this offseason. Buster Olney (subs. req’d) reported the Blue Jays, Giants, Mets, and Twins had interest in him a few weeks ago, though Joel Sherman more recently reported the Mets are believed to be lagging behind other teams in their pursuit.

Teams that rely on numbers are pursuing Odorizzi -- the Mets have committed to analytics under new owner Steve Cohen, who made his fortune in hedge funds (and thus data) -- and the fact the Twins want him back is a good sign. There’s nothing scaring them away. It’s funny, there’s nothing that really jumps off the page about Odorizzi, but smart teams want him (the Rays traded for him back in the day too) and he’s been effective.

Odorizzi is not without his warts, of course. The homers are scary and his track record as a legitimately above-average big league starter is essentially one year, and he’s a five-and-fly pitcher. Even during his breakout 2019 season, he averaged 5.3 innings per start because hitters get real comfortable the third time through the order. That has been consistent throughout Odorizzi’s career. Here are the 2019 numbers:

Whichever team signs Odorizzi will do so with the understanding that he’s not a workhorse. He did average 30.3 starts a year from 2014-19, so he will take the ball every five days, but you’re getting five innings and that’s it. And that’s fine. The game is trending in that direction. Only the Gerrit Coles and Jacob deGroms are consistently allowed to go through the order a third time now.

Odorizzi misread the market last offseason and accepted the $17.8M qualifying offer (he made $6.6M during the 60-game season). The market rebounded a bit and while I don’t think Odorizzi would have beat $17.8M a year, I think I could’ve gotten 3-4 years at $15M annually coming off a career year. Now he’s stuck in a down market coming off a short, injury-plagued year. Rough.

MLBTR and FanGraphs crowdsourcing project identical three-year, $39M contracts for Odorizzi, so maybe he won’t regret taking the qualifying offer after all. The Yankees don’t do multi-year contracts for mid-range free agent starters, especially when signing the player away from another team. They either pay big for the top guys (Cole, Tanaka, etc.) or they go year-to-year.

That suggests the Yankees are not going to be a major player for Odorizzi, who has other suitors and is unlikely to settle for another one-year deal. It’s time to get paid. Is Odorizzi the pitcher the Yankees should step out of their comfort zone to sign to a multi-year deal? I think it has to be under consideration seeing how the goal is to win now, and the market lacks options.

4. Adding catching depth. The Yankees did not non-tender Gary Sanchez last week and now they’ll work to build catching depth because wow, they are awfully thin behind the plate. The catching depth chart currently looks something like this:

1. Gary Sanchez
2. Kyle Higashioka
3. Donny Sands?

Sands has never played a game above High-A, by the way. The catching depth chart is very thin and that’s bad news because Sanchez just had a disaster season and Higashioka is okay for a backup, plus he gets hurt every season (Sanchez is no stranger to the injured list either). Add in the position’s inherent injury risk and yeah, the Yankees badly need catching depth.

Replacing Higashioka should be on the table but I don’t think the Yankees are considering it because he’s cheap, he’s a good framer (and cheap), he has power (and is cheap), and he works well with Gerrit Cole (for cheap). His injury history is scary though, and he never walks. Higashioka last drew a walk in Aug. 2018 and it’s not a “he never plays” thing. The most plate appearances without a walk the last two years:

1. Kyle Higashioka: 105*
2. Luis Castillo: 66 (pitcher)
3. Jose Quintana: 63 (pitcher)
4. Miles Mikolas: 62 (pitcher)
5. Kenta Maeda, Steven Matz, Max Scherzer: 61 (pitchers)

Nos. 2-13 on that list are pitchers. The next position player is Isaac Galloway with 54. The next position player after him is someone named Mark Mathias with 36. Higashioka is a cool guy and all, but I feel like it shouldn’t be too hard to find someone who does all the things he does (power, framing, Cole, etc.) with a little more durability and on-base ability. I dunno. Maybe I’m wrong.

* To be fair, Higashioka did draw a walk in ALDS Game 1. Shane McClanahan allowed a stolen base on his first pitch as a big leaguer and a single on his fourth pitch as a big leaguer, then he walked Higashioka, the second batter he faced in the show.

Anyway, the good news is the Yankees are aware they need catching. The catching depth chart was exactly the same going into 2020 and they signed three guys with MLB experience (Chris Iannetta, Erik Kratz, Josh Thole) to minor league contracts, plus another catcher with multiple years of Triple-A experience (Wynston Sawyer). Expect them to do the same this offseason.

Adding catching is something that will probably happen soon. Last winter the Yankees signed Kratz just before Christmas and Iannetta and Thole shortly after New Years, and that was with Sanchez coming off an All-Star season. Now he’s coming off a disaster season that saw him benched in the team’s most important games. Catching depth should be a greater priority.

The free agent market has been slow-moving in general but I expect the catcher market to heat up soon. You don’t want to get caught shorthanded at that position and some teams (Rays) don't have a catcher at all. My guess is a team in the J.T. Realmuto race (Mets?) will get sick of waiting and pivot to James McCann soon, and trigger a wave of catcher signings.

I guess the good news (that is also kinda bad news) is the Yankees can more easily sell veteran catchers on joining the organization because they’ve shown they will bench Sanchez, creating a clearer path to playing time. The Yankees weren’t as appealing to catchers last offseason. Between that and player fears about the market, they might snag some pretty good (relatively speaking) depth catchers in the coming weeks.

5. Rule 5 Draft preview. The Rule 5 Draft is Thursday morning and my educated guess is there will be more picks than usual. I say that even though teams still don’t know how large rosters will be next year because payrolls are coming down and this is a way to add inexpensive talent. Teams will make picks assuming a larger roster next year, then pare down if there’s not. They can’t kick this can down the road. The Rule 5 Draft is this week.

On average, there were 14.6 Rule 5 Draft picks a year from 2010-19, with as few as nine (2013) and as many as 19 (2010) in a single year. I could see 20-something selections this year. There were 28 picks in 2002 and I think a similar total is possible, with rebuilders (Orioles, Pirates, Rangers, Tigers, etc.) potentially making multiple picks. (In hindsight, the Padres carrying three Rule 5 Draft picks in 2017 was one of the most aggressive tanking acts we’ve ever seen).

The Yankees have an open 40-man spot and that allows them to make a Rule 5 Draft pick -- you must have an open spot(s) going into the draft to make a pick, you can’t make a pick then open a spot later -- but I wouldn’t count on it. The Rule 5 Draft is not a talent pool contenders wade into that often. That 40-man spot will be put to better use soon enough and the Yankees will go a tenth straight year without making a Rule 5 Draft pick.

I’ve heard righty Garrett Whitlock, who I ranked as the Yankees’ No. 18 prospect prior to last season, is a hot name leading into the Rule 5 Draft. He had Tommy John surgery in July 2019 and hasn’t appeared in a game since, but he completed his rehab and has been facing hitters since at least August. He posted some video on Instagram. From Baseball America (subs. req’d):

Pre-injury, Whitlock’s fastball could touch 95 as a starter and his slurvy slider was effective even if it graded out as only an average offering. Whitlock has above-average control and keeps the ball in the park. He has been a starter throughout his pro career, but as a Rule 5 pick, he could potentially fit as a low-leverage reliever who can work multiple innings if needed.

From what I gather, Whitlock is the Yankees prospect most likely to hear his name called Thursday, followed by righty Trevor Stephan. I had Stephan as my No. 13 prospect going into 2019, but he pitched so poorly that year he had to be demoted from Double-A to High-A at midseason. He was not at the alternate site this year, but it sounds like there’s enough velocity and spin and deception to get him a look in a bullpen role.

Addison Russ, who on the surface looks like prime Rule 5 Draft fodder as a Double-A reliever with a history of strikeouts, apparently isn’t on many radars because his velocity was down at the alternate site. Low-90s guys with a good secondary pitch (a splitter, in this case) are a dime a dozen. Russ may still get picked. I’m just noting the scouting reports we’ve been looking at the last few weeks are outdated. Getting him for David Hale always seemed too good to be true.

The official RAB Rule 5 Draft prediction: Whitlock and Stephan get picked, Russ stays, and the Yankees don’t make a selection. As always, the smart money is on Whitlock and Stephan and whoever else coming back at some point, likely in Spring Training.

6. Remembering a random Yankee: Randy Keisler. This week’s random Yankees comes by request and is a pitcher who was literally snake-bitten during his time in the organization. Here's the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

Keisler is a rare player who was drafted four times. He blew out his elbow and needed Tommy John surgery while at Navarro College, a two-year school, so he was drafted as a freshman (40th round by Cleveland in 1995), a redshirt sophomore (57th round by Cleveland in 1996), a sophomore (40th round by Mets in 1997), and then finally as a junior out of LSU (2nd round by Yankees in 1998). He received a $525,000 bonus, which was quite large at the time.

In 1999, Keisler reached Double-A and threw 156 innings with a 3.52 ERA and 152 strikeouts. The Yankees reportedly made him available in trade talks with Cleveland about David Justice and the Rangers about Juan Gonzalez, but he remained with the team, and posted a 2.85 ERA with 156 strikeouts in 186 innings split between Double-A and Triple-A in 2000. The lefty had emerged as one of the team’s top prospects in his two years as a pro.

With David Cone nursing an achy shoulder late in 2000, the Yankees summoned Keisler when rosters expanded and gave him a spot start on Sept. 10th. “Fenway Park, starting against the Red Sox in a pennant race, wearing the same uniform as Roger Clemens. I can’t imagine better circumstances,” Keisler, who idolized Clemens while growing up in Texas, told Tom Keegan.

Keisler got off to a shaky start in his debut -- he walked the first two batters he faced and later gave up a run-scoring single to Nomar Garciaparra -- but he settled down and finished with just the one run allowed on four hits and three walks in five innings. He struck out two and got the win. Doc Gooden came out of the bullpen to get the four-inning save in the 6-2 victory.

“For five days my goal was not to aim the ball. Sure enough, I got out there and I aimed the ball,” Keisler jokingly told George King about the first two walks. “... Fenway Park, packed stands, a pennant race and pitching against the Red Sox, how could it be any better than that?”

Cone returned a few days later and the Yankees moved Keisler to the bullpen the rest of the season. It was a disaster. He allowed six runs and got two outs against Cleveland on Sept. 17th, four runs in three innings against the (Devil) Rays on Sept. 17th, and three runs in two innings against the Orioles on Sept. 30th. Keisler had an 11.81 ERA in his four MLB appearances in 2000. Opponents hit .364/.462/.545 against him. Ouch.

The three relief appearances sullied Keisler's pitching line following his solid debut start. Despite that, Baseball America (subs. req’d) ranked him as the team’s sixth best prospect heading into 2001. Here’s a chunk of their scouting report:

Keisler has three major league pitches. He throws his fastball from 88-92 mph, his curveball is average to slightly above-average and he has picked up a nice changeup … He must improve the command of his fastball, which is solid but not overpowering. Though Adrian Hernandez is the frontrunner, Keisler also will contend for the vacancy in New York's rotation during spring training. A few more Triple-A starts won't hurt if he gets sent to the minors.

Keisler (and Hernandez) had a rough Spring Training in 2001, allowing random Yankee Christian Parker to break camp as the No. 5 starter. Parker went down with a shoulder injury after his first start though, and Keisler was called up to fill the rotation spot. It didn’t go well. The Royals tagged him for three runs in 3.1 innings on April 11th, and six days later the Blue Jays got him for four runs in four innings. He walked seven in those four innings.

“Seven walks are terrible. I need to lock in,” Keisler told King after the game. Manager Joe Torre added: “(Keisler) needs to get better than what we saw tonight … Right now, this is where we are. I feel he is a big league pitcher. Maybe since we lost three of four he put a lot of pressure on himself.”

The Yankees sent Keisler to Triple-A following the Toronto start -- they called up Ted Lilly and gave him the rotation spot, and Lilly finally stuck in the big leagues after going up and down in 1999 and 2000 -- and he ripped the team for the demotion. “The same shit they said in Spring Training, go down there and get yourself better,” Keisler told King when asked what message Torre gave him.

“I have already conquered Triple-A,” added Keisler, who had a 3.02 ERA in 113.1 career Triple-A innings at the time. “Triple-A is easy. I get given up on pretty easy here, I think. I didn’t say a word. I think it’s a nice way of saying, ‘You are not ready to pitch here.’ I don’t agree with that at all.”

Keisler called Torre to apologize following the demotion -- “The stuff he said about me and the organization, I know that was just emotional,” Torre told King -- and he had a 3.47 ERA in his next 10 Triple-A starts, including an 18-strikeout game against Buffalo on June 3rd. He rejoined the Yankees in mid-June, after Orlando Hernandez went down with an injury.

The Yankees had a longer leash with Keisler this time, mostly because they lacked alternatives. He made eight starts, allowed at least three runs in six of them, and had a 5.82 ERA in 43.1 innings. Keisler struck out 24 in those 43.1 innings, walked 23, and opponents had a .254/.342/.472 batting line. His best start of 2001 came against the Mets on July 8th. He held them to one run, a Todd Zeile solo homer, in 5.1 innings.

Somehow the Yankees went 6-2 in Keisler’s eight starts, though that wasn’t enough to keep him in the rotation. He was sent back to Triple-A in late July, this time because the Yankees made a trade with the Padres to bring back Sterling Hitchcock, who joined the rotation. Keisler was sent back to the minors and, when rosters expanded in September, he did not get a call-up.

Officially, the Yankees said Keisler didn’t pitch well enough in Triple-A to earn the call-up, but King says Keisler was sent home after an argument with Triple-A pitching coach Greg Pavlick. “If we are (disciplining him), it’s between Randy and us,” Brian Cashman said. In parts of two seasons Keisler had a 7.19 ERA in 61.1 innings with the Yankees, and he never again wore pinstripes following the July 2001 demotion.

Nearly 400 pitchers (381, to be exact) have thrown at least 60 innings as a Yankee, and only one has a higher ERA than Keisler:

1. Lou McEvoy: 7.79 ERA in 64.2 innings (1930-31)
2. Randy Keisler: 7.19 ERA in 61.1 innings (2000-01)
3. Alex Ferguson: 6.73 ERA in 112.1 innings (1918-25)
4. Kei Igawa: 6.66 ERA in 71.2 innings (2007-08)
5. Sidney Ponson: 6.63 ERA in 96.1 innings (2006-08)

Shoulder surgery sidelined Keisler the entire 2002 season and during his rehab, he was bitten by a snake in his garden. “I was in my backyard one Sunday morning, cleaning brush out of my flower beds, and a pygmy rattlesnake was under the brush. When I went down to pick the snake up, it bit me,” Keisler told Bob Hersom in July 2003.

Keisler spent a week in the hospital following the snake bite and he had occasional numbness in his fingers after that, which affected his pitching. The Yankees released Keisler in February 2003 and he played with three different organizations that season (Astros, Padres, Rangers), including making two big league appearances with San Diego.

From 2003-11, Keisler bounced from the Yankees to the Padres to the Rangers to the Astros to the Mets to the Reds to the Athletics to the Cardinals to the Twins to the Cubs to the Orioles to the Dodgers, compiling a 5.83 ERA in 83.1 innings. Most of that came with Cincinnati in 2004 (6.27 ERA in 56 innings). Keisler spent 2012 in an independent league and 2013 in Taiwan before calling it a career. He retired with a 6.63 ERA in 150.2 MLB innings.

7. Rapid fire thoughts. Gary Sanchez’s winter ball stint started Friday and he is 5-for-11 (.455) with two doubles, two homers, two walks, and four strikeouts through three games. Here’s video of the first homer and here’s video of the second homer. It may be December, but Gary’s bat flip is in midseason form (GIF via Talkin’ Yanks):

Warms my heart. I think the Yankees should make sure there’s a bright orange mascot behind the plate whenever Sanchez bats from now on. In other winter ball news, Deivi Garcia allowed two runs in two innings in his second outing last night. He threw 32 pitches. Garcia is four innings into his 20-inning winter ball allotment. Domingo German gave up four runs in two innings in his most recent start. Since throwing four scoreless and hitless innings in his debut, he’s allowed nine runs in 11.2 innings with nine strikeouts and seven walks. Eek. Miguel Andujar remains MIA. He has not played since Nov. 20th for an unknown reason … Yomiuri Giants ace righty Tomoyuki Sugano will be posted today, reports Jon Morosi. His 30-day negotiating window ends Thursday, Jan. 7th. Here’s what I wrote last month about Sugano, who has been the best pitcher in Japan since Masahiro Tanaka left. Sugano turned 31 in October and he projects as a No. 3-ish starter in the big leagues and the Yankees could really use one of those. I’m curious to see how aggressively they pursue him, if at all. I am very intrigued given this underwhelming free agent pitching class … And finally, Ken Rosenthal (subs. req’d) reports “MLB instructed clubs in a memo last week to proceed under the assumption the DH will not be used in the NL this year.” This is just the latest edition of “Rob Manfred negotiates through the media,” and Manfred’s official stance seems to be “we’re going to take away the one rule change everyone loved.” Bold strategy. MLB, the MLBPA, front offices, and the majority of fans want the universal DH, so, naturally, MLB will try to use it as leverage to nickel and dime the union. I don’t think the universal DH is holding up free agency that much -- 15 low-value jobs won’t significantly alter the free agent landscape -- and the MLBPA should not concede anything to get it. MLB is the bad guy here. Hold your ground and you'll get what you want without giving up anything to get it (eventually).

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