The Yankees’ signing of Aaron Judge and Carlos Rodon hogged all the limelight last week. While enjoying this, the Bronx Bombers made discreet moves to strengthen their bullpen with prospective players.
The New York Yankees got a pitcher who used to play for the Cleveland Indians. This is the latest move the Yankees have made since the end of the season. Tanner Tully is the pitcher the Guardians lost and the Yankees have now in their ranks.
Before joining the Yankees, Tully was picked in the 26th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by the Cleveland organization, where he has been ever since. In 2022, he had a small role in the Guardians’ bullpen. Tully’s pitcher only went six innings in three games. In that short amount of time, he had a 6.00 ERA and gave up 4 runs.
Another pitcher the Yankees signed is Lisandro Santos, who was a free agent from the Braves and played in the minor leagues. Santos is 24 years old, 6’1″ tall, weighs 227 pounds, and has a left-handed arm. During the 2022 season, he played for Atlanta’s Double-A and High-A teams. He pitched 18.1 innings and had an ERA of 5.89. (AA). But he has an impressive strikeout rate. In 47.2 innings with High-A last year, he struck out 15.29 batters per nine innings. The Yankees expect him to be a big asset.
Even though Santos might need a year in the Yankees’ minor leagues to find his groove, he has a powerful arm and a lot of options. He might just need a little tweaking to get better at what he does. There’s no doubt that Santos can make an impact in the Major Leagues if he can combine his speed and accuracy for the Yankees.
The Yankees parted ways with two relief pitchers, Junior Fernandez and Lucas Luetge, to make room for Carlos Rodon and Tommy Kahnle. This came as a surprise since Lucas Luetge has been very good over the last two seasons as a veteran lefty.
There have been rumors that the Yankees and the D-Backs are talking about a number of outfielders. This is because Arizona knows that they have too many people working on their team. Alek Thomas, who used to be their best prospect, is one of many names on the table, along with Jake McCarthy, Daulton Varsho, and maybe even Corbin Carroll.
The Yankees used their 2022 first-round pick to get left-handed power hitter Spencer Jones, who is 6’7 and plays outfield for Vanderbilt. Even though the Yankees, as usual, picked in the second half of the first round, they chose Jones, who is a top talent.
In his first 106 at-bats in the Complex League and Single-A, the 21-year-old had a slash line of .344/.425/.538 with a wRC+ of 173 and hit 4 home runs. He only struck out in 18.9% of his PAs, which was better than what was expected of him, but again, this was a small sample size.
Yankees got Wilmer Difo on a split contract
Robert Murray says that Wilmer Difo and the New York Yankees have come to an agreement on a split contract, which assures a player the salary based on if he is playing in the MLB or in the minor leagues. If Difo makes it to the big leagues, he will get paid $1.2 million for his part in this crazy world.
Difo is well experienced in the MLB. He was with the Nationals for six years before moving to Pittsburgh in 2021 and then to the Arizona Diamondbacks last season. The 3-year-old infielder has been into nearly 500 games since he had his debut in 2015.
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