The Yankees have re-signed catcher Rob Brantly to a minor league contract, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Presumably, the Lagardere Sports client will also be in Major League camp when Spring Training commences.
Brantly, 32, spent most of the 2021 season with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate but did appear in six big league games, during which time he went 3-for-20 with a double and four strikeouts. He tallied 264 plate appearances in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, batting .289/.379/.456 with nine homers, nine doubles and a triple.
The well-traveled Brantly has spent time with 10 organizations and seen Major League action with five of them: the Marlins, White Sox, Phillies, Giants and Yankees. He’s never topped 243 plate appearances in a Major League season, however, and hasn’t logged more than 36 big league plate appearances since way back in 2013. Overall, Brantly owns a .224/.287/.324 batting line in 453 trips to the plate as a big leaguer.
Brantly has seen far more action and been much productive in Triple-A, where he carries a lifetime .266/.319/.395 in parts of nine seasons (2171 plate appearances). He’s eligible to sign a minor league deal during the lockout by virtue of the fact that he didn’t finish out the 2021 season on a 40-man roster or the Major League injured list.
Though there was a good bit of public debate on among fans and pundits alike, the Yankees opted to tender a contract to Gary Sanchez, positioning him to reprise his role as the primary backstop. Kyle Higashioka is in line to back Sanchez up, but the Yankees don’t have a third catcher on their 40-man roster and thus were in need of some depth.
Brantly could be just one of multiple eventual additions in that regard, but for now he looks like the top alternative if Sanchez or Higashioka goes down with an injury during the 2022 season. Of course, all of that assumes the Yankees opt to stick with the status quo behind the plate rather than further pursue alternate scenarios once the transaction freeze has been lifted.
Winning the World Series now
It’s called depth
It’s called comedy
It’s called are new starting catcher.
It’s called *our
92Jay had it right. Not a bad emergency catcher to have in your pocket should injuries arise. The only reason this is noteworthy is because with the lockout, everyone is “locked out” of MLB moves that we would normally be talking about.
It was a question ask in New Yorker
I agree. I think this was the move Yankees fans have been looking for.
world series here we come
world series here we come
I couldn’t of said it any better.
Those Gatorade cups ain’t going to fill themselves.
Wait…I thought filling the cups of Gatorade was one of Boone’s integral roles. He needs an assistant? Huh.
That’s if he doesn’t run to the wrong Gatorade container while his team is yelling at him to go to the correct one!
MOST important is that he learns to bang the Gatorade container at the right times.
So much more sanitary than trash cans. It IS New York, after all.
Thank you Bobtillman. Finally someone understands the difference between NY and Boston!
There is no difference.
Good for him and the Yankees. He did a great job with the youngsters last year, developing almost into another “coach” at SWB. He also put in some time at 1B, and even though it’s just 2 positions, the de facto coaching spot and multiple positions, as well as hitting from the left side, will keep him in the game as long as he wants to remain in the game. There are much worse options.
As a 32 year old career minor leaguer journeyman Catcher he basically is another coach
Wow a totally sane and make sense comment in amongst the Haters and loons!
Found their ace
I always thought Rob Brantly should have bought a vowel….
Realley?
How about an “e”? Nope.
Good that they have someone to back up Sanchez. It’s one less fielder in fair territory but it cuts down on the balls to the backstop.
Yeah.
Sure wish we had a catcher better than your mets McCann. Oh! Wait! We do. *Two* of them as a matter of fact. Glass houses, etc, etc, hoss.
What? You think that Brantly is a better catcher than McCann??
Did you take what whyhayzee said literally too? They’re exchanging barbs.
I was just joking about the idea of being a “backup catcher”. When I was pitching I was also often the backup third baseman. But Bucky just likes to argue with me no matter what I say about the Yankees.
I do not.
I do – however – think Sanchez & Higashioka are better than McCann (which really isn’t saying much.)
2021:
Gary Sanchez: 0.8 WAR
Kyle Higashioka: 0.4 WAR
James McCann: -0.2 WAR
Another former Tigers catcher who was traded away.
Tigers sent Jacob Turner and Rob Brantly to Miami in exchange for Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante,
seems like Tigers got away with that one. Anibal and Omar both had several serviceable years, while I do not think any of the players sent cracked the mlb roster for Miami.
Brantly was the Marlins starting catcher and then back up catcher before he went to the White Sox on the waiver wire.
I think they won that one!!
Yankees need someone who can hit and field behind the dish
The problem with that is, good 2 way catchers have become MLB’s scarcest commodity. They are just not all that prevalent. & – at the risk of True Yankee Sacrilege – Posada wasn’t all that good with the glove if we want to be honest about it.
Ducky….Correa? Lol.
Trying to get more True Yankee Sacrilege out of me, Clip? Well…I won’t disappoint you then.
Correa is the best free agent of this class. So. Yeah. I would take him. He makes us better which is really about all I give af about. All the other stuff is just white noise to me.
{Gasp}
I just don’t think he will let you look at his medical records…. Especially the massage one.
Hey, man, I’ll take anyone who makes our team better at this point. Ya know what else? Yeah, at this point, I’ll take Gardy instead of a Gardy equivalent in the OF. There is nobody better unless we trade, or go for a LF (Conforto?).
Right?
My guy @Yanks4life has dressed me down in re Correa & being a true Yankee fan. He was not alone. Personally, I would prefer Story + Rizzo. But I certainly wouldn’t be mad about adding Correa.
Love GGBG. Such a knucklehead grinder.
Definitely my type of guy. But, man, we have such a dire need for offense. & Hicks is just so damn unreliable. I keep coming back to Pham. He played some CF for the Padres last year. & he was above average offensively.
I’ll look for Gwynning see what he says about it. He’s my go-to Padres guy.
Pham was pretty darn good for the Rays & SD. Very athletic dude too.
Trust me, I can’t stand Correa. Not a fan of the person or the player, but one cannot argue he would improve the team (in terms of talent).
I’m still in touch with a friend of mine from the service, who is from St Louis & a diehard Cards fan (taught me how to fish for catfish too). Anyway, according to him, Pham is also one tough SOB. & Fangraphs used to love him.
So there’s all that too.
We’ve come full circle with C & CF. Meaning it’s not all that easy to find a “better than _____” anymore. Ya know? It’s down to incrementally upgrading Higgy with someone like Chirinos or shoehorning in an imperfect solution like Pham for Gardy. At least as far as free agents go.
Both of those ideas are growing on me.
Either would help the offense which are priorities #1, #1a, & #1b for me.
We need bats. We need runs.
Correa is my least fav of the Big 5 shortstops. But: like him a helluva lot more than I do Simmons, for example.
Correa is a winner and a hard nosed guy who gets his uniform dirty and gets in your face to win….unlike some of the “corporate types” always checking their stats and stock portfolios..
Catching has definitely hit a low. There were just 15 catchers that topped 300 AB’s. Among them, 4 ended the season with an OPS of 800+ and 4 more had an OPS between .750-800. Even most playoff contenders don’t have a catcher swinging a big bat.
Yankees current catching situation.
SMH….SMH….com
Out of curiosity, could a team sign a Kris Bryant to a minor league deal that pays 150MM over 6 years upon promotion to the 40 man?
No. He ended the season on a 40-man roster.
Thanks for the knowledge. Say for instance Pablo Sandoval had gone on a tear as a pinch hitter for the Braves and was on the 40 when they won the World Series, he would only be eligible for a major league deal?
You Yankee fans are such slackers. If the RS had picked up Brantley, there would’ve been 200 posts already screaming that Bloom has ruined the franchise, and that we are doomed to finish last.
Red Sox article comments can be entertaining.
True. If we are being honest, no matter what either team does we can find fault with any of it…
Milwaukee? Tampa? Miami?
The red sox guys spend a *lot* of their time fighting with each other. The Yankee guys do not. Hell, pretty much everyone hates us, so we almost have to stick together on the board.
And the first 100 would be from KD17.
……”once the transaction freeze has lifted.”
That ain’t happening until someone misses a paycheck. BOYCOTT EVERYTHING MLB HAS TO OFFER!
Yankees fans should be angry that their team kicked Tyler Wade to the curb and brought back Urshela – for 6.55mil.
Give him Stanton’s juice and Sanchez’ job.
Personally, I was disappointed that the Red Sox have signed no minor league deals. $55M/5 to Suzuki and $126M/6 to Story, with an invite to Spring Training.
What next? Signing Rob Petrie???
This guy couldn’t find a deal in Korea or Japan? It’s the in thing during the lockout.
MISSED IT BY THAT [ = ] MUCH !!
According to informed sources, The Marlins were in on Rob Brantley right up until he signed the deal to join the Yankees.. The Marlins made a “strong” offer, but not one that matched the Yankees’ financial commitment. The Marlins weren’t the only team to be outbid.
The Minnesota Twins had also been linked to Brantley.
Dig your catching gear out of the basement or the attic and expect a call from Cashman.