The deadline for protection came and went and with most of Yankees Twitter expecting a big trade, the Bombers did the opposite and got their much-needed roster spots cleared via small moves. In summary:
The Added Players
The first reportedly added player was the most obvious. High minors breakout middle infielder Oswaldo Carera, who could be an option for the MLB team backup infield position next season.
The next reported player was outfielder Everson Pereira, who survives yet another deadline after rumors of him going the Trade Deadline for Joey Gallo. He’s quite some time away from the MLB team, but he has some prospect status (ranked 13 in the system by MLB pipeline) and the Yankees probably don’t want another Luis Torrens case.
Then came the big announcement where the team confirmed the addition of right-handed pitchers Stephen Ridings & Ron Marinaccio along with the lefty J.P. Sears. Remember you can check out the profiles for all of these players in our previous Rule-5 post by Derek.
So who did they cut from their previously full 40-Man roster? well…
The Cuts
Yeah, no it wasn’t Matt Olson but the Yankees did do a small trade with the Phillies first:
Clearing who I thought would be the 3rd Catcher next Season Donny Sands along with Nick Nelson. They traded them for two low-minors prospects in lefty-hitting 21-year-old 1B T.J. Rumfield who slashed .250/.426/.263 (Yikes that SLG) over at Class A this past season, and the also 21-year-old lefty Joel Valdéz who pitched in the DSL this past season. As expected, neither of them was ranked in the Phillies top-30 prospects. This is not about getting some huge guy for the future, just about clearing spots.
Then came the bomb with the cuts:
It seems Randy finally got through to Cashman as the now-former Yankees UTIl Tyler Wade was designated for assignment. Along with Clint Frazier and Rougned Odor as well. The last two are not terribly surprising, but it is interesting to see Chris Gittens and Miguel Andújar make the cut before them.
This looks like sadly the end of Frazier’s time with the Yanks, we hope nothing but the best for him first in terms of health and secondly in terms of his Baseball career. As for Rougned I personally thought they might have kept him because of him being a decent BU-INF option and how cheap he is (Texas is paying his contract) but it wasn’t to be.
For all the out-going players we wish you the best in your future.
