The Yankees pared down their roster Thursday, optioning three pitchers – Deivi Garcia, Mike King and Ben Heller – as well as infielder Thairo Estrada to the minors. The club sent Garcia to Double-A Trenton and the rest to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Garcia and King may be the most intriguing names in this quartet. It wasn’t long ago that both pitchers were competing for season-opening roles in the Yankees’ banged up rotation. But if the coronavirus does delay Opening Day until June or later, injured left-hander James Paxton figures to begin the year in the Yankees’ starting staff. That would give them a complete five-man rotation with Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ and Jordan Montgomery complementing Gerrit Cole.
While Garcia and King aren’t ticketed for season-opening roles in New York, the pair could find themselves in the majors soon enough. The two undoubtedly count among the Yankees’ best farmhands, with Baseball America ranking the 20-year-old Garcia as their No. 3 prospect and placing King, 24, at No. 13.
Estrada, also 24, made his MLB debut in 2019 and batted .250/.294/.438 with three home runs in 69 plate appearances. He played both middle infield positions and both corner outfield spots during that brief stint.
Heller, whom the Yankees acquired from the Indians in the teams’ 2016 trade centering on Andrew Miller, has totaled just 25 1/3 major league innings thus far. He underwent Tommy John surgery in April 2018, thereby sidelining the 28-year-old for all of that season and for the majority of last year.
Brien Taylor hangin in there
Him and 1b of the future nick Johnson
Johnson will take ABs from Kevin Maas!
Don’t forget Refsnyder !!!
30 year old reference overdone. Be better.
2021 rotation
– Cole
– Tanaka
– Garcia
– Paxton
– Schmidt
Severino? German? Monty?
Yes?
Paxton is a FA after the season
So is tanaka
Paxton and Tanaka are both free agents after this season. And they should let both of them walk. Paxton has never thrown over 160 innings in a season. And Tanaka has been playing with a partially torn UCL forever. They’ve been extremely lucky to have made it this far with him. Better not push their luck.
– Cole ($36mm)
– Severino ($10.75mm)
– German (league min.)
– Montgomery ($3mm)
= Garcia (league min.)
That’s $50mm for a very solid rotation.
Tanaka, Paxton, and Happ (won’t reach IP threshold to vest ’21 option) should be allowed to walk.
If Paxton has a crazy season, I’d throw him a Q.O. which he’ll turn down.
Same for Tanaka but he may accept or sign a team-friendly extension. If he does, I would be willing trade a young arm not named Garcia as part of a package to get Francisco Lindor. Torres goes back to 2B.
Procedural move because these guys have options. Heller still has a good shot at making the roster if the season ever starts.
This no baseball is lame but I understand because I just started having a fever today. No other symptoms but hopefully I’ll be ok.
I normally dont air my business out but I’m a little nervous . Hope everyone else is ok.
stay strong dude, hope you feel better
Sorry to hear that buddy, I hope it turns out ok
Hope you get better. Love baseball but it is so unimportant in comparison. Prayers are that your fever is not related to 19 bro.
Yankees have the best team, on paper. If the game were on paper, the yankees would still have the most players on IL.
Thairo Estrada has a good bat, man. Too bad he is buried. I think if the Yankees are gonna flip a prospect, Estrada is a good candidate for that.