With Michael King’s season ended by an elbow fracture, the Yankees officially placed King on the 60-day injured list today. Outfielder Tim Locastro was also optioned to Triple-A after yesterday’s game, creating two roster spots that will be filled by right-handers Clarke Schmidt and Shane Greene. Schmidt has been called up from Triple-A, while Greene (previously on a minor league deal with the organization) has signed a Major League deal and had that contract selected.
Greene signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers over the offseason, and posted two scoreless innings at the big league level before Los Angeles designated him for assignment back in May. Quickly catching on with the Yankees, Greene is now back with his first pro organization — New York selected Greene in the 15th round of the 2009 draft, and he debuted with 78 2/3 innings with the Bronx Bombers in 2014.
Dealt to the Tigers in the 2014-15 offseason, Greene has appeared in each of the last eight MLB campaigns, with a pretty wide variance in performance. Overall, Greene has a 4.50 ERA over 469 2/3 career relief innings, but at his best, the righty has pitched at an All-Star level (with Detroit in 2019) and worked as a closer and in other high-leverage roles.
This inconsistency led to an extended stint in free agency in the 2020-21 offseason, as Greene didn’t land anywhere until signing with the Braves in May 2021, and he perhaps unsurprisingly struggled over 17 innings for Atlanta. Over 21 innings with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, Greene has a 3.86 ERA, 25.3% strikeout rate, and 9.2% walk rate.
While it will be very hard any pitcher to replicate King’s excellent performance this year, the Yankees are hoping to at least try and fill the gap with a combination of a veteran in Greene and a former top prospect in Schmidt, who is still in only his third Major League season. It also stands to reason that New York will put more of a focus on adding relief help prior to the August 2 trade deadline.
Glad to see Schmidt back and I’m guessing Greene’s stay will be short lived until Marinaccio is ready sometime next week
King to the 60 day for Greene.
Yankees are deciding who will be pawned off in a trade package: Clarke Schmidt or Domingo German.
Schmidt is good, German isn’t.
Deciding to start German against Houston in Game 2 is beyond criminal.
While I always hate to see the Yankees lose, it may be a blessing in disguise to drop both games of that double header. Hopefully it’ll get Cashman to make a difference maker type trade.
While Gallo continues to frustrate us Yankee fans, adding pitching, both potentially starting but definitely key receiving is more important……pitching and defense is what you win with in the playoffs……that being said, it wouldn’t hurt to pick up a guy like Benintendi also as a potential longer term piece given that short of trading or releasing Gallo, they won’t have a left fielder next season…..unless they sign Soto which changes everything!
@pinstripes17- yeah you and I feel the same way apparently, but the Yankees don’t. They are higher on German.
German is a good pitcher. He should never start though. He hasn’t been dependable since his TJS. Move him to the pen. I have always liked Schmidt but he has already had one major surgery. Plus he was a 1st round pick and you know the Yankees are cursed by them. Sauer will turn into the better get from that draft. Since Schmidt was a top 3 team prospect he should be traded asap. Their top pitching prospects either breakdown (Severino, Banuelos, Lindgren, Kaprielian) fade away (Sheffield, Clarkin) or fall back to Earth (Brackman, Chance Adams, Abreu). They always seem to find consistent success with the unheralded middling prospects. From Pettitte, Nova and Greene to Monty, the pitchers that bounce around the double digit prospect lists is where you find future Yankees. Trade Schmidt, Garcia, Gil and Medina to the Cubs for Happ and Contreras (Robertson or another solid reliever if Contreras is too much) or let Washington pick one SS stud prospect and one stud catching prospect to go with those pitchers for Soto and Corbin (with Washington picking up half of Corbin’s contract). Either way the Yankees finally get that elusive championship while keeping the pitching prospects that will work out for them.
German’s positive reputation seems to survive on the strength of his 2019 season when his W-L record looked great but he benefited from huge run support. His FIP that year was 4.72 and nearly one of five fly balls left the yard. Since 2018, the only Yankee pitcher with at least 50 innings who had a higher ERA was Sonny Gray.
German might be better in a pitcher’s park that suppresses home runs, but I, for one, have had more than enough of watching his pitches leave the park. For the record, I’ve been calling for him to be trade bait for a couple of years.
Schmidt is German but German ain’t Schmidt!!!
Stupid comment
Schmidt isn’t going to get you much of a return, but he serves a vital role as BP depth. The Yankees are better served to keep him.
@Bright Side- I totally disagree. He’s still a top prospect, that could definitely help any team in the majors. He definitely could be part of a package for Soto or Castillo.
He’s not a top prospect anymore. He’s a 26-year-old who would be the third or fourth piece to a larger package.
I would not mind if the Orioles would take a chance by picking up German. Probably won’t cost that big of prospect say Diaz in AAA.
It could happen since the Yankees and Orioles have made trades in the past. It’s surprising given they are in the same division, but they do it.
German to the Orioles for a crab bucket sounds like a fair trade to me
Did you also think Refsnyder was worth a bucket of balls too……until he started lighting it up as a member of the Sox……LOL!
They’ve been lucky with him. He’ll come back to planet Earth.
I’ve seen enough of German to come to the conclusion that he’s a bum. He had one solid season three years ago but hasn’t shown anything since. As for Refsnyder, fair play to him. He worked hard to get another shot in the big leagues
@Orioles Fan; Diaz! Forgot about him. Nice call. Still young (25); an oft injured talent that may have some appeal to other teams. Interesting.
Don’t think you just don’t give away pitching, especially in your own division, regardless of how awful it may presently be……still a bunch of games against the O’s this season and as far as next season he could come back to haunt you with super pitching against you.
@rocky7; good point. Tough 1st assignment for German (and would be for any pitcher) after his DL stint.
Go plunder the Tigers for Fulmer and Soto, then coach ‘em up into excellence.
As always, a chubby Class A infielder or three who can’t hit or field will be Al Avila’s price.
I’m amazed at some of the comments people make..
Weissert should be promoted to the 40-man at this point, but the Yankees have always been concerned with service time.
Trade for Castillo and a reliever, what’s left use to trade for Soto. End of the year sign Judge and trade Soto. Might put us over the edge to win a championship this year and by trading Soto after the season rather then trying to sign him and Judge we would get most of the prospects we traded to get him back. (different ones but still top prospects, just a few less).
Trade for Soto and let Judge go try to find his $300M elsewhere is more like it. Soto is 23; Judge is 30 so you’ll most likely get 3-4 more excellent seasons out of Judge before he starts to slow down. Soto brings you 10+ years of star level performance provided that he doesn’t have a serious injury (same can be said for Judge too).
While Judge is most likely going to win the MVP this year, I’m still not sure he’s going to find the contract he is looking in free agency. I don’t see many teams out there willing to go beyond what NY had already offered him. He might be able to find a team willing to go very high on AAV but not for the term he’s looking for. For example, some team might be desperate enough to offer him 5/$200M which would set an all time record for AAV, but I don’t think he’s going to find the 8,9 or even 10 year deal he seems to want. I’d be worried about what a 36 year old Judge could do for my team, let alone an age 39-40 Judge. NY doesn’t seem afraid to let Judge walk and I commend them for that. What they offered him was more than fair market value given the length of the deal.
Careful stankees after losing tonight to the orioles you have a 1.5 game lead on the Astros for number 1 seed
Why did the Yankees send Tim Locastro down?
Yankees suck