The Yankees have agreed to a minor-league deal with outfielder Zack Granite, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). He’ll receive an invitation to MLB camp.
Granite, 27, cracked the majors briefly with the Twins back in 2017 after a strong showing at Triple-A that year. He proved that his keen eye is still good against MLB pitching, drawing a dozen walks against nine strikeouts in 107 plate appearances, but didn’t make much hard contact and ended with a .237/.321/.290 batting line.
In recent years, Granite has plied his trade exclusively at the highest level of the minors. He spent the 2019 season with the Rangers organization, turning in a .290/.331/.375 slash in 541 plate appearances.
I definitely read this as Zach Greinke
Me too.
Yup
Me too and had to do a double take.
At least I’m in good company. Looking so fast none of us paused to realize Greinke isn’t a few agent.
It’s how our brains work, making shortcuts. Recall that paragraph semi-meme from like 10 years ago where there is a paragraph where almost all the words are scrambled except for the first and last letter. Typically most read the paragraph just fine without extra effort.
This article’s title was inadvertently a “Brain Games” tribute of sorts.
Me too! I was like what….Then I reread it and saw granite
Same
I’m glad I’m not the only one. didnt realize it until it said minor league deal.
Greinke actually hits better than this other Zach,.
True, because he can actually well, Granite, not so much.
Ha yep
Add me
Lol
I didn’t, but I saw him play in AAA. So I win Friday night.
When the Yanks are done with him, they can make kitchen countertops or tombstones out of him.
Or send him to the Mets for half the contract cost. Old man Wilpons can’t turn down a deal.
Ditto that !
Ditto
Ha ha yuuup!
That’s what happens when you take Greinke for Granite.
Hahahaha so did I lol
rock solid signing.
Yankees off to a rocky start.
Takes some marbles to take such a risk.
Comes to NYY with a clean slate.
(Holy schist that was bad)
@lowereastsider—Are you Isuro Tanaka or Pedro Cerrano??
Just a guy from Boulder, CO.
He definitely won’t take this opportunity for granite.
I’ll show myself out
They’re leaving no stone unturned.
This isnt a Yankees related post but I am very surprised MLBTR hasn’t made an article about it yet. I watched an interview on national television a day or 2 ago with a very high up executive in the Liberty Media organization. He said that the Braves have an open ended budget and specifically said he expects the Braves to outspend the Mets this year. All of this came after the Chris Martin and Will Smith signings. That’s very notable because the Braves only have about $100 million or so (INCLUDING arbitration eligible players) committed to next season. The Mets already have $160+ million dedicated to next season. There seems to be no doubt that the Braves will break their all time team payroll record in the 2020 season and outspending a large market team like the Mets is a very big deal especially considering that the Braves finished much better than the Mets and won the division each of the last 2 years. Adding that kind of payroll to this Braves team would be huge. Especially if they spend it smart. It’s funny because the executive was being interviewed by a Mets fan so he was actually kind of bragging about it. Anyone who thought the Braves were going to spend another $56+ million on their bullpen in just a few short days and thought it was gonna stop there has another thing coming. He basically implied that the Braves haven’t even started. It’s all investment money so they have to send it anyway if they want to avoid taxes on it. At first they spent all the extra money on the facility but now The Battery seems pretty maxed out in terms of meeting it’s best potential. They are pouring it into the team this year. I really hope MLBTR writes an article about this. I can see why they missed it because it was a wide ranging interview about finance covering all things Liberty Media including F1 racing. The part about the Braves and the Mets didn’t come up until near the end. It’s important to note that he said all this after the Martin and Smith signings. He actually mentioned Will Smith in the interview. When he was talking about having money to spend those guys weren’t included because that was money he already considered spent. I don’t think the Braves will surpass the Cubs or Red Sox or Yankees or anything but he specifically mentioned the $160 million Mets. People have been talking all over this site about how the Braves aren’t likely to spend much more money but this is a top inside guy saying they are are camera in national media. Somebody in MLBTR please write an article about this!!!
Well this is an offbeat place to leave this comment but I am certainly interested in trying to find this item. Thanks.
My dad actually told me about it because he watches finance stuff all the time. It was on CNBC and the interview was with Liberty Media’s Greg Maffei. It is a wide range 10+ minute interview about all of Liberty Media’s assets and stock evaluations. He actually talks about the cap space the Braves have allowing them to be able to spend more. It seemed like he would only even bring up the cap if the Braves were at least allowed to approach it. He was definitely saying that the Braves were going to outspend the Mets this offseason alone and the fact that he brought up cap space made it seem like he may have meant outspend well over all. You can find it on YouTube. Just look up CNBC Greg Maffei and look for the most recent interview. I think it happened 2 days ago. It’s a little convoluded because I’m sure they don’t want to show their hand but also braggy about how much $ the Braves will spend particularly compared to the Mets. Thanks for answering Jeff. I don’t know if it fits the definitive criteria of an MLBTR article or not but it is definitiley a Liberty Media Exec talking about payroll availibity specifically for the Braves. I know the posters could at least throw some quotes in at the least if they wanted to make an article. Maffei talks about the Braves vs. Mets payroll situation late in the 10 minute 21 second video right after he finishes talking about the future of F1 racing (since Liberty owns them too). Let me know if you find it. A Braves owner exec even referring to “cap space” is pretty big on it’s own because they have never even come close to approaching the cap. I kind of suspected something like this as soon as they restructured Flowers’ and Markakis’ deals for the sole purpose of freeing up cap space. I commented about this on another post because I thought this might be to low for anyone to see it.
You could site a source couldnt you? Drop a name or something? I just tried doing several key word searches on google and came up with nothing. It seems strange that something like this was said on telivision but nobody in the media said anything about it.
Because he made it up… Simple as that.
Who “made it up”? This is the link.
cnbc.com/video/2019/11/21/watch-cnbcs-full-intervi…
Looks like you’re a fool
I think it’s a piece worth looking into. Email the writers directly so it doesn’t get buried the next time. H/t @StandUpGuy I’ll look for the interview.
cnbc.com/2019/11/21/cnbc-exclusive-cnbc-transcript…
Down the page a bit.
He did not say this. All he said is that they will spend some money and have a lot more flexibility in spending than most teams including the Mets (because the interviewer was a Mets fan as stated above). He did not say anything about outspending the Mets. Here is the quote:
Well, you know, we are well set up, as you know, with great young talent, observing in a Ron Acuña Jr., Yordan Alvarez, obviously Freddie Freeman. But, in addition, we just Signed Will Smith, probably the best reliever in baseball. Yeah, we’re going to spend some money. And we have relative freedom under the cap and in our payroll compared to most people, including the Mets.
That’s not exactly true because Yordan Alvarez doesn’t even play for the Braves so I know he didn’t bring him up. I think you are confusing Alvarez with Ozzie Albies. If you’re going to make a comment just to try and prove somebody wrong out of spite at least quote accurately. He blatantly talked about having the ability to spend more money than the Mets and (as you actually correctly quoted) he reference cap space. That is a big deal for a team that has never even come within $60 million of the cap and is currently about $100 million below. I already pointed out he was talking to a Mets fan. All I was really trying to say was that this interview seemed somewhat unnoticed by the baseball community because it was a financial interview. There are at least some quotable lines for an article in there.
Yordan Alvarez?? Really? That guy doesn’t even play in the National League much less the Braves. If your only purpose is to call someone else out and try to bring them down for noticing something you didn’t at least get your info straight.
Alright standupguy..I apologize. You were correct.
You don’t don’t have to apologize. At least you didn’t flat out call me liar like some people did. I didn’t do a really good job of citing sources in my original post.
A rock solid pickup
I thought this said Zack Greinke and my heart skipped a beat and then I remembered he isn’t an F/A
I read this as Zach Greinke. :p
The Yankees get taken for Granite.
I liked it better when it was LJ Hoes metaphors
Damn, hadn’t seen that you had already posted my lame joke before me. You can claim all credit due
Holy hot stove Batman
I remember when he visited the Flintstones that one time and caused havoc throughout Bedrock!
I thought that was Zach boulder ?
A rock solid player…maybe now they can trade Stanton…..
BTW, I also misread the headline and nearly puked up my pasta……
Lol totally misread this title…
Hal: I approved this signing now leave me alone Yankees fans!
GM Cashman is also trying to get in touch with the representation for:
Gary Granite
Stony Curtis
Rock Piile
Perry Gunnite
Aaron Boulder
and, of course, the incomparable
Joe Rockhead (great at getting on base via HBP)
Stony Curtis always was my favorite… voiced by Tony Curtis himself!!
Mr. Slate
It really is Grienke – he changed his name because he’s developing a heavy slider.
They should sign Jake Cave, along with Zack Granite, and corner the market on guys with rugged names…
The Twins hadA Cave and Granite play together in AAA during 2018.
This signing rocks!
Lol
It would be awesome if he could work his way up to the majors and hit a home run off of Greinke.
Major story right here.
This year’s Mike Tauchman? Would anyone be surprised? Worst case gives us a depth outfielder.
When the Yankees had Ben Gamel I read their spring training lineup one day and saw Judge and Gavel were batting back to back…I was disappointed when I read it properly
If Zack doesn’t take this opportunity for Granite, he’ll hit rock bottom.
MLBTR uses the word “organization” way too often.