Yanks sign Adam Warren to a minor league deal.

The Yanks are seeing if an old friend can still help them. Maybe not in 2020 until late in the year, but in 2021 for sure.

From MLBTR.com:

The Yankees have reached agreement on a minor-league contract with righty Adam Warren, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). He’ll receive an invitation to MLB camp as a non-roster invitee. It’s a two-year arrangement, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand notes on Twitter, which recognizes the fact that Warren is returning from Tommy John surgery.

The contract includes a $800K salary in the event that Warren is able to earn his way onto the big league roster. He can also pick up another $700K in incentives based upon appearances. The deal includes an August 28th opt-out clause, Rosenthal adds, which perhaps suggests that Warren is hoping to rehab on a fairly aggressive timetable from his September procedure.

Warren, 32, first cracked the majors with the Yanks and has spent parts of seven seasons in two prior stints in the Bronx. He pitched for the Padres in 2019, struggling to a 5.34 ERA in 28 2/3 innings with 7.8 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9.

Warren was with the Yanks 2012-2015, then with the Cubs briefly to start 2016 before coming back to the Yanks in 2016-2018. He was with Seattle in 2018 and with the Padres, as noted above, in 2019.

His best years have been with the Yankees, going 20-20, 3.18, ERA+ 129. For his career, the 32 yr. old RHP is 30-24, 3.53, ERA+ 117.

He pitched for the Yanks in the 2017 postseason.

S.T. Game 6. Yanks, O’s Tie, 2-2.

Prospect Rashad Crawford’s two-run single with one out in the bottom of the ninth tied the game at 2, and the Yanks and O’s finished in that 2-2 tie last night.

Happ 2+ IP, 1 R, 2 H, 1 W 3 K. Gave up HR.
Green 1 1/3 IP 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 3 K.
Loaisiga 2 2/3 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 W, 1 K. Gave up 1 HR.
Coulombe 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K.
Kahnle 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 3 K.
Coshow 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 2 K.

The Yanks only got five hits in the game, the Orioles three.

Good pitching job by the Yanks. Happ gave up the HR to the first guy he faced in the third, then was taken out. The risk of trying to stretch a guy out in spring training, which you slowly need to do. Apparently he hit that wall.

Good job throughout, especially by Green and Kahnle, even Coshow. Loaisiga good, with just that one blip.

Update: I forgot to mention ex-Yankee Adam Warren signed with San Diego.

 

One more bullpen guy I’d like the Yankees to get…. and it’s a familiar name.

Ok, the Yanks look to have a great bullpen again. If they go with 12 pitchers, and 7 are in the bullpen (with the five-man starting rotation being Severino, Paxton, Tanaka, Happ and CC), you have

LHP Aroldis Chapman
LHP Zach Britton

RHP Dellin Betances
RHP Adam Ottavino
RHP Chad Green

That leaves two spots.

For one of those spots, I’d like Stephen Tarpley as the third lefty. He will be 26 in a few weeks, was brought up late last year and was 0-0, 3.00 in 10 games, 9 IP. Tarpley was 7-2, 1.94 between AA/AAA last season.

Now among the righty pitchers, I would like for 24 y.o. Jonathan Loaisiga to go to AAA and continue to be a starter but to build up his innings (he only pitched 80 of them last year, combined, between MLB and the minors). 26 y.o. Domingo German has an option left and would go to AAA to be “on call” in case of an injury, as Loaisiga would also be. German was 2-6, 5.57 in 21 games (14 starts) for the Yanks last year. He did show promise with 102 K in 85 2/3 IP. Now here is where it gets interesting. German was 2-5, 6.19 as a starter, but 0-1, 3.12 in relief.

Could the Yanks look at moving him into a Chad Green type role? Long man out of the bullpen/emergency-spot starter? Or are they still committed to having him start? If bullpen, he may make the team as that spot-emergency starter/long reliever. But if he is starting, he has an option left and would be at AAA to start the season.

The Yanks have to decide if German is better suited to middle relief or if they still want to see if he can start.

Luis Cessa has no options left. 27 in April, Cessa was 1-4, 5.24 in 16 games (5 starts) for the Yanks in 2018. His splits were not as drastic as German’s (6.50 ERA starting, 4.39 in relief) nor was his K/9 ratio as good as German’s.

Now here is where, to complete the Yankees’ bullpen, I suggest someone else.

Someone who is a free agent. Who is still out there.

Someone who has experienced NY, not once, but TWICE and has done well both times in NY.

Someone whose record as a Yankee is 20-20, but with an ERA of 3.18.

Someone who has experience as a starter. Who, in one year with the Yankees (2015), started 17 of the 43 games he pitched in that year.

Someone who last year, between the Yankees and Seattle, was 3-2, 3.14.

Someone who is perfect for that spot-emergency starter/long relief role. At the age of 31, it’s what he has done, and done well, and is used to.

Here is hoping Cashman may complete the Yankees’ bullpen by bringing back Adam Warren.

I don’t know how much $$$$ the Yanks have left to spend, but if they have enough left, wouldn’t Warren be the perfect last compliment to the bullpen?

What do you think?

Yanks deal Warren to Mariners.

From the NY Post:

The Yankees fortifying their bullpen with Zach Britton has led to some casualties.

The Yankees dealt righty reliever Adam Warren to the Mariners on Monday, a day before the trade deadline, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed. The Yankees will be receiving international signing bonus money — which they have been hoarding — in return. Whether any players would be coming from Seattle was not immediately known.

Warren, in his second go-round with the Yankees, had a 2.70 ERA in 30 innings this year, though he had a tough month of July, allowing six runs in 10 innings.

 

Games 102 & 103. Yanks come back to salvage DH Split. What’s wrong with Seve? Shreve, Gallegos traded.

After yesterday’s day/night DH split, the Yanks made a move to get the recently acquired J.A. Happ on the roster. With the recent acquisition of Zack Britton, it was a given that Chasen Shreve was gone. Shreve, along with Giovanny Gallegos, was traded to St. Louis for 1B Luke Voit.

Voit, 27, a righty hitter, was 2 for 11 in 8 games with the Cardinals this season. 1 HR, 3 RBI. For his MLB career, he has played in 70 games, 125 at bats, and has hit .240-5-21, OPS+ 93.

Shreve was 2-2, 4.26, 1 save, ERA+ 102 for the Yanks this season, and Gallegos 0-0, 4.50, ERA+ 99. For Gallegos, it was in just four games.

The Yanks had to come from behind to win the second game of a day/night DH to salvage a split of that DH. At 66-37, they are now 5 1/2 behind Boston.

In the first game, a 10-5 loss, you have to be concerned about Luis Severino. After being brilliant against Boston on July 1, he was 13-2, 1.98. In his four starts since then, he is 1-2, 8.84(!) and his ERA has gone from 1.98 to 2.94. What’s wrong?

Seve gave up a two-run double in the third, then in the fifth, gave up a two-run single and 2-run HR. Yanks down 6-0.

They tried to come back. In the bottom of the fifth, Hicks singled and Stanton hit one to the moon (24) to make it 6-2.

In the sixth, singles by Torres, Bird and Walker (who had a big DH) scored one run, and another scored on a GIDP. 6-4.

In the seventh, Didi singled and Torres doubled him home, but Torres was thrown out at third on the play. Ouch. Never make the first or last outs of an inning at third.

But here is where David Robertson let the game get away, as he gave up a 3-run HR in the 8th. The Royals got another run off of Shreve (in his last Yanks’ appearance) in the ninth.

10-5 KC.

Hicks 2 hits, 2 walks
Stanton HR (a bomb) 2 RBI
Torres 2 hits, RBI
Bird 2 hits
Walker 3 hits, RBI

Severino (L, 14-4, 2.94) 4 1/3 IP, 6 R, 8 H, 1 W, 5 K. Gave up 1 HR.
Warren 2 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K.  2.70
Robertson 1 IP, 3 R, 2 H, 1 W, 2 K. Gave up 1 HR.  3.50
Shreve 1 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 W, 0 K.  4.26   (traded after game 2)

The Yanks scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth for a come-from-behind 5-4 win in Game 2.

The Yanks got two in the first when Gardner and Stanton singled, Didi flied out, moving up both runners. Andujar got an RBI single (Torres was the cleanup hitter in Game 1, Andujar in Game 2—two rookies) and after Bird was HBP (what is it with KC plunking batters this series? Judge fractured wrist, Romine got hit in Game 1, now Bird here) Walker got a SF to make it 2-0.

CC gave up a HR to Salvador Perez in the third, 2-1 Yanks.

Shane Robinson got his first HR of the season to make it 3-1 Yanks in the fourth.

KC got a run off CC in the fifth, when a couple of walks helped to walk a run in, and he had to be pulled before he could qualify for the win. Holder got out of a bases loaded jam.

Holder got into trouble in the sixth, and Chad Green came in but couldn’t get out of the inning without yielding the tying run. 3-3.

Zack Britton got the first two outs in the top of the seventh, then fell apart, giving up a double, infield single, then two walks to force in a run and put KC up 4-3 before finishing the inning.

But in the bottom of the eighth, Greg Bird led off with a HR (9) to tie the game. Walker doubled and Romine, PH for Higashioka, reached on a bunt single. Torres walked to load the bases and Hicks got a SF to put the Yanks up 5-4.

Chapman ran into trouble in the ninth, but escaped.

Bird solo HR
Robinson solo HR
Walker 2 hits, RBI

Sabathia 4 2/3 IP, 2 R, 6 H, 2 W, 8 K. Gave up 1 HR.  3.53
Holder 1 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 W, 1 K.  2.11
Green 1/3 IP, 0 R 1 H, 0 W, 0 K.  2.61
Britton 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 2 W, 1 K.  3.57 (Balt/NYY comb. ERA)
Betances (W, 2-3, 2.44) 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 1 K.
Chapman (S, 27) 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 W, 2 K.   1.98

At 66-37, with a .641 winning pct., the Yanks have the second-best record in baseball, and are on course to go 104-58, their best record since 1998, but of course, we know who has the best record in baseball right now (drat!)

HR watch: With 166 HR in 103 games, the Yanks are on pace for 261 HR, which would fall 3 short of the 1997 Seattle Mariners record. The losses of Judge and Sanchez really hurt the Yanks here.

Game 101. Yanks win game, trade for Happ, but lose Judge for 3 weeks.

Because there is so much Yankees news major-league wise, between the game, a trade and a major injury, there will be no minor league report today (no time before I have to leave for work).

Before the game, the Yanks made a trade with Toronto, getting J.A. Happ for Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney.

Happ, 35, made his first All-Star team this year, and is 10-6, 4.18, ERA+ 101 in 20 starts. He hasn’t been that good lately. Through June 13 he was 8-3, 3.48, but he has gone 2-3, 6.03 since. Hopefully he turns it back around for the Yanks. Happ, like the just-acquired Zack Britton, can become a free agent at the end of the season, he and Britton may just be rentals. Happ broke in nicely, and after just a little bit of MLB experience in 2007 and 2008 (he got in 8 games, 4 starts for the 2008 WS Champion Phillies), finished second in ROY in 2009, when he went 12-4, 2.93 in 35 games, 23 starts, for the NL pennant-winning Phils that year. Who knows, if he would have started for the Phils in the WS that year instead of Pedro Martinez (who was at the end of his career and who lost two WS games), maybe the Yanks don’t win that 2009 WS but lose it to the Phillies. Pedro never pitched again after that WS.

Happ then went 38-48, 4.56, ERA+ 86 between 2010-2014, bouncing from the Phils to Houston to Toronto. He upped his game in 2015, going 11-8, 3.61 for Seattle and Pittsburgh. He went back to Toronto in 2016 and was a 20 game winner, finishing sixth in CYA voting. Last year he was 10-11, 3.53. For his career he is 102-82, 3.95, ERA+ 104. 162 g. average 13-11, 3.95.

For Happ, the Yanks gave up Brandon Drury, who was expected to be their starting 3B this year, but migraines put Drury on the DL, and sent him to the minors. Meanwhile, Miguel Andujar took Drury’s job. Drury got into just 18 games with the Yanks, going 9 for 51 (.176) with 1 HR and 7 RBI, OPS+ just 47. In 61 games at SWB, he was .292-6-32. Drury turns 26 in a few weeks.

Also going to Toronto is OF/1B Billy McKinney. McKinney got into just 2 games with the Yanks at the beginning of the season, going 1 for 4. Soon to be 24, McKinney was hitting .228-13-35 for SWB in 63 games this year.

Now for the game. First, Judge’s injury.

Aaron Judge was HBP by a ball in the first inning. He stayed in the game and got an infield single in the third but was removed. An X-Ray, MRI and CT scan were all done and the final showed a a chip fracture of the right wrist (ulnar styloid bone). No surgery is recommended but Judge will miss at least 3 weeks.

Ouch, WAR has Judge as the Yanks’ best player (Severino is second).

The Yanks won the game 7-2 over KC, a bittersweet victory what with the Judge injury, and at 65-36, the Yanks picked up a game on Boston, who lost 2-1 to the Twins. The Yanks are now 4 1/2 back.

In that first inning, with one out, Judge was HBP. Didi doubled Judge to third. Stanton hit a SF which scored Judge and moved Didi to third. After Hicks walked, Torres reached on an error which allowed Didi to score. 2-0 Yanks.

The Yanks got 4 in the fourth. With one out, Walker singled and Romine doubled him in. After an out, Andujar, pinch-hitting for the injured Judge, reached on an error, and Didi Gregorius made KC pay for the error by hitting a 3-run HR (18).

In the fifth, Hicks singled, then Torres singled Hicks to third. Bird drove in the run with a SF. 7-0.

Adam Warren gave up a 2-run HR to Salvador Perez in the sixth, 7-2.

Britton made his Yankees’ debut in the eighth with a 1-2-3 inning.

Judge 1 for 1, HBP, Fractured wrist, Out at least 3 weeks.
Gregorius 2 hits, 3-run HR.
Hicks 2 hits, threw out a runner at the plate to end the game.
Walker 2 hits

Gray (W, 8-7, 5.08) 5 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 2 W, 5 K.
Warren 1 IP, 2 R, 2 H, 0 W, 2 K. Gave up 1 HR.  2.96
Robertson 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 3 K.  2.98
Britton 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K. 3.24 (combined Balt/NYY; NYY debut)
Shreve 1 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 0 W, 1 K.  4.14

Vaughn Eshelman, who pitched for Boston 1995-1997, going 15-9, 6.07, ERA+ 81, died at the age of 49.

Game 98. Sanchez’ lack of hustle costs Yanks, 7-6. Yanks fall 6 back.

Maybe Gary Sanchez needs a benching to light a fire under his butt. Twice he didn’t hustle and it cost the Yanks in a 7-6 loss to the Rays that dropped the 63-35 Yanks six back of Boston, who beat the Bad News Bears (sorry, I meant the Baltimore Orioles) last night.

Maybe he is taking his batting average (.188) into the field now, or maybe he is just a player that you have to stay on top of and keep lighting that fire under his butt, but there is no excuse for those two plays. None.

Luis Severino was not his ace-like self for the third consecutive outing, and you wonder about that.

In the first inning, with two out and a runner on second, Severino and Sanchez crossed signals and there was a PB. But the ball scooted away from Sanchez and went toward the third base coaching box. Sanchez seemed to jog after the ball. The runner meanwhile, rounded third and headed for home. Maybe Severino was a little late getting to the plate, maybe Miguel Andujar at third needed to go after the ball, but there was no doubt in watching Sanchez’ lackadaisical effort in retrieving the ball that more hustle was needed there.

And this is after Sanchez did NOT hustle on a groundball out in his first game back off the DL on Friday night.

But he wasn’t done. We will get to that later.

In the second, the Yanks tied the game at one apiece on an RBI single by Andujar.

But in the fifth, Severino gave up a 3-run HR. 4-1 Rays.

The Yanks got two back in the top of the sixth. With two out, Stanton, who went 4 for 4, singled and went to third when Hicks reached on an error. A PB made it 4-2, and Sanchez singled to make it 4-3.

But Severino gave runs right back. HR, double, single and Seve was gone. Chad Green in, and he gave up a single that made it 6-3. He got out of the inning but not before another run scored, 7-3.

The Yanks got three back in the seventh. With one out, Walker, Gardner and Judge all walked to load the bases. Didi got an RBI groundout and Stanton singled in two runs.

To the ninth. Gardner reached on an infield single. Judge walked. Didi sacrificed the runners over, and Stanton, unsurprisingly, was intentionally walked to load the bases as Tampa Bay hoped for the game-ending DP. Hicks bounced into a 5-2 force at home. Sanchez then hit a hard grounder up the middle, that the second baseman, playing on the SS side of the bag, what with a shift on, fielded. He flipped to the SS covering, but the hustling Hicks beat the throw. The SS threw to first, and got Sanchez for the final out. Sanchez, thinking his grounder was an easy forceout, did not hustle out of the box. He only turned on the jets when he saw Hicks was safe at second. Too late.

Inexcusable. If Sanchez can beat it out, Judge scores the tying run, the bases are still loaded and maybe the Yanks get a hit to win the game.

Instead, they fall six back and are 13-13 since June 22.

Sanchez needs the riot act read to him.

Not surprisingly, all media outlets are calling out Sanchez after that poor display last night, and deservedly so.

Stanton 4 for 4 , 2 RBI
Andujar 2 hits, RBI

Severino (L, 14-3, 2.63) 5+ IP, 7 R, 6 ER, 11 H, 0 W, 8 K. Gave up 2 HR. Very unlike Sevy.
Green 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 1 K.  2.63
Warren 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 3 K.   1 HBP.   2.39
Cole 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K.   0.87 as a NYY.