The Yankees have acquired righty A.J. Cole from the Nationals, per club announcements. Cash considerations will go to the Washington organization in return. To clear a roster spot, the Yankees designated fellow right-hander David Hale for assignment.
Cole, 26, had recently been designated by the Nats after a poor start to the current season. Originally a fourth-round pick, he was a part of two notable trades swung by the organization, first going to the Athletics in the Gio Gonzalez swap and then returning to D.C. (along with Blake Treinen and Ian Krol) in the three-team arrangement in which the Nationals sent Michael Morse to the Mariners and the A’s picked up John Jaso.
Entering the season, the Nationals planned to utilize Cole as their fifth starter. But he struggled in two turns through the rotation, leading the club to bump him to the pen in favor of Jeremy Hellickson. Cole ultimately made two relief appearances but failed to show signs of improvement. In his 10 1/3 innings on the season, he has allowed 15 earned runs and six home runs while compiling ten strikeouts against six walks.
Cole is out of options, so he’ll go directly onto the Yankees’ MLB roster, where he could work as a longman from the bullpen. He’ll replace Hale, who threw two scoreless innings tonight for the Yanks but had opened the year at Triple-A. In his three starts there, he worked to a 5.52 ERA with a 10:2 K/BB ratio in 14 2/3 innings. He has not seen the majors since 2016; in parts of four seasons in the bigs, Hale owns a 4.48 ERA over 178 2/3 frames.
Must be the next best option after gerrit Cole
Ok then… a solidish move
Interesting move.
RIP David Hale’s Yankees Career
4/22/18-4/23/18
He will be missed.
Career 0.00 ERA as a Yankee ties the franchise record.
I must have missed it, but when did they David Hale Day wa
Hale’s time in NY will be remembered as fondly as Rasheed Wallace’s Atlanta Hawks career.
He will rise up w Yanks coaching – I saw him pitch in A ball Potomac and he was a stud. Gotta believe Nats didn’t help him re -development much after bringing him up.
He stinks. He was a top prospect for the last 4 years but never did anything above average. Always heard that he would be a ace but can’t even be a #5 starter. Maybe if the Yanks move him to the bullpen they could get a little value out of him.
Yeah, ok. The same coaching that has THAT dismal pitching staff. What are you smoking?!
Dismal? It not the best in the league but its at least average.
come on man, maybe not league leading but “league average”?
I said at least average. I believe they are well above average just slumping a bit now.
You’re like the common cold.
That dismal pitching staff over the course os 2017 did pretty good Bub, and no reason to believe they won’t do the same over the course of 2018.
Surprise qbass187 weighs in
Cole’s starts this year have been horrific. Got lit up every time out. Nats fans nearly gave Jeremy Hellickson a hero’s welcome when he took Cole’s spot last week.
I saw Hale today. He had 2 scoreless innings, in a 8-1 game that turned into 14-1 game, but I wasn’t impressed with his performance. Puts you on the Edge as a Reliever.
On the bright side, Today Torres got his first MLB hit, and Didi hit grand slam, also got to see a Minnesota positional player pitch. Cool, Fun game.
David Hale R.I.P. you did good tonight son
Seriously doubt he lasts on NY’s roster all year.
Who knows, Yanks pen has looked shaky and blown a few games already. They trimmed some fat and took a low risk shot with this guy.
Drury is starting his rehab assignment in a couple of days and once he’s ready you have to figure that they’ll go to a four man bench, which means that unless Cole shows something right away he isn’t going to stick around very long. At the very most, he’ll stick around until Warren and Kahnle get back.
This move will be undervalued
Because AJ Cole is the answer to the Yankees bullpen woes?
The fans in the bleacher seats will like the additional free souvenirs that AJ will provide
Yes, they will being they have enough they have gathered from your Mets! Guess the outfield fans are tired of ducking and running from those missiles the opponent launches every game!
Wow, you tried really hard on this comeback.
It’s terrible though.
Agreed.
So do the Nats have an open spot on the roster now? Who gets it?
How hard is it going to be to replace a 13 plus ERA? Even bums like Shawn Kelley who give up a home run every second game they pitch will do a bit better than that. Since when do you need to keep a BP pitcher on the active roster?
So can you name their replacements?
It’s a depth move. He has more upside than David Hale. The yankees don’t expect much, and he’ll probably only be used in mop up situations or when the yankees have a big lead. This isn’t some sneaky trade that should be over analyzed
Cole has a 13.06 ERA, I guess the MLB office forced the Yankees to acquire a guy who could keep their games closer once they’re ahead by five, so people would keep watching the games on their network.
They should of consulted you first I guess. Give the guy some time with the change scenery cause you never know.
Low risk deal for Yankees. Sometimes a change of scenery works well for a player. If he doesn’t work out they can just cut him loose.
He gave up two runs in five and a third innings in his second start. How is that awful?
His FIP has gone from 4.74 to 5.20 to 10.53. He’s just not good. His command used to be his strength a few years ago – and it seems to be gone. Unless that gets better, his fastball is nothing special and no one swings at his ok slider very much. There are probably dozens of guys like him. It’s not hard to see why Rizzo finally gave up giving him chances.
FIP is completely irrelevant over such a small sample. Don’t waste your time measuring players by FIP without considerably more data.
I don’t see how Cole is worse than their next best reliever, which is…?
going from a .1 war pitcher to a -.5 pitcher. makes sense.
It’s a non move for me, l would be surprised if he sticks with the team.
Not who I would have expected.
I guess the Yankees figure they can run him out there a few times, see if they catch lightning in a bottle, and if not just drop him, and look at the cash sent as an expense to get some innings.
Still, I would have thought it would have been a team that isn’t competitive this year that would have acquired him. Particularly since my recollection is that even at the height of his prospect status he was seen as more of a high floor rather than his ceiling kind of prospect, so it’s not like the mive has that much upside anyway.
We”ve seen Lots of pitchers in the big leagues and or in the minors that have gone thru hell and some of them did’nt have the necessary help they need it at the time. Also maybe the pitching coaches were giving them the wrong work ethic and did not care much as long as they’re getting paid but some coaches do care and they would really work hard with these kids so they can get the chance they deserve and all with hard work,always on top of all and make sure everything comes together according to and sticking with the plan so they can have a shot at the big leagues. So maybe A.J. Cole whom the Yankees traded for is not the best option and everyone is nocking the poor kid just because he’s not doing good right now, but he’s only 26 years old and now he’d be working with a new pitching staff and a new coach. Maybe the change of scenario and with a new team in the American League will do him good. At least lets give the kid a chance and the the benefit of the doubt . If he does good it would be a plus for the Yankees because the kid has very good velocity in his fast ball and still young enough ,now if he doesn’t do as good then he would have to reinvent himself and do something else and become a position player. But at least lest give the kid a chance to prove himself in the American League , you cant knock a player not before getting some results. Thank you.