River Avenue Blues

River Ave. Blues ยป Parker Bridwell

Yankees lose Parker Bridwell on waivers to the Angels

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(Sean M. Haffey/Getty)

So long, Parker Bridwell. It was a good run. The Yankees lost Bridwell on waivers to the Angels earlier today, both teams announced. He was designated for assignment earlier this week to clear a 40-man roster spot for the newly re-signed J.A. Happ.

The Yankees originally claimed Bridwell off waivers from the Angels last month, and now the Angels claimed him back. A reverse Ronald Torreyes, basically. The Yankees lost Torreyes on waivers to the Angels in January 2016 and reclaimed him from the Halos a few days later.

Bridwell, 27, allowed 40 runs in 34.2 innings between Triple-A and the big leagues this past season before needing surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow in June. Coincidentally enough, Bridwell was one of the high spin, high whiff pitchers who made my recent under-the-radar relievers list.

Even with Bridwell gone, the Yankees still have three out-of-options sixth starter/reliever candidates in Luis Cessa, Domingo German, and A.J. Cole. Tommy Kahnle is out of options as well.

Yankees re-sign J.A. Happ, designate Bridwell for assignment

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(Hannah Foslien/Getty)

December 17th: The contract is finally official. The Yankees announced it earlier today. Happ gets $17M in 2019 and $17M in 2020 with the $17M vesting option for 2021. Joel Sherman says the option vests with 165 innings or 27 starts in 2021, which are quite reasonable terms. There is no buyout on the option, so Happ comes with a $17M luxury tax hit through the life of the contract.

To clear space on the 40-man roster, the Yankees designated righty Parker Bridwell for assignment, the team announced. He was claimed off waivers from the Angels a few weeks ago. I had a feeling one of the out of minor league options arms (Bridwell, Luis Cessa, Domingo German, A.J. Cole) would get the roster axe for Happ and Bridwell it is. He could clear waivers and remain in the organization as a non-40 man roster player.

December 12th: After some confusion, it appears the Yankees and J.A. Happ have agreed to a reunion. Mark Feinsand reports the Yankees and Happ have agreed to a two-year contract with what sounds like a third year vesting option based on innings and starts. There’s no word on the money or terms yet. Joel Sherman says the deal could be announced tomorrow.

“A real pro,” Brian Cashman said to Ronald Blum when asked about Happ. “Had a veteran presence within that clubhouse, knew exactly what was necessary and brought it every five days in the most competitive division in all of baseball.”

As I wrote earlier today, I didn’t like the idea of a guaranteed third year at all, so I’m glad the Yankees and Happ were apparently able to compromise with a vesting option. Happ turned 36 a few weeks ago and guaranteeing multiple years to a pitcher that age is always risky. At least the Yankees were able to mitigate that risk somewhat.

Once this deal is official the Yankees will be slated to go into next season with Happ, Luis Severino, CC Sabathia, James Paxton, and Masahiro Tanaka as their five-man rotation in whatever order. That’s a rock solid rotation with upside in Severino and Paxton (and Tanaka). The Yankees still have Sonny Gray too, though I get the sense he’ll be gone before Spring Training.

This past season Happ threw 177.2 innings with a 3.65 ERA (3.98 FIP) between the Yankees and Blue Jays, and his 26.3% strikeout rate was a career high by 3.3 percent points. His 27 home runs allowed were also a career high (by five). Happ had a 2.69 ERA (4.21 FIP) in eleven starts and 63.2 innings with the Yankees after the trade.

With Happ back in the fold the Yankees can now focus on a Didi Gregorius replacement and the bullpen, plus general depth. A better sixth starter than Domingo German and Luis Cessa would be cool given Paxton’s and Sabathia’s injury histories. Will the Yankees pivot and go after Manny Machado or Bryce Harper? I sure hope so.

Taking stock of the 2019 Yankees with two months to go until Spring Training

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Where does Bird fit in? (Omar Rawlings/Getty)

At the moment the Yankees are a little more than halfway through their offseason. It has been 68 days since their ALDS Game Four loss and there are 58 days to go until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. Hooray for being closer to Spring Training than the ALDS. Baseball is approaching.

The Yankees have been fairly busy this offseason, most notably adding James Paxton and re-signing several players (Brett Gardner, J.A. Happ, CC Sabathia). They also added some depth pieces through waiver claims and minor trades. Still on the offseason to-do list is find a Didi Gregorius replacement and also bolster the bullpen. That’s the short version. There are still other needs as well.

With the Winter Meetings over and the Yankees slightly more than halfway through their offseason, I figured this was as good a time as any to take a step back and examine the current state of the roster. The projected 25-man Opening Day roster, that is. Here’s what we know right now:

Catcher Infielders Outfielders Rotation Bullpen
Gary Sanchez 1B Luke Voit LF Brett Gardner J.A. Happ Dellin Betances
2B G. Torres/OPEN CF Aaron Hicks James Paxton Aroldis Chapman
SS G. Torres/OPEN RF Aaron Judge CC Sabathia Chad Green
3B Miguel Andujar OF Giancarlo Stanton Luis Severino Jonathan Holder
Masahiro Tanaka OPEN
BENCH DISABLED LIST OPEN
Austin Romine Didi Gregorius LIMBO OPEN
OPEN Ben Heller Jacoby Ellsbury OPEN
OPEN Jordan Montgomery Sonny Gray

Also on the 40-man roster: RHP Albert Abreu, RHP Domingo Acevedo, RHP Chance Adams, RHP Parker Bridwell, RHP Luis Cessa, RHP A.J. Cole, RHP Domingo German, RHP Joe Harvey, RHP Tommy Kahnle, RHP Jonathan Loaisiga, LHP Stephen Tarpley, C Kyle Higashioka, IF Hanser Alberto, 1B Greg Bird, IF Thairo Estrada, UTIL Tyler Wade, UTIL Tim Locastro, OF Clint Frazier.

That is a sneaky number of OPEN spots! I count seven. Four in the bullpen, two on the bench, and one at either second base or shortstop. The Yankees of course have in-house options for those seven OPEN spots and, in some cases, the in-house options are preferable to spending on a back of the roster player(s). Why spend money on a utility infielder who is no lock to perform better than Wade or Albert or Locastro, you know?

There are 18 healthy players on the 40-man roster who are not part of my projected big league roster in that table. We can drop those 18 players into one of five buckets. Let’s do exactly that.

1. Going to the minors (4). I think we can safely assume Abreu, Acevedo, Higashioka, and Estrada are going to begin 2019 in the minors. Higashioka is the third catcher and both Abreu and Acevedo have development remaining. They’re not MLB ready. Estrada missed basically the entire 2018 season with various injuries and needs to catch up on lost at-bats. The Yankees have plenty of other infield options.

2. Out of options (6). Six of those 18 players can not be sent to the minors next year without passing through waivers: Alberto, Bridwell, Cessa, Cole, German, and Kahnle. Chances are a few of these guys will be gone before Spring Training begins — the Yankees still have to open a 40-man spot for Happ, for example — but they’re on the roster right now, so they get dropped in this bucket.

Being out of options does not guarantee a player an MLB roster spot but it can be a tiebreaker. If, for example, the final bench spot comes down to Alberto or Wade, it could go to Alberto because he can’t be sent down and Wade can. Give the Yankees a truth serum and I think they’d tell you they want German (long man/spot starter) and Kahnle (middle reliever) to shove in Spring Training and grab bullpen spots. But, if Bridwell or Cessa or Cole appear to be better options, then they’ll get the Opening Day bullpen assignments.

3. Other bullpen candidates (4). Adams, Harvey, Loaisiga, and Tarpley are bullpen candidates in addition to those out-of-options arms. Tarpley strikes me as most likely to win an Opening Day roster spot simply based on the fact he impressed enough in September to get an ALDS roster spot. Also, he and Chapman are the only lefty relievers on the 40-man roster, and Chapman’s the closer. He’s not going to be brought into a sixth inning matchup situation. Left-on-left relievers are largely disappearing from baseball, but Tarpley could crack the Opening Day roster.

Tarpley. (Getty)

My hunch is the Yankees want Loaisiga to go to Triple-A to begin next year. He impressed in his four-start cameo this summer (not so much in September) but the kid has never pitched in Triple-A and he has 196 career innings to his credit. I don’t think the Yankees would hesitate to carry Loaisiga in their bullpen next year if he’s one of their best options — he has a scary injury history and you might as well get whatever you can out of him before he gets hurt again — but, in a perfect world, they’d be able to send him to Triple-A for more tune-up work.

Adams and Harvey are straight up bullpen candidates. Surely the Yankees hope to have better options come Spring Training, but, if they don’t, Adams and especially Harvey could win bullpen jobs. Adams might be at a disadvantage given his ability to start. The Yankees could send him to Triple-A to remain stretched out as the sixth starter and go with someone else in the bullpen. Adams wouldn’t be the first guy to lose out on a big league bullpen gig because the team wants stash him in Triple-A as a starter.

4. Second base/shortstop options (2). Assuming Estrada is indeed ticketed for Triple-A, the top in-house second base/shortstop candidates aside from Alberto are Locastro and Wade. I expect the Yankees to add a middle infielder at some point between now and Spring Training, but, if they don’t, those are the internal options. Locastro and Wade (and Alberto). Seeing how Wade was the Opening Day second basemen this year, and Locastro is more of an outfielder who can play second base than the other way around, I think Wade would be the guy right now. If the season started today, Wade and Gleyber Torres would be the starting middle infielders. That’s what I think.

5. Other bench candidates (2). We’re down to two names: Bird and Frazier. Two former top prospects who have lost a lot of time to injuries in recent years. We know all about Bird’s problems. Last year’s oblique injury and this year’s concussion issues have limited Frazier to 745 plate appearances and 182 total games the last two years. That’s a real bummer. Had he been healthy this past season, Clint could’ve filled in for Judge in August and who knows, perhaps he plays well enough to win the 2019 left field job outright and convince the Yankees to move on from Gardner.

As for Bird, gosh, I don’t know what the Yankees will do with him. Voit has clearly jumped him on the first base depth chart, but the Yankees do love Bird, and would it really shock anyone if they carried him on the bench next year? I mean, they did this year, right? It’s one thing to do it in August and just buy time until rosters expand on September 1st. It’s another to do it on Opening Day. The Yankees are an eight-man bullpen/three-man bench team and using two of those three bench spots on a backup catcher and a backup first baseman seems … unwise.

The x-factor here is Ellsbury. He’s coming back from major hip surgery and Brian Cashman is already hedging against Ellsbury being ready for Opening Day, but, if he is ready, he might get a bench spot by default. I think it is far more likely the Yankees will release Ellsbury than carry him on the roster next year, but what do I know? If he’s healthy and Frazier needs Triple-A time after all the injuries, carrying Ellsbury as the reserve outfielder could very well be in the cards. As for Gray, the other guy in limbo, he’s a goner. He’ll be traded at some point.

* * *

To me, Locastro is the under-the-radar guy to watch. He can play almost anywhere, he’s a .307/.402/.443 (128 wRC+) hitter in 471 career Triple-A plate appearances, he’s a great runner (169-for-208 career stealing bases, an 81% success rate), and he doesn’t strike out much (career 11.5% strikeouts). I’m not saying I want Locastro on the Opening Day roster. I’m just saying he’s currently the odds on favorite to be this year’s “no one expected him to make the team but he did” guy.

Anyway, we had seven OPEN spots in our original table and this is how I think the Yankees would fill them if the season started today, which thankfully it does not.

Catcher Infielders Outfielders Rotation Bullpen
Gary Sanchez 1B Voit LF Gardner Happ CL Chapman
2B Torres/Wade CF Hicks Paxton SU Betances
SS Torres/Wade RF Judge Sabathia SU Green
3B Andujar OF Stanton Severino MR Holder
BENCH Tanaka MR Kahnle
C Romine DISABLED LIST MR Tarpley
IF Alberto Ellsbury Heller LG Cessa
UTIL Locastro Gregorius Montgomery LG German

That leaves the out-of-options Bridwell and Cole out in the cold — the Yankees really seems to like Cessa — Loaisiga and Frazier getting regular playing time in Triple-A, and Bird in Scranton. As much as the Yankees like (or liked, once upon a time) Bird, I think they’re at the point where they need to see health and production before giving him a roster spot. That Voit is around as a viable first base alternative makes this even more likely.

Would the Yankees play Wade at second base and Torres at shortstop, or the other way around? Either way works, really. I think I’d prefer Wade at short and Torres at second because second base is Gleyber’s likely long-term position and he still has only 132 career games worth of experience at the position. My preference, whether the Yankees go internal with Wade (nah) or bring in a middle infielder from outside the organization (yup), is to keep Torres at second base. I’d have no problem with him at short. Second would be my preference though.

Anyway, this is all a very long way of me saying the Yankees still have some unresolved roster spots, maybe more than anyone realized. The middle infield is unsettled, two bench spots are unclaimed, and there are four open bullpen spots. It’s easy to see why the Yankees want two relievers, right? Yes, they can fill some of those spots internally and I’m sure they will. Filling all of them internally seems like a non-option though. The good news is there’s lots of offseason remaining. The bad news is the Yankees still have a sneaky large amount of work to do this winter.

Yanks claim Parker Bridwell off waivers from Angels, Ronald Torreyes designated for assignment

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(Sean M. Haffey/Getty)

The Toe-night Show is no more. This afternoon the Yankees announced they have claimed right-hander Parker Bridwell off waivers from the Angels, and, to make room on the 40-man roster, Ronald Torreyes has been designated for assignment. Aw geez.

Bridwell, 27, had a decent year with the Halos in 2017, throwing 121 innings with a 3.64 ERA (4.84 FIP). His strikeout (14.8%) and ground ball (38.1%) rates were not good though. This past season Bridwell allowed 40 runs in 34.2 innings between Triple-A and MLB before surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow ended his season in June. As best I can tell, he’s expected to be ready for Spring Training.

I assume the Yankees claimed Bridwell because he’s a spin rate guy. The performance and recent elbow surgery certainly don’t stand out, after all. His fastball (2,433 rpm), curveball (2,821 rpm), and cutter (2,525 rpm) have all shown comfortably above-average spin rates in his relatively brief MLB career, and I guess the Yankees believe he can be better with a healthy elbow.

As for Torreyes, everyone’s favorite utility guy went up-and-down in 2018, hitting .280/.294/.370 (78 wRC+). The non-tender deadline is this Friday and I kinda had a feeling Torreyes might lose his 40-man spot, so much so that I wrote about it for tomorrow’s thoughts post. Here’s that now defunct blurb:

One more potential non-tender candidate: Ronald Torreyes. Torreyes is projected to make $900,000 through arbitration next year and that’s not much in the grand scheme of things. It also might be more than the Yankees are willing to spend on an up-and-down utility guy with Tyler Wade, Thairo Estrada, Hanser Alberto, and Tim Locastro also on the 40-man roster and Go Urshela in Triple-A. Torreyes is a quality utility guy. Nothing more, nothing less. He puts the bat on the ball and he can play the three non-first base infield positions competently. His ceiling is limited because he has no power, doesn’t walk, and doesn’t steal bases. Wade is a better defender and a better runner. Thairo has more thump in his bat. Alberto and Urshela are much better glovemen. Locastro is more versatile and a better runner. Torreyes is very popular in the clubhouse but that didn’t stop the Yankees from sending him to Triple-A multiple times this year. I’m not sure non-tendering him and re-signing him to a minor league contract is possible — another team could swoop in with a guaranteed Major League contract and an easier path to big league playing time — but, if there’s a 40-man roster crunch, Torreyes could get non-tendered. The Yankees are fairly deep in up-and-down utility infield types and Torreyes is the most expensive (and least tooled up) of the bunch. A non-tender wouldn’t be a popular move but it could happen. (As for the clubhouse, if the Yankees can’t overcome the loss of Torreyes, then they have much bigger problems than losing a utility infielder.)

Hopefully Torreyes clears outright waivers and remains in the organization as a non-40-man player. Cheap utility guys have a tendency to get claimed on waivers though, especially when they have minor league options remaining (Torreyes does) and have shown they can be effective at the MLB level. Hopefully Torreyes clears. I don’t think it’ll happen though. Sucks.

Bridwell, meanwhile, is out of minor league options, meaning he can’t go to Triple-A without passing through waivers. The Yankees have quite the collection of out-of-options fringe starter/reliever types in Bridwell, Domingo German, Luis Cessa, and A.J. Cole. I’m curious to see how this all shakes out. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Bridwell wind up on outright waivers at some point as the Yankees see whether they can keep him as a non-40-man guy.