Days of Yore Archives - River Avenue Blues

The Three Most Important Yankees Stories of the RAB Era

April 25, 2019 by Mike

As we prepare to close RAB’s internet doors next Monday, we’ve spent some time recently looking back at the last 12+ years of Yankees baseball. We looked at my favorite games, prospect rankings, and some random players as well. We’ve seen a lot of cool stuff these last dozen years.

Like all sports, there are short-term and long-term events in baseball. Someone has a great game or a hot streak and it’s a one or two or five-day story. There are also the grand overarching themes that take years to develop and play out. Those are the stories that define a franchise. Those are the stories we’re going to look at today.

I think we can split the 12 years of the RAB era into three distinct periods, each of them important in their own way, and each of them featuring countless smaller stories. Here, in my humble opinion, are the three most important big picture stories in recent Yankees history.

The 2008-09 Offseason

To fully understand the 2008-09 offseason, you have to go back to the 2007-08 offseason. The 2007 Yankees won 94 games and went to the postseason, though they were woefully short on pitching, and Joe Torre was shown the door following the season. The Yankees brought in Joe Girardi to manage and had a chance to add a significant piece to the rotation: Johan Santana.

Santana, then 29, was an impending free agent coming off four straight Cy Young caliber seasons. The Twins were not going to be able to keep him and his availability was no secret. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Mets were among the most serious suitors. The Yankees reportedly offered Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, and Jeff Marquez for Santana, and stood their ground. They set a deadline for trade talks and wouldn’t raise their offer, so Johan wound up in Flushing.

“The deadline is the deadline. I extended it a few hours more, and that was it. So it’s done,” Hank (not Hal) Steinbrenner told Tyler Kepner after Santana was traded to the Mets. “I’m very pleased. We got Andy Pettitte back, and everything I wanted to accomplish at the beginning of the off-season has happened. We got Pettitte, (Alex) Rodriguez, (Jorge) Posada, and (Mariano) Rivera back. We’ve got our young pitchers. I’m very glad we didn’t have to lose Hughes and Cabrera. Everything is copacetic.”

Santana was brilliant in 2008 while the Yankees struggled, partly do to injuries but mostly because they didn’t have enough pitching and simply weren’t that good. The Yankees missed the postseason in 2008 for the first time since 1993. After the season, the Yankees enacted the plan that led to them passing on Santana a year prior. They wanted to keep their young players and sign CC Sabathia, who was then only 27. (Easy to forgot how young Sabathia was when the Yankees signed him, isn’t it?)

It was a high-risk plan, to be sure. There were no guarantees Sabathia would sign with the Yankees — there was lots of chatter about Sabathia wanting to play close to home in California and staying in the National League because he wanted to hit — or even become a free agent, plus the Brewers ran him into the ground late in 2008. We had a little “freak out about Sabathia’s workload” period here at RAB.

Ultimately, the Yankees wooed Sabathia with what was then the largest pitching contract in baseball history, a seven-year deal worth $161M. The contract included an opt-out clause following the third season that would allow Sabathia to escape should he not enjoy New York. Brian Cashman later admitted they signed Sabathia not only because he was a great pitcher, but because they felt they needed his presence in the clubhouse.

Sabathia was the key to the 2008-09 offseason plan. He was not the only part of the plan, however. The Yankees also signed A.J. Burnett to a five-year contract and straight up stole Nick Swisher from the White Sox, giving them added rotation depth and a middle of the order bat, respectively. Then, on December 23rd, the Yankees swooped in to sign Mark Teixeira, who appeared set to join the Red Sox.

“Without a doubt, this was a deviation from our plan. We felt he was a rare, exceptional opportunity,” Cashman told the Associated Press after the Teixeira deal. The Yankees added to the rotation in a big way with Sabathia and Burnett, and Swisher was penciled in as the starting first baseman with Xavier Nady in right. Cashman convinced ownership to splurge on Teixeira, and once the Steinbrenners signed off, a deal came together quickly.

The Yankees got to have their cake and eat it too during the 2008-09 offseason. The Santana/Sabathia plan worked, they added Burnett and Swisher, and then capped it all off with Teixeira. The Yankees did all that while retaining their top young players as well. Hughes was the team’s ace setup man in 2009, Melky was their regular center fielder, and Marquez was used to acquire Swisher.

The 2008-09 offseason paved the way for the 2009 World Series championship. Teixeira was the MVP runner-up en route to 103 regular season wins, Sabathia was an ace from April through November, Burnett was an above-average innings guy, and Swisher was maybe the best “eighth best player on the team” in baseball history. Those moves contributed greatly to the 2009 World Series as well as ALCS trips in 2010 and 2012.

It’s been ten years now and it can be easy to forget just how much doubt was involved with that 2008-09 offseason. Was passing on Santana the right move? Would Sabathia sign with the Yankees? Would Burnett stay healthy? Would Swisher rebound from a rough 2008? Would the Yankees splurge for Teixeira? Were the young players worth keeping? Across the board, the answers were a resounding yes. It was a franchise-altering offseason.

The 2016 Trade Deadline

You have to give the Yankees credit. Even as baseball’s post-competitive era began to take shape in recent years, they refused to throw in the towel and tank. Even when things fell apart in 2013, the Yankees tried like crazy to stay in the race, hence the Alfonso Soriano trade. They added Chase Headley, Martin Prado, and Brandon McCarthy weeks before the July 31st trade deadline in 2014 because they couldn’t wait any longer for help.

The 2015 Yankees faded badly in the second half — they were six games up on trade deadline day and finished the season six games back — and their sluggish play carried over into the first half of 2016. On the morning of July 31st, the Yankees were a fourth place team at 52-51 with a -31 run differential. They weren’t truly awful, but they weren’t good, and they were old. Roster turnover was required.

It had been nearly three decades since the Yankees last sold at the trade deadline. You had to go back to 1989, when they traded Rickey Henderson, John Candelaria, and Ken Phelps within the span of a few weeks. The 2016 Yankees had several valuable trade chips on expiring contracts and Cashman later admitted he wanted to sell at the deadline all along. It was a matter of convincing ownership to sign off.

“I think it influenced the people above me more. The inconsistency of our club reared its ugly head. A true playoff contender wouldn’t have done that,” Cashman told Andrew Marchand and Brendan Kuty after the Yankees were swept by a crummy Rays team in late July. “… We’ve been contending for a long time, and we’re damn proud of that. That’s a hell of a run. That run of contention and being legitimately considered a team that could win a championship on a year in, year out basis has gone on for a long time. There’s, from my perspective, no shame in anything we’ve tried to address (at the deadline).”

The Yankees had two valuable rentals in Aroldis Chapman and Carlos Beltran, and a slightly less valuable (but still useful) rental in post-Tommy John surgery Ivan Nova. They also had a trump card: Andrew Miller. Miller was signed another two seasons beyond 2016. He was great, he was affordable, he was a long-term add, and the Yankees did not have to trade him.”We wanted a firstborn for Chapman. We needed two twin firstborns for Miller,” Cashman told Marchand.

The Yankees controlled the bullpen market at the 2016 deadline. Cashman had all the leverage. The trade deadline moves:

July 26th: Traded Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs for Gleyber Torres, Adam Warren, Billy McKinney, and Rashad Crawford.
July 31st: Traded Andrew Miller to the Indians for Clint Frazier, Justus Sheffield, Ben Heller, and J.P. Feyereisen.
August 1st: Traded Carlos Beltran to the Rangers for Dillon Tate, Erik Swanson, and Nick Green.
August 1st: Traded Ivan Nova to the Pirates for two players to be named later (Tito Polo and Stephen Tarpley).

(The trade deadline was August 1st that year because July 31st landed on a Sunday.)

Two things about the 2016 deadline activity. One, it took about a year for baseball and the bullpen market in general to reveal just how well the Yankees did in the Chapman and Miller trades. Those deals were a perfect storm. The Yankees had two elite relievers to peddle and there were two contenders desperately trying to end very long World Series droughts and willing to pay big to get the bullpen help they needed.

The Yankees turned two relievers — excellent relievers, but still relievers, one of whom was due to become a free agent after the season — into eight players, including three top 100 prospects and an above-average big league reliever. Chapman’s Cubs and Miller’s Indians met in the World Series that year and the series went to extra innings in Game Seven. It was a bonkers series. Cashman leveraged his trade chips and Chicago’s and Cleveland’s desperation expertly.

And two, the full impact of the 2016 deadline is just now being realized, three years out. Torres, despite his recent slump, is an absolute stud and already one of the best middle infielders in the game. Frazier is starting to establish himself at the big league level after some injury injuries. Sheffield and Swanson became James Paxton. Tate was part of the Zack Britton trade. McKinney was part of the J.A. Happ trade. Polo was part of the big Todd Frazier/Tommy Kahnle/David Robertson trade. Crawford, Heller, Feyereisen, Green, and Tarpley remain in the organization.

For all intents and purposes, the Yankees turned Miller and three rentals into two long-term lineup keepers (Torres and Frazier) and two years of a high-end starting pitcher (Paxton), plus miscellaneous pieces. Also, while it was not a trade, releasing A-Rod was part of the general “dump veterans and go young” movement in 2016. The trades and A-Rod being released opened playing time for Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge, Tyler Austin, and Chad Green down the stretch. That’s not nothing.

“We’re winning because of the moves we made,” Cashman told Tyler Kepner in September 2016. “Gary Sanchez wouldn’t have gotten up here if we don’t make the moves that we made. Gary went off and did his stuff. He’s had the biggest impact of them all, but there was no way to get Gary up unless we made trades.”

Keep in mind the Yankees made moves designed to improve the team immediately at the 2016 trade deadline as well. This goes back to the whole “never tearing it down” thing. Warren was part of the Chapman trade and the Yankees added Tyler Clippard in a trade with the Diamondbacks. They wanted to remain competitive. Sure enough, the Yankees had a 52-51 record (-31 run differential) before the trade deadline and a 32-27 record (+9 run differential) thereafter.

From 2013 through the 2016 trade deadline, the Yankees were largely trying to hang around and figure out ways to remain in contention even though it was pretty obvious the roster needed to be turned over. They were surviving rather than thriving. The 2016 deadline marked the changing of times. That’s when the Yankees and ownership admitted change was needed and change was enacted. It was a watershed moment. A long overdue change in the franchise’s direction.

The Youth Movement

Obviously, the 2016 trade deadline contributed to the youth movement that helped the Yankees get to Game Seven of the 2017 ALCS and makes up the bulk of their current roster (when healthy, anyway). The youth movement started a long time ago though. Long before the 2016 trade deadline. As much as those trades helped, guys like Sanchez and Judge and Luis Severino were already in the organization at the time.

Late in 2013 and throughout 2014, Hal Steinbrenner called for what was essentially an audit of the player development system. What’s working? What can be improved? How do we get ahead of the game? Things like that. A massive farm system overhaul followed. Most notably, longtime farm system head Mark Newman was ushered into retirement, with top Cashman lieutenant Gary Denbo taking the reins. Other player development changes included:

Many new coaches and coordinators hired. There was a lot of turnover in 2015.
Renovated the minor league complex in Tampa. It is now state of the art.
Created a dedicated data analysis group for the minor league side.
Added two additional rookie ball affiliates (Pulaski and a second Gulf Coast League team).

“Yes, we took a good hard look at player development and scouting, and we made changes and added key personnel,” Hal Steinbrenner told Joel Sherman in January 2014. “There will be more changes to come. We think the draft from a year and a half ago and six months ago were both good. But we have to continue to stay on it because we haven’t had players come through that we felt could contribute.”

With the exception of the Cito Culver and Dante Bichette draft picks, which came during the team’s thankfully short-lived “makeup > talent” era, the Yankees were very good at talent acquisition during the RAB era. They brought in high-upside players with athleticism, both through the draft and internationally, but they struggled to help those players turn their natural talent into baseball skills. It was a development problem, not a talent acquisition problem.

It is impossible to know exactly how much of the team’s recently player development success can be attributed to the farm system overhaul from 2013-14. Perhaps players like Sanchez and Severino and Judge are just so talented that they were going to make it no matter how much the Yankees tried to screw up their development. It’s possible. Is it likely? No, I don’t think so, but sure, it’s possible.

I know this much: The Yankees struggled to develop even complementary players for a long time in the 2000s and early 2010s. How desperate where the Yankees for a Domingo German from, say, 2004 to 2014? Very. They were very desperate for a guy like German. Now German probably doesn’t even crack the top five when looking at the most impressive young players on the Yankees’ roster (when healthy).

The Yankees aren’t just getting youngsters to the big leagues either. They’re producing impact players who, well, have an impact right away. Severino in 2015, Sanchez in 2016, Judge in 2017, Torres and Miguel Andujar in 2018. They’ve hit the ground running in the big leagues. Also, the Yankees have developed lots of prospects into trade chips too, especially late rounders like Josh Rogers (11th), Dustin Fowler (18th), and Phil Diehl (27th).

The 2016 trade deadline would not have had the impact it has without the Yankees figuring things out on the player development side. They’re not perfect, no one is when it comes to developing prospects, but they are so much better at it right now than they were the first seven or eight years of the RAB era. It’s not even close. For much of my life, the Core ~~Four~~ Five was the Yankees, and understandably so. That era is over and a new one with a new homegrown core has begun. It didn’t happen overnight, but it happened, and that’s the most important thing.

* * *

On a more micro scale, other notable stories during the RAB era include CC Sabathia’s late career reinvention, Curtis Granderson becoming a 40-homer guy almost literally overnight following a mid-season swing change, Robinson Cano developing into one of the game’s truly elite players, the various milestones (Jeter’s 3,000th hit, A-Rod climbing the home run leaderboard, etc.), and the various farewells (Jeter, Rivera, etc.)

My least favorite stories to cover over years? The Biogenesis scandal and fallout, and the various luxury tax plans. Easy, easy calls for me. I am so over the performance-enhancing drug faux-outrage. What a giant waste of time. The luxury tax talk? Completely sick of it. Sick of writing about the Yankees adhering to the luxury tax threshold and sick of what it’s doing to baseball overall, or at least what it’s become an excuse for owners to do. I will not miss PEDs or luxury tax at all once RAB shuts down. Everything else? That was all pretty cool.

Let’s Remember Some Guys from the RAB Era

April 24, 2019 by Mike

Dramatic photo for Dustin Moseley. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

There are five days remaining in the RAB era. We’ve been at this — I’ve been at this — more than 12 years now and it’s time to move on to something else. RAB started as a passion project and the passion is not there anymore. It’s become a burden. It sucks, and I am bummed about it, but it is time.

Since RAB launched in February 2007, the Yankees have played over 2,000 meaningful games, and 319 different players have worn pinstripes. The leader in plate appearances during the RAB era? Brett Gardner. He has roughly 600 more plate appearances than second place Derek Jeter. CC Sabathia of course leads in innings. He’s thrown nearly twice as many innings as second place Andy Pettitte.

We’ve been fortunate enough to watch some all-time great players these last 12 years. Jeter, Sabathia, Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Mark Teixeira, Aaron Judge, on and on it goes. We’ve also seen an army of bit players and up-and-down guys. Most don’t contribute much. Everyone once in a while one of those guys does something memorable though.

Since we’re closing up shop soon, I figured it would be fun to go back through the years and Remember Some Guys. I scrolled through 12 seasons worth of rosters, picked out some names that stood out for one reason or another, and now we’ll pay homage to the random players who suited up for the Yankees. Come with me, won’t you?

Anthony Claggett

Y’all remember the first series at the new Yankee Stadium? The Yankees lost two of three to the Indians and got clobbered in the series finale. The final score: 22-4. Only the fourth time in franchise history the Yankees allowed 20+ runs. It is still the only time the Yankees have allowed more than 15 runs in a regular season game at the new Yankee Stadium. I remember that series for the collective shock at how small the ballpark played. Pretty funny thinking about it now.

Claggett came over in the Gary Sheffield trade with the Tigers and he made his MLB debut in that 22-4 loss. It did not go well:

Zoinks. Claggett made only two more appearances in his big league career (one with the Yankees and one with the Pirates) and he finished with eleven runs allowed in 3.2 innings. The highest ERAs in baseball history (min. 3 IP):

Lewis: 60.00 ERA (20 earned runs in three innings)
Dave Davidson: 30.00 ERA (ten earned runs in three innings)
Steve Dixon: 28.80 ERA (16 earned runs in five innings)
Jim Brady: 28.42 ERA (20 earned runs in 6.1 innings)
Anthony Claggett: 27.00 ERA (eleven earned runs in 3.2 innings)

It is literally just Lewis. He’s some guy who pitched for the 1890 Buffalo Bisons. Not the best company for Claggett.

Colin Curtis

I think you might remember the first and only home run of Curtis’ career. In July 2010, he replaced Brett Gardner after Gardner was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the middle of an at-bat. Curtis inherited an 0-2 count and whacked a home run. Check it out:

Curtis only played 17 more games in his big league career and went 4-for-32 (.125) in those 17 games. Pinch-hit home run as a Yankee in 2010, out of baseball by 2013. Rough. As far as random Yankees homers go, Curtis is right near the top during the RAB era.

Matt DeSalvo

Longtime RAB and DotF readers will remember Mighty Matt DeSalvo. The Yankees signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2003 and he worked his way into their top prospect mix during the farm system’s lean years from 2003-05. From 2003-06, DeSalvo pitched to a 3.63 ERA in 439.1 minor league innings and that was during the peak of the box score scouting era. The numbers were good and therefore he was a good prospect.

DeSalvo was the guy everyone wanted the Yankees to call up, and they eventually called him up in 2007, and in his first start he held the Mariners to one run in seven innings. Next time out: Two runs in 6.2 innings against those same Mariners. Things went downhill after that (17 runs in 14 innings) but hell yeah Mighty Matt. Those 27.2 innings in 2007 represent his only stint with the Yankees (he also threw two innings with the Braves in 2008).

Before hanging up his spikes in 2016, DeSalvo pitched everywhere from the Bronx to Atlanta to China to various Caribbean countries to independent leagues. Twelve seasons in professional baseball with some big league time is a hell of a career for an undrafted free agent.

Freddy Guzman

That is World Series Champion Freddy Guzman to you. Guzman was on the postseason roster for the entire 2009 World Series run as the designated pinch-runner. He pinch-ran twice during the ALCS, neither stole a base nor scored a run, and that was it. No appearances in the ALDS or World Series. Hey, it’s good work if you can get it. Guzman last played in Mexico in 2017.

Darnell McDonald

Man did McDonald get hosed. The Yankees claimed him off waivers from the Red Sox in July 2012 specifically so they could use his righty bat against Boston’s lefty starters in an upcoming series at Fenway Park. He went 0-for-4 in the three-game series before being dropped from the roster. McDonald had to cut his dreads, which his daughter loved and he’d been growing for more than two years, to get four at-bats with the Yankees. The hair policy is just ridiculous.

Juan Miranda

It was a big deal when the Yankees signed Miranda. They gave him a four-year deal worth $2M in December 2006, though he wound up spending the next few years as an up-and-down depth guy. Miranda never hit much in the big leagues, but I do remember him hitting this moonshot:

Miranda also drew a walk-off walk against the Red Sox in 2009. He hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2011 but he was active as recently as 2017 in the Mexican League.

Dustin Moseley

I remember Moseley for two things. One, the photo at the top of the post. Very cool and dramatic photo for … Dustin Moseley. And two, Game One of the 2010 ALCS. The Rangers scored five runs in four innings against CC Sabathia, then Moseley struck out four in two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, giving the offense enough time to claw back and take the lead. He earned the win for that.

Moseley threw 65.1 swingman innings with a 4.96 ERA for the Yankees in 2010. He spent a few years in the big leagues with the Angels and Padres in addition to the Yankees, so he wasn’t some random player who only made like four MLB appearances. I assume Moseley is pro-DH. He wrecked his shoulder taking a swing while with San Diego and basically never recovered.

Rico Noel

Run run Rico. Noel was the designated pinch-runner in September 2015 and he actually had an impact. He pinch-ran 12 times, stole five bases, and scored five runs. That’s a lot of action for the late-season pinch-runner. Their impact is often very overstated. Noel was on the AL Wild Card Game roster that year as well, though he was not used.

As the story goes, Noel talked the Yankees into signing him to serve as the designated September pinch-runner after getting released by the Padres. Joe Girardi made sure to give Noel some at-bats in the final regular season series too. He went 1-for-5 with an infield single. September 2015 was Noel’s first and so far only big league stint. He spent the last two seasons in independent leagues. He may not have gotten a ring out of it, but Rico had more of an impact on the field than Guzman.

Chris Parmelee

I spent a good 15 minutes looking and I can’t find it, but somewhere on the internet is a video of skinny and baby-faced Dellin Betances facing Parmelee in a high school showcase event prior to the 2006 draft. I remember coming across it a few times back in the day. Can’t find it now though. Alas.

Anyway, at one point in 2016 the Yankees used four different starting first basemen in a 12-game span, and roster moves were involved each time. Mark Teixeira to Rob Refsnyder to Chris Parmelee to Ike Davis. Teixeira got hurt, Refsnyder wasn’t very good, then Parmelee got hurt. Parmelee went 4-for-8 with a double and two homers in his brief time in pinstripes. Remember this game?

The next day — literally the very next day — Parmelee blew out his hamstring stretching for a throw at first base. Even though they didn’t make the postseason, the 2016 season was a very important one for the Yankees given their trade deadline moves and late-season call-ups. First base was a total mess that season though. Teixeira was hurt and unproductive much of the year, and Parmelee was one of several short-term fill-ins.

Scott Patterson

Patterson was the bullpen version of DeSalvo. An undrafted free agent (technically an independent league signing) who put up shiny numbers and was supposed to be the next bullpen savior. From 2006-07, Patterson threw 116 minor league innings with a 1.44 ERA and 136 strikeouts. The Yankees called him up 2008, he made his MLB debut as an almost 29-year-old, and he allowed one run in 1.1 innings at the Metrodome in Minnesota.

And that was it. Patterson was lost on waivers to the Padres soon thereafter. He appeared in four games with San Diego before settling in as a Triple-A journeyman. Patterson was last active in 2016, when he split the season between the Italian Baseball League and an independent league. Patterson and Colter Bean were the poster boys for the “he has great numbers call him up the bullpen needs him!” era.

Gregorio Petit

Petit was the infield version of Mike Tauchman of 2015. The Yankees got him in a minor trade right at the end of Spring Training and he made the Opening Day roster because Brendan Ryan was dealing with a calf injury. Petit went 7-for-42 (.167) with the Yankees and drove in five runs, including three on this swing:

Petit, Luis Cruz, Brent Lillibridge, Cody Ransom, Dean Anna, Cole Figueroa … we’ve seen plenty of random short-term utility infielders over the years. At least Petit is still playing. He spent some time in the big leagues with the Twins last year.

Brett Tomko

No Tomkos! Tomko is definitely the most accomplished player in our Remember Some Guys post. Dude spent 14 seasons in the big leagues, including a few weeks with the Yankees in 2009. He allowed 12 runs in 20.2 relief innings that season. I could be remembering incorrectly, but it felt like Tomko was always being mentioned as a possible spot starter while the Yankees cycled through Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin types. I remember him most for his post-meltdown painting sessions.

12 Years of Prospect Watching at RAB

April 23, 2019 by Mike

In six days, we are closing down RAB after covering the Yankees top to bottom for more than 12 years. It was quite a ride. Lot of fun, but also a lot of work, and now that the work outweighs the fun, it’s time to move on. RAB experienced a World Series championship and many really cool moments. I’m grateful.

The RAB era also covered countless minor league prospects. Most of them flamed out, because that’s what prospects do, but a select few broke out and became big league players. Some even did so with the Yankees. I’ve been posting my annual top 30 prospects list since 2007. That’s a lot of words on players who didn’t make it.

I’d say that, for the majority of RAB’s existence, the Yankees were labeled a poor player development team. It wasn’t until recently that they shed that label, but you know what? The Yankees lead baseball in WAR produced by homegrown players since RAB launched in 2007. From the Baseball Gauge:

Yankees: +193.2 WAR
Diamondbacks: +191.6 WAR
Red Sox: +191.0 WAR
Reds: +176.0 WAR
Rockies: +170.3 WAR

Baseball America puts out organizational top 30 prospects lists each year and the Yankees have had 55 different top 30 prospects reach the big leagues since 2007, ten more than any other team. They also lead baseball in pitching WAR from the farm system at +119.6 during that time. The Dodgers are a distant second at +96.7 WAR on the pitching side. Bet you wouldn’t have guessed that.

We’ve already looked at what I consider the five most memorable games of the RAB era. Now let’s dip into the minor league scene and recap the last 12+ years in the farm system. Come with me, won’t you?

All-Time RAB No. 1 Prospects
2007: RHP Phil Hughes
2008: RHP Joba Chamberlain
2009: OF Austin Jackson
2010: C Jesus Montero
2011: C Jesus Montero
2012: LHP Manny Banuelos
2013: C Gary Sanchez
2014: C Gary Sanchez
2015: OF Aaron Judge
2016: OF Aaron Judge
2017: IF Gleyber Torres
2018: IF Gleyber Torres
2019: OF Estevan Florial

All-Time RAB No. 30 Prospects
2007: 1B Juan Miranda
2008: RHP Edwar Ramirez
2009: RHP Steven Jackson
2010: RHP Dellin Betances
2011: RHP Craig Heyer
2012: RHP Chase Whitley
2013: LHP Dan Camarena
2014: LHP Cesar Cabral
2015: OF Slade Heathcott
2016: RHP Austin DeCarr
2017: OF Leonardo Molina
2018: RHP Alex Vargas
2019: 1B/3B Dermis Garcia

All-Time RAB No. 10 Prospects
2007: RHP Kevin Whelan
2008: RHP Dellin Betances
2009: LHP Phil Coke
2010: RHP Jose Ramirez
2011: RHP Adam Warren
2012: CF Ravel Santana
2013: RHP Mark Montgomery
2014: LHP Manny Banuelos
2015: 1B/OF Tyler Austin
2016: C Luis Torrens
2017: SS Tyler Wade
2018: SS Thairo Estrada
2019: RHP Luis Medina

Rank prospects long enough and certain spots develop a personality. The No. 1 spot is the top guy, obviously. The No. 10 spot is where you put that second (or sometimes third) tier prospect you feel strongly about. There is a most definitely a difference between being the No. 10 prospect and No. 11 prospect in the organization. I can’t really explain it. When you’re in the top ten, you’re legit. Things start to feel a little iffy after that. Also, the No. 30 spot is usually a choice between several players, none of them great. That spot tends to go to a personal favorite. Maybe the guy with the best chance to be a big leaguer, though not necessarily become a great player.

With the exception of Florial, my most recent No. 1 prospect and still a baseball baby, every one of my No. 1 prospects reached the big leagues. I’m not trying to gloat. The No. 1 guy is usually the easiest to rank. Relative to other prospect rankers, I think I stick to my guns a little more. Plenty of folks jumped off the Sanchez bandwagon in 2014 and many shied away from Judge in 2017. Development is not linear. Gotta give these kids a chance to experience failure and adjust before pulling the plug.

I’m more proud that ten of my No. 10 prospects and seven of my No. 30 prospects reached the big leagues than I am that all of my No. 1 prospects reached the show (save Florial). More than half my No. 30 guys made it! Betances obviously went on to have a significant MLB career, though he also bounced around my rankings for a better part of a decade. Without checking, I have to think Dellin appeared on more RAB top 30 prospects lists than any other player. I ranked him every year from 2007-14 (!).

Anyway, Edwar Ramirez spent a few years in the show, Miranda and Jackson had cups of coffee, Cabral kept getting looks, and Heathcott did this …

… and that was pretty cool. Hughes and Chamberlain helped the Yankees win a World Series title in 2009. Sanchez, Judge, and Torres (and Florial?) will hopefully be part of the next World Series winning Yankees team. As much fun as the highly regarded prospects are — and believe me, they are a blast — there is a certain pleasure in watching those lower ranked prospects reach the big leagues after following their careers and blogging about it along the way.

Ten Best Prospects

2011 Jesus Montero
2017 Gleyber Torres
2008 Joba Chamberlain
2007 Phil Hughes
2013 Gary Sanchez
2016 Aaron Judge
2015 Luis Severino
2012 Manny Banuelos
2017 Clint Frazier
2007 Jose Tabata

The best prospect and the best player are not necessarily the same thing. Sometimes a prospect who flashes all the right tools and skills doesn’t pan out. Example: Jesus Montero. He was an out of this world great prospect, so much so that this cursed image exists in our gallery:

You can thank Baseball America for that. At his prospect peak in 2011, Montero was lauded as a hitting savant and he’d drawn Frank Thomas comps. He was such a good prospect that if I elected to use multiple years of the same player in these rankings, it would be 2011 Montero in the top spot and 2010 Montero in the second spot. You could dream on his easy opposite field power for days. To wit:

Obviously it never worked out. The Yankees traded Montero during the 2011-12 offseason and he pretty much ate his way out of the big leagues. He turns 30 later this year and seems to be out of baseball after hitting .273/.349/.382 in the Mexico last year.

In terms of pure hype, I think 2007 Hughes takes the cake. Back in those days top pitching prospects received so much hype because not enough people were factoring in attrition and injury rates. These days the prospect world does a much better job of baking risk into the cake, and thus top position players prospects tend to be ranked above top pitching prospects. Hughes didn’t live up to the prospect hype, but he spent more than a decade in the big leagues as a league average starter/really good reliever, and that’s not nothing.

Joba at his prospect peak was better than Hughes at his prospect peak and maybe he was more hyped. He did have that insane run in 2007, remember. Chamberlain was the better prospect because he had a better fastball and because his secondary stuff was just vicious. RAB came into its own during the “Joba should start!” internet wars and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t still curious to know what would’ve happened had the Yankees not jerked him around. That said, Joba did himself no favors by reporting to Spring Training out of shape multiple times.

Anyway, Judge is the best player to come out of the farm system on a rate basis since RAB launched — Robinson Cano debuted before RAB and Brett Gardner has accumulated the most WAR among homegrown Yankees during the RAB era, though Judge has him beat on a per plate appearance basis — but prospect rankers always seemed to keep him at arm’s length because he’s so big and had extreme swing-and-miss tendencies. In hindsight, Baseball America’s top 100 list in 2017 is a hoot:

86. SS Delvin Perez, Cardinals
87. RHP James Kaprielian, Yankees
88. LHP Anthony Banda, Diamondbacks
89. RHP Tyler Beede, Giants
90. OF Aaron Judge, Yankees

That said, ranking Judge cautiously was not unreasonable at the time. Sanchez and Torres had more prospect hype at their peaks because they were up-the-middle players with loud tools. Sanchez basically projected to be a Judge-type hitter at catcher whereas Gleyber had a high-end all-around game and plenty of baseball smarts. Judge is very much a hindsight prospect. If everyone had known what they know now, he would’ve been a top three pick in the draft and the game’s top prospect. During his prospect days though, he was difficult to project.

The final two spots in that top ten are difficult to pin down. 2008 Ian Kennedy and 2013 Mason Williams belong in that conversation, as does 2018 Justus Sheffield. I think Frazier and Tabata are the right guys for the last two spots. Clint had the pedigree as the former high draft pick and Tabata, gosh, it’s easy to forget just how highly regarded he was back in the day. He was a consensus top 30 global prospect who reached Double-A at 19 and Triple-A at 20. Tabata back then is what people wish Florial is now.

Five Biggest Busts

C Jesus Montero
RHP Andrew Brackman
OF Jose Tabata
OF Mason Williams
OF Slade Heathcott

I don’t like dwelling on busts because many times flaming out is treated as a character flaw when it really just boils down to Major League Baseball being extremely difficult, and also players getting hurt sometimes. Montero’s and Tabata’s approaches were not as advanced as they appeared in the minors, Williams and Heathcott had trouble staying healthy, and Brackman was an inexperienced two-sport guy who never could figure out a delivery at his size (6-foot-10). Meh. Some guys make it, most don’t. Learn from the ranking mistakes and move on.

Five Personal Favorites

3B Miguel Andujar
RHP Ross Ohlendorf
3B Marcos Vechionacci
RHP Jose Ramirez
RHP Graham Stoneburner

Like everyone else, I develop personal favorites while following the farm system, and sometimes there’s no good reason why it happens either. You fall in love with so many prospects over the years and, given the nature of the beast, most of them never make it, so when one of them turns into Andujar, it feels like a million bucks. I loved (and still love) his insane bat-to-ball stills, his ability to hit anything anywhere, his power potential, and his energy and love for the game. Let’s watch some Andujar highlights, shall we? I miss watching him play.

I was a big Ohlendorf guy. I even bought an OHLENDORF 39 shirt. True story. His fastball moved all over the place (but apparently it didn’t have as much velocity as remember based on the pitch tracking data) and his slider was promising, plus he was a smart dude with a knack for making adjustments. Guys like Ramirez and Stoneburner stood out during their prospect days but would be a dime-a-dozen now. Oh, you throw 96-98 mph with a sharp slider and no command? Get in line.

Vechionacci was pretty much the opposite of Andujar. He could play the hell out of third base but he couldn’t hit much. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for that big breakout year at the plate and it never came. It wasn’t until his fourth season with Double-A Trenton that he slugged better than .370 while playing at least 100 games. I fell in love with more random prospects over the years than I could possibly count (I thought Ramon Flores would be Michael Brantley, basically), but Andujar is easily at the top of this list for me. He’s in his own tier. After covering the system for 12+ years, sending RAB out with this group of homegrown players is pretty rad.

Revisiting the MLBTR Archives: April 2014

April 19, 2019 by Mike

At long last, the offseason and Spring Training are over. That applies both to the present day Yankees and the Yankees of yesteryear. Our MLB Trade Rumors archive series moves (concludes, really) into April 2014. The Yankees lost to Scott Feldman and the Astros — Houston went 51-111 the prior season — on Opening Day that year. Most notably, Dellin Betances pitched that day and made the first of what would eventually be 70 dominant appearances that season.

The Yankees had a very busy 2013-14 offseason. Robinson Cano left as a free agent and the Yankees responded to their forgettable 2013 season with several big free agent signings (Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, Masahiro Tanaka) and several smaller free agent signings (Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, Matt Thornton). Anyway, April is usually not a great month for rumors and transactions, but let’s go through the archives anyway.

April 1st, 2014: Yankees Designate Eduardo Nunez For Assignment

The Yankees have designated shortstop Eduardo Nunez for assignment, tweets Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. A 40-man roster spot was needed for fellow infielder Yangervis Solarte, who beat out Nunez for the club’s utility infield role.

The end of the Nunie era. Nunez spent the 2011-13 seasons as a most of the time player, hitting .266/.313/.380 (87 wRC+) with -35 DRS. It was time to move on. Nunez made the most of his fresh start with the Twins and the Yankees certainly made the right move going with Solarte, a minor league contract guy who blew everyone away in Spring Training and helped keep the Yankees relevant in April and May. Solarte took Nunez’s roster spot, his utility infielder job, and his uniform number (No. 26). Replaced him in every way possible.

April 5th, 2014: AL Notes: Teixeira, Lester, Kipnis

Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira has been placed on the 15-day DL with a hamstring injury, the club announced today. Needless to say, that is not the start to the year that he or the team had hoped for as the 33-year-old works back from wrist surgery. The injury has revealed some roster issues in New York, which will move Kelly Johnson from third to first for the time being and call up catcher Austin Romine to take the open active roster spot. While the team was surely uninterested in carrying three backstops, the move was dictated by 40-man constraints.

Oh geez, I forgot about Teixeira’s hamstring injury. He missed most of 2013 with his wrist injury, remember. Now he had a hamstring problem. He missed 13 games with the injury and Teixeira’s injury is what gave Solarte his first real big league opportunity. Teixeira got hurt, Johnson moved over from third base to first base, and Solarte took over at the hot corner. He went 15-for-47 (.319) with four doubles and a homer while Teixeira was out, and the Yankees couldn’t take him out of the lineup.

April 6th, 2014: AL Notes: Davis, Kottaras, Omogrosso

Brian Omogrosso‘s agency, MCA, says (via Twitter) that the pitcher is drawing interest from the Yankees, Rangers and Blue Jays after pitching at a showcase Friday in Arizona. The White Sox recently released Omogrosso. He appeared in 37 1/3 innings for them in the past two seasons, posting a 5.54 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9.

Brian Omogrosso, eh? He put 67 guys on base and allowed 24 runs in 37.1 innings as an up-and-down arm with the White Sox from 2012-13. No team signed him in April 2014. He wound up with the independent Bridgeport Bluefish that year, allowed nine runs in six innings, and that was that. Omogrosso’s been out of baseball since. Crazy has fast this game can be taken away from a player. General rule of thumb: When a player’s agency tweets out the teams that are interested in signing him, take it with a grain of salt. A big one.

April 7th, 2014: Twins Acquire Eduardo Nunez

The Twins have acquired infielder Eduardo Nunez from the Yankees in exchange for left-hander Miguel Sulbaran, tweets Twins director of baseball communications Dustin Morse. Nunez has been assigned to Triple-A Rochester.

The Yankees took the loss on this one. Baseball America never ranked Sulbaran among his team’s top 30 prospects and he threw 186 minor league innings with a 3.87 ERA (3.55 FIP) while with the Yankees. He was released after missing 2016 with injury and serving a 25-game drug suspension in 2017. Been out of baseball since. Nunez hasn’t been great by any means since then (+4.5 WAR from 2014-18), but he’s certainly been more useful than Sulbaran. Shrug.

April 11th, 2014: AL East Notes: Moore, Trout, Cashman, Jays

The Yankees have been fined by Major League Baseball for tampering due to comments made by team president Randy Levine in regards to Mike Trout, The Los Angeles Times’ Bill Shaikin reports. The amount of the fine isn’t known. Levine cited Trout last December when discussing why the Yankees didn’t match the Mariners’ 10-year contract offer for Robinson Cano, saying “If it was Mike Trout, I’d offer him a 10-year contract, but for people over 30, I don’t believe it makes sense.” The Angels took exception to Levine’s comments and asked the Commissioner’s office to investigate the matter.

If only there were some 20-somethings the Yankees could’ve given a ten-year contract this offseason!

April 14th, 2014: Quick Hits: Puig, Yankees, Lester, Tigers, Blackouts

The Yankees come in at a surprising second in the early-season defensive shift count, writes ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (Insider subscription required). As Olney notes, that kind of decision requires organizational commitment on every level, and two offseason infield acquisitions — Kelly Johnson and Brian Roberts — played an important part in the first discussions involving players.

The 2014 season is when we first started to see the team’s analytical efforts trickle down to the field. Infield shifts had been around for years, they were hardly new in baseball, but they were new to the Yankees. They shifted quite a bit in 2014 and weren’t especially good at it. I think part of it was personnel. The shift was still relatively new to veterans like Johnson and Roberts. The Yankees are much more well positioned now and it helps that guys like Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar, and others were able to learn the shift in the minors. Back in 2014, the Yankees just kinda threw it out there and hoped it work. There’s a much better plan in place now.

April 18th, 2014: Yankees Designate Cesar Cabral For Assignment

The Yankees designated reliever Cesar Cabral for assignment after tonight’s game, reports Marly Rivera of ESPN Deportes (via Twitter). Cabral, 25, had a rough outing, giving up three earned runs and failing to record an out before he was ejected for hitting his third batter of the inning.

I remember that Cabral outing. It was ugly. He entered the eighth inning at Tropicana Field with the Yankees down 8-5 and went single, single, hit batter, hit batter, single, hit batter. The hit-by-pitches didn’t look intentional — Cabral also threw a wild pitch that inning and only nine of his 23 pitches were strikeouts — but come on, the umpire can’t leave a guy in when he’s hit three of six batters.

Cabral spent the rest of the season in Triple-A, hooked on with the Orioles the next year and did return to the big leagues briefly (one inning in 2015). The independent Sugar Land Skeeters recently drafted him out of a showcase event, so Cabral’s still active. The Yankees liked him so much that they took him in the 2011 (!) Rule 5 Draft and waited all that time for him to overcome elbow problems.

April 20th, 2014: Yankees Designate Matt Daley For Assignment

The Yankees have designated right-hander Matt Daley, according to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News (on Twitter). In related moves, New York activated Mark Teixeira, recalled right-handers Preston Claiborne and Bryan Mitchell, placed right-hander Ivan Nova on the 15-day disabled list with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, and sent infielder Scott Sizemore to Triple-A.

Good gravy what a series of transactions. There’s a lot going on there. First, Daley, who currently works in the Yankees’ front office, will forever be remembered as the guy who was summoned from the bullpen to replace Mariano Rivera after Rivera’s memorable farewell in 2013. He spent the rest of the 2014 season in Triple-A before hooking on with the Yankees as a scout.

Claiborne got off to a real nice start with the Yankees in 2013 before crashing late and continuing to crash in 2014. He managed to make it back to the big leagues with the Rangers in 2017. This call-up was Mitchell’s first big league call-up, though he didn’t get a chance to pitch before being sent down, kinda like Domingo Acevedo last year. Mitchell eventually made his MLB debut in August 2014.

Sizemore went 5-for-16 (.313) in limited time with the Yankees and I was Mad Online they didn’t give him a longer look while Teixeira was out. He’s been out of baseball since 2016. Oh, and this is when Nova blew out his elbow and needed Tommy John surgery. Nova’s injury led to Chase Whitley getting called up. Whitley and Jacob deGrom made their MLB debuts as opposing starters in a game the Yankees won 1-0. It was the game Betances did this:

Lordy. That was right when it was starting to become clear Betances was legit. I miss Dellin. Can’t wait for him to come back.

April 25th, 2014: Yankees Sign Bruce Billings To Major League Deal

The Yankees have signed right-hander Bruce Billings to a Major League contract and selected him to their 25-man roster. The club announced the signing prior to yesterday’s game against Boston. Billings is represented by John Boggs & Associates.

Okay, this MLBTR post is a bit misleading, because the Yankees had signed Billings to a minor league deal over the winter and he started the season with Triple-A Scranton. When a non-40-man roster guy gets called up, he technically signs a new Major League contract as part of the process. The Yankees didn’t sign Billings as a free agent in April 2014. They just called him up. Anyway, Billings made one appearance with the Yankees, allowing four runs in four mop-up innings against the Angels. It was his last MLB game and he’s been out of baseball since 2015. The 2014 Yankees really gave the 2013 Yankees a run for their money with the random journeyman call-ups.

April 26th, 2014: AL East Notes: Campos, Masterson, Stroman

Yankees minor-league pitcher Jose Campos had Tommy John surgery on Friday, CBS Sports’ Danny Knobler tweets. Campos, of course, arrived from the Mariners prior to the 2012 season with Michael Pineda for Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi, a trade that seems to have been cursed for everyone involved.

From 2012-15, Campos threw 167 innings in the farm system due to various injuries. As soon as he showed some semblance of good health in 2016, the Yankees cashed him in as a trade chip. He went to the Diamondbacks for Tyler Clippard. No one won the Pineda-Montero trade. The Yankees just lost it less. Campos at least got a taste of the big leagues with Arizona later in that 2016 season, allowing three runs in 5.2 innings. He allowed 14 runs in 22.1 innings with the independent Sugar Land Skeeters last season. Still only 26 too.

April 26th, 2014: Minor Moves: Freddy Garcia, Nik Turley

The Yankees have announced that they’ve released pitcher Nik Turley. Turley, 24, posted a 3.88 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 in 139 innings for Double-A Trenton in 2013. He experienced arm tightness in spring training and has not pitched this season, but if healthy, one would think that a left-hander with his strikeout rate and ability to start could get a look from another organization.

Turley went from 50th round draft pick to the big leagues. The Yankees released him after some injuries, then he bounced from the Giants to the Red Sox to the Twins. Turley allowed 22 runs in 17.2 innings with Minnesota in 2017, but he didn’t pitch at all last season due to an elbow injury and a performance-enhancing drug suspension. Even though the results stink, seeing a kid drafted that late reach the big leagues is always pretty cool.

April 28th, 2014: Yankees Sign Chris Leroux To Minor League Deal

The Yankees signed Chris Leroux to a Major League contract and added the right-hander to their 25-man roster, the club announced over the weekend. Leroux joined the Yankees on a minor league deal signed in January. Leroux is represented by the Octagon Agency.

Same deal as Billings. Leroux was with Triple-A Scranton and was called up. He made two appearances with the Yankees and managed to allow five runs in two innings. Leroux’s been out of baseball since 2016. Billings and Leroux were called up in April, but folks, there were still plenty Jim Millers and Josh Outmans and Jeff Franci to come during this 2014 season.

April 28th, 2014: Quick Hits: Tigers, Nevin, Murphy, Polanco

John Ryan Murphy has drawn the attention of several opposing scouts and the young catcher could become a sought-after trade chip for the Yankees, John Harper of the New York Daily News reports. “Some team might see him as a guy who could start for them,’’ one scout told Harper. “He’s solid with the bat and behind the plate.’’

Murphy didn’t play much with the 2014 Yankees — Brian McCann and Francisco Cervelli were the primary catching tandem that year — but he was a really good prospect. A borderline top 100 guy. Murphy gave the Yankees a quality season as the backup catcher in 2015 (.277/.327/.406 and 100 wRC+) before they turned him into Aaron Hicks. Even with Hicks dealing with his back injury, that trade has been a huge win for the Yankees. Murphy is with the D’Backs right now and they made him throw 54 pitches (!) in a two-inning mopup appearance two weeks ago. Seven runs in two innings. Man. How is letting a position player (or a pitcher, for that matter) throw that many pitches in two innings safe?

April 29th, 2014: Injury Notes: Profar, Figueroa, Pineda, Nova

Speaking of injured pitchers, Yankees hurler Michael Pineda will have an MRI after leaving a simulated game with a sore lat muscle, Newsday’s David Lennon tweets. Pineda’s suspension for pine tar is due to end Monday, but the Yankees might be without him longer than that.

You all remember the pin tar incident, right? Of course you do. Pineda was busted for having pine tar on his neck at Fenway Park, and was given a ten-game suspension. Everyone remembers that. How many people remember Pineda got hurt while suspended though? He was throwing in Tampa during his suspension when he injured his lat. The pine tar game was April 23rd. Pineda did not rejoin the Yankees until August 13th.

April 30th, 2014: AL Notes: Abreu, Carbonell, Astros, Baker

The Yankees are interested in Cuban outfielder Daniel Carbonell, according to media outlet Diario de Cuba (hat tip to Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues). The Yankees scouted Carbonell during a February workout. The switch-hitting 23-year-old is a free agent and can be signed for any price as long as he signs before July 2.

For some reason I had it in my head that the Yankees signed Carbonell. I must’ve been confusing him with someone else. The Giants signed Carbonell to a four-year, $3.5M contract and he spent the entire four-year contract in the minors. Didn’t play much above Single-A ball. Carbonell hit .178/.229/.267 in the Mexican League last season, which sources confirm is not good. I somehow wrote three (and now four) RAB posts about this guy. Maybe I should’ve started a monthly RAB Archives feature where I looked back at all the stupid things I wrote five years ago. That would’ve been a hoot.

The hidden glory of Greg Golson

April 12, 2019 by Steven Tydings

Greg Golson is known to Yankee fans for one incredible throw in 2010. However, despite the greatness of that moment, there was more to his baseball story.

‘Nothing he can’t do’

Golson was drafted 21st overall in the first round of the 2004 MLB Draft by the Phillies. A five-tool prospect, Golson describes himself as not raw but needing development. The Texas high schooler had blazing speed and a cannon of an arm. His bat and power were expected to come along with Baseball America saying “there’s really nothing he can’t do” in their scouting report.

“I had this style of play that was kind of reckless abandon, all out; I think that’s what the Phillies liked about me,” Golson told River Avenue Blues. “But I think I needed to stop thinking so much at the plate.”

Golson slowly worked his way up through the Phillies’ system, hitting as many as 13 home runs in a season and stealing up to 30 bases. He even got a cup of coffee and six at-bats in September for the 2008 World Series champions. However, he couldn’t put it all together before he was traded to Texas after the season. The outfielder was designated for assignment by the Rangers after 2009 and landed with the Yankees in a trade.

Though he would make the Show with the Yankees as well, he never got the opportunity to be a regular, partially due to the misfortune of playing for three teams in the midst of postseason windows.

“I think that’s more, I wouldn’t say to blame, but that’s more of the cause of me not getting an opportunity to play every day,” Golson said. “There was an emphasis on winning once I got up and there was no room for a rookie to figure out his way.”

Wearing Pinstripes

Golson received his first call-up to the Yankees on May 4, playing in one game before getting optioned three days later. He hadn’t been hitting all that well in Triple-A to that point, but Alfredo Aceves hit the shelf with a bulging disk on May 12, getting Golson right back up the to the Majors.

“I’m at my rental property in Scranton and I get a call from my manager saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to the big leagues,'” Golson recalled. “At the time, I was hitting .210, I hadn’t made the adjustment at the plate, so I’m like, “What!? I’m going where? This is a joke, right?”

Though it was 1 a.m. right after a game, Golson quickly got packed with excitement and boarded a plane to Detroit, meeting the Yankees before a game with the Tigers. He was 0-for-7 in his MLB career before the matchup and entered as a defensive replacement for Marcus Thames. In the ninth inning, he got the plate and smacked a single for his first career hit.

Golson remembers getting the clubhouse after the hit, “I wouldn’t say I was walking, I was floating.” His favorite player growing up was Derek Jeter, who came up to him.

“Jeter is like, ‘That’s your first hit, man? We need to celebrate.’ I’m like, ‘Nah, I need to get some sleep.'”

Most people wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to celebrate with Jeter, his childhood hero, to catch some z’s. Instead, Golson recalls Jeter taking the rookie out to eat in Boston, “Not many people get to play with their childhood hero and then they take you out.”

Golson would get into four more games with his first Major League start before getting optioned down on May 17. He’d spend the summer in Scranton and he found his hitting stroke in the process with a solid .263/.313/.414 line despite a slow start.

“Looking back, that was probably the best time of my life. I was just on cloud nine,” he said. “You don’t need Advil, you don’t need any anti-inflammatories. You’re ready to go. Being around so many potential and future Hall of Famers, I learned a lot.”

With expanded rosters, the Bombers called up Golson in September and utilized him almost exclusively as a pinch-runner and defensive replacement. Nick Swisher was slowed by injuries and Brett Gardner also missed some time, creating an opening for Golson.

He went 0-for-2 in stealing bases during the 2010 season, but his defense did all the talking. With the combination of fabulous speed and a rocket arm, he was the perfect man to come in for Swisher, Austin Kearns or whomever manned the corner opposite Gardner.

“A lot of times I was hoping for Nick Swisher or Jorge Posada would get a single or a walk, so I could get into the game. I would never hope [the opponent] would tie it up, but I would just love to get an at-bat.”

Golson wanted the opportunity to show off his swing, spending plenty of time in the cages while in the Majors. Despite his best efforts, it would be a game in which he didn’t bat that gets remembered years later.

The Throw

The Yankees were fighting with the Rays for the AL East crown in 2010 and had a series in Tampa Bay in mid-September with a half-game lead going into it. New York didn’t have pressure to win the division with the wild card in hand. Furthermore, a wild card berth meant facing the Twins instead of the upstart Rangers in the ALDS.

Regardless, the Pinstripers lost Game 1 on a Reid Brignac walk-off homer. Game 2 on Sept. 14 was a wild affair with the Yankees see-sawing from up 6-0 in the top of the 5th inning to down 7-6 after the bottom half, before knotting the game at seven in the sixth.

It stayed that way into extra innings, though Golson entered in the ninth after Juan Miranda pinch hit for right fielder Colin Curtis, who was filling in for Swisher. Despite a desire to start, Golson was primed for filling-in after coming up with a National League team, thereby dealing with pitchers hitting and double switches.

It was just a few days before Golson’s birthday and his brother, who was stationed in Jacksonville, came down to watch him play at the Trop. Therefore, the 25-year-old outfielder was already loose simply with family in town and a Yankees uniform on his back. He came into the series knowing playing time was likely thanks to a lefty-laden Rays staff.

Though he’d done the proper cage work in game, he hadn’t gotten a chance to fully stretch out his arm. That’s where Gardner helped out.

“When I got in, Gardner was in left and he was saying, “Do you need to throw?” because I was throwing with Granderson in center,” Golson recalled. “… We backed up almost foul pole to foul pole and we were just long tossing so I could get my arm loose. It ended up paying off because it was pretty much the same distance that I ended up throwing to third to A-Rod.”

In the top of the 10th, Posada hit a solo home run to put the Yankees up, 8-7. That meant Mariano Rivera would have the chance to close things out in the 10th.

An inauspicious start met Mo with Carl Crawford singling through the right side.

“Once he got on base, I was like, “OK, I’m going to throw him out at home,”” Golson said. “That was the thought process because I always try to think of the toughest play before the play starts so I can have it in my mind in case it happens.”

Evan Longoria, ever the Rivera killer, flew out to deep center for the first out, though Crawford didn’t tag up. Crawford then stole second, though Golson remembers him being out before the ball came out of Jeter’s glove.

Matt Joyce stood at the plate and lifted a fly ball down the line to right, an easy catch for Golson but seemingly far enough to advance Crawford to third. This was, of course, prime Crawford, who stole 46 bags in 2010, down just five steals from a career-best 51 in 2009.

“When the ball went up, I know the first thing I thought was, ‘Just catch it. Don’t worry about getting behind it,'” Golson recalled. “It was going in and out of vision because of the roof.

Ah yes, the Tropicana roof. That explains why Golson ended up flat-footed after the catch instead of getting behind the ball. At the time, he was more worried about recording the first out and not letting the ball get away, thus making him the “butt of a lot of jokes.”

Still, flatfooted or behind the ball, Golson was ready when Crawford tagged up. He nailed the Rays’ speedster on a low line-drive of a throw and a good pick and tag by Alex Rodriguez.

Funny enough, Golson aimed his throw at Jeter, the cutoff man, and simply wanted the shortstop to snag it. Jeter realized there was a play at third and leaned out of the way.

“All I remember is getting high fives after that. I don’t remember anything after the moment but getting high-fives and pointing at A-Rod, saying, “Nice pick.”

Moving Forward and Looking Back

While that was Golson’s shining moment in pinstripes, he did make the Yankees’ postseason roster that fall. He made a shoestring grab to finish off another Rivera save in Game 1 of the ALDS, his only putout and opportunity in three postseason appearances.

The Yankees were eliminated by Golson’s old team, Texas, near where the Austin native grew up. After being designated for assignment and starting 2010 out with struggles at the plate, Golson didn’t expect the ride of the year to end. “Being a part of the postseason roster and playing in front of my family in my home state, on the Yankees.”

He would also briefly play for the 2011 Yankees, finishing with 35 plate appearances over the two seasons with eight hits, two RBI and a .235/.257/.294 batting line.

Golson bounced around between Double-A and Triple-A for the White Sox and Braves in 2012-13 before turning to independent league baseball. As for why he never made it back to The Show, Golson now sees some of what the younger version of himself couldn’t at the time and that he was too willingly pliable to coaches.

“I played with nine different organizations and every single one of them, as soon as I got there, it was, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and I had to figure out what worked for me.”

Golson began to figure out more about his game once he got out of affiliated ball, playing in Mexico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic as well as stateside. Once there, he lost concern for how his game looked and his pedigree as a former first rounder and big leaguer.

“A lot of guys say it, but I really do wish I knew then what I know now.”

The 33-year-old is now finishing up a degree in health and wellness this August. When he first began taking classes online, he made it his goal to play until he got the degree and he’s been in the Atlantic and Mexican Leagues in recent seasons before joining the Texas AirHogs of the American Association last year. He’s a free agent for now, living in Denver and passing some baseball lessons on as an instructor.

Still, he can sometimes struggle to look back on his playing days. As a right-handed player for platoon purposes and coming through the systems of competitive teams, Golson didn’t get the chance he might have had on a rebuilding roster.

Think about it. He got into 40 MLB games and hat 42 plate appearances, something most of us have or will never experience, but it was just that, 40 games, never more than a month at a time. Therefore, Golson has gratitude for being able to live out his dream and play for the Yankees, yet he also wanted more.

“Being on the Yankees comes with that look [from people] of, “Why? Why was he on the Yankees?” That throw is something that people go and look up and they’re always like, “I saw your throw. That was awesome.”

“It’s really cool and it’s the defining moment of my career, so I hear about it a lot and I’m grateful that it happened. Again, I’m not going to say it was an albatross, but I just wish I could have done more with my career so there was more to give people, like I can hit, too.”

The Five Most Memorable Games of the RAB Era

April 9, 2019 by Mike

In two weeks and six days, RAB will close its internet doors after more than 12 years covering the Yankees. I am bummed we won’t get to cover another World Series, or CC Sabathia’s final season, but we were around for one championship and almost all of Sabathia’s time in pinstripes, and that’s pretty cool. Lots of blogs never got to experience a title or a player as awesome and lovable as CC.

When it’s all said and done the RAB era will have covered 2,034 regular season and postseason Yankees games, assuming no rainouts the next 20 days. Turns out Game 161 last season, the game in which the Yankees broke the single-season home run record, was the 2,000th game of the RAB era. Fitting, given my unabashed love of dingers. Twelve years is an eternity in the blog game. Doing the math and seeing RAB has been around for over 2,000 meaningful games really drove home the point for me. We’ve been at this a long time.

Naturally, some of those 2,034 games are more memorable than others, and for different reasons. Maybe the game itself was exciting. Or maybe you were at the ballpark with a friend or family member, and it was just a great all around day. Whatever the reason, baseball is pretty great, and the Yankees have spoiled us with many awesome games the last 12 years. Even the bad years (2008, 2013, 2004, 2016) weren’t that bad. RAB has never seen the Yankees win fewer than 84 games. Could be worse.

What follows is my personal ranking of the five most memorable Yankees games of the RAB era. This is not intended to be a “correct” ranking. It’s my personal list and everyone’s personal list will be different. For whatever reason, these are the games that most stick out to me from the last 12+ seasons.

5. Sept. 1st, 2011: Jesus Montero’s Debut

(box score) (RAB recap)

Kinda random, I know, but this game has always stuck out to me. For starters, it was Montero’s debut, and he was supposed to be the next great Yankee. Remember his two-homer game against Jim Johnson and the Orioles? That was so cool. Alas, things didn’t work out the way everyone hoped. Montero was traded after the season and eventually ate his way out of the big leagues. He turns 30 (!) in November and hit .273/.349/.382 in the Mexican League last year.

Secondly, this was a really important game! Yankees vs. Red Sox at Fenway Park, separated by one game in the standings atop the AL East. Montero did nothing in his MLB debut (0-for-4 with a strikeout and a hit-by-pitch), but Andruw Jones worked a 14-pitch walk against Al Aceves in the seventh inning, setting up Russell Martin for the go-ahead double. Mariano Rivera struck out Adrian Gonzalez with the bases loaded to end it. Good ol’ fashioned “this game is gonna make me puke!” baseball at Fenway.

4. Sept. 21st, 2008: The Final Game at the Old Yankee Stadium

(box score) (RAB recap)

The game itself was unremarkable. I remember Andy Pettitte started, Mariano Rivera closed, and Jose Molina hit the final home run. The box score tells me Johnny Damon also hit a home run, Hideki Matsui batted eighth (?!?), and someone named Chris Waters started for the Orioles. Imagine being an up-and-down arm for the 93-loss Orioles in 2008, and it just so happens you line up to start the final game at Yankee Stadium. Wild.

This game stands out more because of what happened afterward — there was Derek Jeter’s speech, and I specifically remember telling a friend it felt like the Yankees won the World Series while the team made their lap around the warning track — and because it marked the closing of the ballpark I grew up in. It was a sad day. The new Yankee Stadium is pretty cool (yay modern amenities!), but the old Yankee Stadium had an irreplaceable charm. I’m man enough to admit I teared up during all the postgame ceremonies. Over a building!

3. Nov. 4th, 2009: World Series Game Six

(box score) (RAB recap)

Surely no one expected the 2009 World Series to not land in here somewhere, right? The entire 2009 postseason run had some very memorable moments. There’s the Alex Rodriguez game-tying home run against Joe Nathan in ALDS Game Two, A.J. Burnett coming up huge in World Series Game Two, and Johnny Damon’s double steal in World Series Game Four. It was a fun few weeks, no doubt.

Game Six was both a great baseball game and the World Series clincher. I remember thinking the series was over as soon as Hideki Matsui hit that home run against Pedro Martinez. Kinda foolish, I know, but I was feeling really good about things as soon as the Yankees took the lead. Matsui drove in six runs in the game, Damaso Marte struck out peak Chase Utley and Ryan Howard on six pitches in the late innings, and of course Mariano Rivera closed it out with a five-out save.

Fun fact: Damon got hurt in this game. I think it was a hamstring? Melky Cabrera got injured earlier in the series as well. When Rivera got Shane Victorino to ground out to second to end the series, the outfield from left-to-right was utility man Jerry Hairston Jr., unproven rookie Brett Gardner, and regular right fielder Nick Swisher. The Yankees would’ve had some outfield issues had the series gone seven games. Anyway, I’d rank the five World Series of lifetime like so:

1996
2009
2000
1998
1999

The 1996 World Series was the first title I saw and I’ll never forget it. Especially since baseball crushed my soul for the first time the previous year. The 2009 World Series is special because it had been so long since the last championship. I was young and naive in the late-1990s/early-2000s. I started to take winning titles for granted around 1999 and 2000. The 2000 World Series was special because of the Subway Series though. That was really cool, especially coming from a family of (mostly) Mets fans. I’d love to see another Subway (World) Series at some point. It would be crazy fun.

2. Oct. 3rd, 2017: AL Wild Card Game

(box score) (RAB recap)

Say what you want about the fairness or unfairness of the one-and-done Wild Card Game, but wow does it make for great baseball theater. It is Game Seven without the hassle of Games One through Six. I don’t think the winner-take-all aspect is particularly fair in a sport that is about marathons, not sprints, but it does well for MLB (ratings, buzz, etc.), so I don’t think the format is changing anytime soon. It is what it is.

The 2017 Wild Card Game packed a lot into nine innings. A lot of action and a lot of emotions. There was the shock and sense of dread after the Twins jumped on Luis Severino for three runs in the first inning. The euphoria of the Didi Gregorius game-tying home run. Brett Gardner pimping a home run. David Robertson throwing 3.1 innings and 52 pitches. Something happened every inning and all while the season was on the line. It was … intense.

Perhaps recency bias is playing a role here and I’ll look back in a few years and wonder why I have this game so high on my personal list. That said, the 2017 season was the start of a new era of Yankees baseball, and the Wild Card Game was the first time we saw this team in action in October. If the Yankees score six runs in the first and run away with it, this game doesn’t make the list. They had to make a big comeback though, and the game was very exciting, plus the Yankees were a young up-and-coming club for the first time since 1996. It was a lot of fun and it’s going to stick with me for a while.

1. The Farewells

Okay, I’m cheating, because my personal most memorable game of the RAB era is not one game. It was a series of farewell games. Four, specifically. Here’s the list, chronologically:

Sept. 26th, 2013: Mariano Rivera’s final game (box score) (RAB recap)
Sept. 28th, 2013: Andy Pettitte’s final game (box score) (RAB recap)
Sept. 25th, 2014: Derek Jeter’s final home game (box score) (RAB recap)
Aug. 12th, 2016: Alex Rodriguez’s final game (box score) (RAB recap)

Pettitte’s farewell was kinda weird because he retired once already, and even though it seemed like he was ready to hang ’em up for good in 2013, no one really knew. That little bit of doubt existed. Also, what is widely remembered for being Jeter’s farewell game was not actually his final game. You of course remember the walk-off single …

… but the Yankees still had a three-game series in Boston after that. Jeter went 2-for-4 in that series and he walked off the field for the final time following a third inning infield single at Fenway Park. I’ll remember the A-Rod farewell game for two things. One, it started raining during the pregame ceremony (only A-Rod), and two, he returned to third base for one batter at the end of the game. That was pretty cool.

Jeter’s walk-off hit was an incredible storybook ending and Pettitte going out with a complete game was awesome. For me, Rivera’s farewell is the most memorable. Jeter and Pettitte going to the mound to take him out was an all-time great moment, and seeing Rivera bawl his eyes out while hugging Pettitte was very emotional. I always saw Rivera as this larger than life baseball god who never got rattled by anything, yet there he was breaking down in Pettitte’s arms. I will never ever forget it.

* * *

Trimming this down to five games was not easy and, honestly, ask me this again in a month and I might give you a different order or even different games. Here are other RAB era games that stand out to me (listed chronologically):

April 4th, 2007: A-Rod’s walk-off grand slam vs. Chris Ray (box score) (video)
Aug. 7th, 2009: A-Rod’s walk-off homer in the 15th inning (box score) (RAB recap) (video)
Aug. 9th, 2009: Damon and Teixeira break Daniel Bard (box score) (RAB recap)
July 9th, 2011: Jeter’s 3,000th hit game (box score) (RAB recap) (video)
July 10th, 2011: CC Sabathia vs. James Shields duel (box score) (RAB recap) (video)
August 25th, 2011: The Three Grand Slams Game (box score) (RAB recap) (video)
April 21st, 2012: Huge comeback vs. Red Sox (box score) (RAB recap) (video)
Oct. 10th, 2012: The Raul Ibanez Game (box score) (RAB recap) (video)
April 28th, 2017: Huge comeback vs. Orioles (box score) (RAB recap) (video)
Oct. 8th, 2017: Tanaka and Bird save the season in Game Three (box score) (RAB recap) (video)
Oct. 11th, 2017: Sir Didi takes Kluber deep twice in Game Five (box score) (RAB recap) (video)

I did not realize Jeter’s 3,000th hit game and the Sabathia vs. Shields duel were on back-to-back days! I had a 20-game ticket package in 2007 and it felt like I saw A-Rod hit 30 home runs in those 20 games, including that walk-off grand slam against Ray. What a monster season that was. With all due respect to 2017 Aaron Judge and various Robinson Cano seasons, 2007 A-Rod was the best player of the RAB era. Hands down.

Personally, I’ll always remember the Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira back-to-back homers against Daniel Bard as the moment the 2009 Yankees first felt special. That team was obviously very good, but those homers capped off a four-game sweep of the Red Sox, at which point the Yankees asserted themselves as baseball’s dominant team. Turn your speakers up:

Man that was fun. Similarly, Didi’s first home run against Corey Kluber in ALDS Game Five two years ago was the first time I truly believed the Yankees had a chance to complete the comeback. After going down 0-2 in the series, I just kinda assumed it was over. The Indians were insanely good that year. Instead, the Yankees won Games Three and Four, then Gregorius sent a first inning message in Game Five. It was awesome.

We may not have gotten four World Series in five years, but I feel fortunate RAB existed these last 12 seasons. Again, even the bad years weren’t that bad. We saw a World Series title, more than a few generational players come through town, and the Yankees go through a ~~rebuild~~ transition that resulted in one of the best cores in the game. There were many memorable games and moments along the way. More than I could ever fit into one post. The games above are my personal favorites.

Revisiting the MLBTR Archives: March 2014

March 1, 2019 by Mike

We are in a new month, and because that month is March, it means meaningful baseball is coming. The Yankees will open the 2019 regular season four weeks in three weeks and six days. Back in 2014, the regular season did not begin until April 1st. The 2014 Yankees made it through Spring Training healthy. (Brendan Ryan started the season on the 15-day DL with a back problem. That’s all.) Let’s hope the 2019 Yankees do the same.

Anyway, after going 85-77 and missing the postseason in 2013, the Yankees abandoned their luxury tax plan during the 2013-14 offseason, and committed big dollars to Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, and Masahiro Tanaka. They also made smaller additions like Kelly Johnson and Brian Roberts. Oh, and they lost Robinson Cano to free agency. That was kind of a big deal. March usually isn’t a great month for trade and free agent rumors, but that’s not going to stop us from making our monthly trip through the MLB Trade Rumors archives. Let’s get to it.

March 1st, 2014: East Notes: Orioles, Yankees, Braves

Yankees hurler CC Sabathia wasn’t concerned after his fastball topped out at 88 MPH in his first Spring Training outing, Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News reports. “My fastball is what it is. If it gets better, it will. If it’s not, it won’t,” Sabathia commented. McCarron writes that the concerns are likely to persist if the lefty’s heater doesn’t tick up, noting that Sabathia lost a significant amount of weight this offseason.

The 2013 season was the first season in Sabathia’s terrible three-year stretch before he reinvented himself as a cutter guy. He threw 211 innings (good!) with a 4.78 ERA and 4.10 FIP (bad!) that year. Spring Training velocity hysteria was still at its peak in 2014 following the Michael Pineda fiasco, so it was impossible to tell what was meaningful and what was noise. In Sabathia’s case, those 88 mph spring heaters were meaningful. His average fastball velocities:

2012: 93.2 mph
2013: 92.3 mph
2014: 90.6 mph
2015: 91.2 mph
2016: 92.1 mph

Sabathia pitched terribly in 2014 (5.28 ERA and 4.78 FIP) and injury ended his season in mid-May. It wasn’t his arm though. It was that right knee. The knee absolutely could’ve played a role in the velocity loss — Sabathia could’ve been holding back a bit in an effort to reduce the force on his landing knee, even subconsciously — and while his peak velocity never returned, it did rebound after 2014.

Who would’ve guessed that, as this was happening back in 2014, Sabathia would still be out here slingin’ in 2019? He looked close to done that season and it’s not like he was any good when healthy in 2015 either (4.73 ERA and 4.68 FIP). It wasn’t until late in that 2015 season that he adopted the cutter and carved out a nice little second phase of his career.

March 2nd, 2014: AL East Notes: Rays, Lowe, Peralta, Napoli, Ortiz

Jhonny Peralta said the Yankees offered him a three-year contract and the opportunity to play third base, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports (Twitter links). The Yankees were Peralta’s preferred Big Apple team since the Mets only offered him a two-year deal that Peralta described as “not really good.”

The Yankees went with Kelly Johnson at third base in 2014, which opened the door for Yangervis Solarte, so in the grand scheme of things missing out on Peralta was a positive even though he was quite productive for the Cardinals. They gave him a four-year deal and he hit .263/.336/.443 (120 wRC+) with +4.6 WAR in 2014 and .275/.334/.411 (105 wRC+) with +2.1 WAR in 2015 before things went south. Missing out on Peralta wasn’t quite as fortunate as missing out on Omar Infante, but standing pat at three years was a good idea for the Yankees.

March 5th, 2014: Teams Scouting David Phelps, Yankee Catchers

The Mariners sent a scout to watch David Phelps‘ recent Spring Training outing, George A. King III of the New York Post reports, while the White Sox and Brewers also had scouts on hand to watch the Yankees’ catchers. King previously reported last week that the White Sox had their eyes on the Yankees’ catching surplus and that the Yankees were scouting Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks.

Phelps was a good but not great depth arm coming off a 4.98 ERA (3.81 FIP) in 2013. He was the kinda guy who was perpetually available in trades. The Yankees kept him that year and he wound up third on the team in starts in 2014. Good grief. As for the catchers, the Yankees had just signed Brian McCann, and they had three backup candidates in Austin Romine, John Ryan Murphy, and Frankie Cervelli. They kept all them too in 2014.

By 2014, Weeks was basically done as an everyday player. He hit .209/.306/.357 (84 wRC+) in 2013 and had lost a step in the field. New York’s infield was a mess though, and rolling the dice on Weeks wasn’t the worst idea when your starting infield is Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, and 40-year-old Derek Jeter. Weeks did bounce back with a .274/.357/.452 (126 wRC+) line as a platoon bat in 2014. Anyway, there were lots of rumors about Phelps and the catchers during spring 2014 and it all amounted to nothing.

March 7th, 2014: Quick Hits: Perez, Pineda, Mariners, Ramirez, A’s

Yankees starter Michael Pineda took an important step tonight on the road back from shoulder surgery, writes Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. Throwing a slider that catcher Brian McCann called “pretty much unhittable,” Pineda tossed two scoreless innings and struck out four Tigers — including Austin Jackson, Rajai Davis, and reigning AL MVP Miguel Cabrera.

The Yankees acquired Pineda in January 2012 and he didn’t throw a single pitch for them in 2012 or 2013 following shoulder surgery. In Spring Training 2014, there was some optimism Big Mike would be in the Opening Day rotation. He was still only 25 at the time and his fastball and slider looked good in the early days of camp. Shoulder trouble and the pine tar suspension limited Pineda to 13 starts that season, during which he had a 1.89 ERA (2.71 FIP) in 76.1 innings. Those 76.1 innings were all the Yankees got from him from 2012-14. There were no winners in this trade. The Yankees just lost it less.

March 13th, 2014: AL East Notes: Sox, Romero, Gausman, Soriano

MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch reports that the Yankees are planning to give Alfonso Soriano a look at first base to improve his versatility, but there’s been no talk of him seeing any time at second base.

Oy vey. I can’t imagine 38-year-old Soriano at second base. He wasn’t good there when he was 28. The Yankees were very much in their “we’ll play anyone at first!” phase at this point and letting Soriano try it made sense. They had five outfielders for the three outfield spots plus DH (Soriano, Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, Ichiro Suzuki) and little first base depth. It never happened though. Soriano never played first base, he completely stopped hitting, and was released in July. Remember how great he was after the trade in 2013? Man did it fall apart quick.

March 23rd, 2014: AL Notes: Pierzynski, Harang, Ichiro, Orioles, Rangers

The Yankees are willing to eat part of Ichiro Suzuki‘s $6.5MM 2014 salary in the right trade, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman writes. No deal appears to be imminent, however. Ichiro, who hit .262/.297/.342 with the Yankees in 2013, does not have a starting role this season.

You will be surprised to learn no team wanted to give up something to acquire a 40-year-old outfielder who stopped hitting four years earlier, even with the Yankees eating money. I get it, Ichiro is an all-time great and a first ballot Hall of Famer, and I fully acknowledge his greatness and place in history as a global baseball icon, but the two-year contract covering 2013-14 was ill-advised and he never should’ve been anything more than a fourth outfielder for the Yankees. Naturally, Ichiro played 143 games in 2014, fourth most on the team. Figures.

March 26th, 2014: AL East Links: Murphy, Romine, Rays, McGowan

Yankees GM Brian Cashman told reporters (including ESPN New York’s Wallace Matthews) that he’s “hearing from a lot of people about” catchers John Ryan Murphy and Austin Romine. The Yankees have been shopping their catching depth for weeks, and now that Francisco Cervelli has won the backup job, Murphy and Romine could be more expendable. Cashman, however, doesn’t feel pressure to move either players. “They’re assets. We’re not in any position where we have to do anything, but if something made sense, we’d consider it. But right now, we’re happy with what we’ve got,” Cashman said.

If you would have asked me, in March 2014, to rank those three catchers based on how likely they were to have a long-term future with the Yankees, I would’ve ranked them:

John Ryan Murphy
Francisco Cervelli
Austin Romine

Murphy was the hotshot prospect and Cervelli had been the incumbent backup for several years running. Romine spent a good chunk of the 2013 season backing up Chris Stewart when Cervelli was on the disabled list. He hit .207/.255/.296 (49 wRC+) in 148 plate appearances, then went to Triple-A in 2014 and hit .242/.300/.365 (82 wRC+) in 313 plate appearances. The Yankees designated Romine for assignment at the end of Spring Training 2015 and he went through waivers unclaimed.

Now, five years later, Romine is heading into his fourth straight season as the undisputed backup catcher. Murphy was traded for Aaron Hicks and the Yankees turned Cervelli into one year of Justin Wilson and then Chad Green (and Luis Cessa). The Yankees had three backup catchers in March 2014 and, over the next 18 months, they turned them into one backup catcher, a comfortably above-average center fielder, and multiple excellent reliever seasons. Is that good? That seems good.

March 28th, 2014: Yankees To Sign Alfredo Aceves

The Yankees have reached agreement on a minor league deal with pitcher Alfredo Aceves, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reports (Twitter links). Aceves will work out of the Triple-A rotation, and has a July 1 opt-out clause.

The return of Al Aceves. The second go ’round didn’t go nearly as well as the first. He was hurt and ineffective with the Red Sox from 2012-13 (5.21 ERA and 4.95 FIP), the Yankees rolled the dice on a minor league deal, and Aceves wound up in the bullpen in early-May. I remember Aceves giving up some garbage time dingers in this game, throwing two pitches inside at the next hitter, and Larry Rothschild chewing him out on the mound. The video:

The YES Network broadcast had a better look at it, but I can’t find that video. Trust me though, it happened. The Yankees designated Aceves for assignment after the game and he hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since. He spent the 2014-17 seasons in the Mexican League and didn’t pitch anywhere last season as best as I can tell. As good as Aceves was for the 2009 Yankees, he was essentially done as a productive big leaguer by 2012, and he was a big time clubhouse liability. Dude was kinda crazy.