Via Ken Davidoff: The Yankees have signed right-hander Brian Gordon to a minor league contract. You might remember him from those two spot starts he made for the Bombers back in 2011, one against the Rangers (two runs, 5.1 innings) and one against the Reds (four runs, five innings). I assume he received an invitation to Spring Training.
Gordon, 35, moved into the bullpen full-time last season and had a 3.57 ERA (2.45 FIP) with awesome strikeout (9.43 K/9 and 25.4 K%) and walk (1.29 BB/9 and 3.5 BB%) rates in 63 innings for the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate. He spent the second half of 2011 and all of 2012 pitching in Korea. Gordon is an older guy, but the Yankees definitely need bullpen help and he had an outstanding year in 2013. It’s worth the minor league contract to find out if it was legitimate improvement following the role change or just a fluke.