Here’s a deal that came out of left field. The Yankees made a trade prior to tonight’s game, sending Mike Tauchman to the Giants in exchange for lefty reliever Wandy Peralta and a player to be named later. There hadn’t been a rumor about Tauchman recently, at least not since spring training.
Tauchman hasn’t been very good for the Yankees since he broke out in 2019 as part of the Next Man Up parade. That year, the outfielder batted .277/.361/.504 (128 wRC+) with 13 homers in 296 plate appearances. He was particularly hot in the second half after a brutal start with the team, and it seemed like he was yet another unearthed gem by the Yankees’ front office. But ever since, Tauchman owns an ugly .239/.333/.303 (76 wRC+) line with no homers in 127 plate appearances. With that performance, along with Clint Frazier and Brett Gardner ahead of him on the depth chart, Tauchman had become redundant.
In return, Peralta brings tantalizing stuff but uneven results thus far. Jaime will have more on the team’s newest acquisition soon. In short: the lefty owns a 4.72 ERA and 4.84 FIP in 192.2 big league innings (all in relief) despite some glowing Statcast metrics. Also, Peralta has a minor league option (unlike Tauchman), so he will likely be on the Scranton shuttle.
Lastly: the Yankees promoted Tyler Wade to fill Tauchman’s vacated roster spot.