The Pirates have sent corner infielder/outfielder Miguel Andújar outright to Triple-A Indianapolis after he went unclaimed on waivers, tweets Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He’ll be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training, which suggests he’s accepted the assignment.
Andújar is a more high-profile player than usually hits the waiver wire. The right-handed hitter posted big numbers in the Yankees’ farm system and reached the majors at the tail end of the 2017 season. A top 60 overall prospect headed into the following year at both Baseball America and FanGraphs, Andújar looked like a potential core piece in the Bronx after an excellent rookie season. He hit 27 home runs and 47 doubles with a .297/.328/.527 line over 606 plate appearances as New York’s primary third baseman in 2018.
That earned Andújar a runner-up behind Shohei Ohtani in AL Rookie of the Year balloting. While he seemed like the third baseman of the future for the Yankees, he’s yet to again reach those early-career heights. His sophomore season was cut short after just 12 games by a labrum tear in his right shoulder that required surgery. By the time he returned in 2020, Gio Urshela had broken out and claimed the third base job. That left Andújar in a depth role, cycling between the Bronx and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre without much consistent MLB playing time.
Tough as that situation must’ve been for Andújar, he never forced the Yankees’ hand by earning significant reps. New York gave him 327 scattered plate appearances between 2020-22. He hit just .244/.272/.346 with eight homers and a meager 4% walk rate. Paired with a corner-only defensive profile, his production was a little below replacement level. The Yankees eventually cut him loose at the end of last season, waiving him in September. The Pirates grabbed the 27-year-old off the wire and plugged him into nine games down the stretch. Andújar got 40 plate appearances with Pittsburgh, hitting .250/.275/.389 to close out the year.
After the season, he and the Bucs agreed to a $1.525MM salary to buy out his second season of arbitration eligibility. While that may have kept him from being non-tendered in November, he was still squeezed off the 40-man roster last week once the Bucs brought back Andrew McCutchen. Any team that claimed Andújar off waivers would’ve had to take on his salary. It’s certainly not an exorbitant sum but is roughly double the league minimum and might’ve played a role in him going unclaimed.
Andújar has a bit more than four years of major league service time. Players with over three years of service have the right to refuse an outright assignment in favor of minor league free agency, though anyone with fewer than five years of service would forfeit the remaining guaranteed money on their contract to do so. Andújar certainly wouldn’t have landed a better deal in free agency after going unclaimed on waivers, so it’s no surprise he’s elected to take the minor league assignment to hang onto that salary.
He’ll report to camp and try to reestablish himself on the 40-man roster as a right-handed bench bat. If he doesn’t break camp, he’ll open the season as a depth option in Indianapolis. Andújar has a .303/.351/.507 line in a little over 600 career Triple-A plate appearances. Performing at that level in the minors could certainly get him back on the radar for a midseason promotion. Andújar is out of minor league option years, though, meaning he’d have to stick on the MLB roster or again be DFA if he earns a call-up at any point.
Yankees fans prob still offering him in mock proposals for Ohtani and/or Trout
Him and Frazier.
Retired: you have to love the all-too-common delusional “center of the universe” NYY fans….offloading their trash for everyone else’s treasure and expecting that they should be appreciating receiving the offloaded trash.
Its what happens when you never left the 23 sq mile island and you read the ethical, balanced, unbiased NY media outlets.
@Clepto, of course you do it’s all part of being a Yankee fan. Btw, thanks for the kind words on the NY media also, hope to see ya at the stadium real soon. Ahahahaha!
The Yankees are one of the best teams when it comes to overhyping their minor-league talent. Their problem is that Cashman actually buys into it too and becomes afraid to trade any of his ‘can’t miss’ prospects. The obvious ones have been mentioned already here: Andujar, Frazier and Sheffield, two of whom have been DFA’d this season. Cash finally agreed to trade Sheffield but it was after his stock went down due to poor performances in the minors.
It is still very important to develop and promote players from the minors but NY’s track record lately has been horrible. Let’s wait and see if Volpe and Dominguez are the real deal or not. Both look the part so far but I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of them (if not both) don’t live up to the lofty expectations already placed on them. They should both make the majors for sure but who knows how they’ll perform once they get there.
Wasn’t Justus Sheffield another ‘can’t miss’ Yankees prospect? I believe they acquired both Sheffield & Frazier from Cleveland in the same deal. NY does a great job of hyping their farm system players, most of whom never pan out. In Andujar’s case, at least he performed well in the majors prior to his shoulder surgery so he wasn’t a complete bust. I wonder how he would have performed in year 2 and beyond without the injury?
Considering the Pirates wanted Andujar in a Cole trade, offering him in fan proposed trades wasn’t crazy.
No, but it was Andujar + Frazier in every trade for every superstar. It became a meme for a reason.
And Bird
Maybe the Yankee fans do it because it usually works on the Pirates who have been dealing their trash to the Pirates for years for their best players who trade them rather than pay them. That’s what you get for being one of the cheapest organizations in Professional Sports.
And to think the Pirates once had Pops Mad Dog and Cobra all on their team at the same time. Those days are way long gone.
Uncle Mike: why dont you cite one or two deals, since you are soooo knowledgeable.
Btw: Cole came from Astros. And I hope you arent dumb enough to cite Taillon.
Should we talk about about Aj? Russell Martin?
Nah, the Yankee fans do it because they’re obnoxiously smug and think they’re smarter than everyone else
It will be an overpay for trout,with his shot back and 300 million contract
Maybe the Yankees will scoop him up. Should net B. Reynolds via trade.
The Yankees & every other team had the opportunity to “scoop him up” but all declined to do so.
Crazier things have happened!
Sorry but Justus Sheffield is untouchable
Before Sheffield and Frazier were highly touted in the Yankee minors, they were top 5 in the Indians farm system.
5 years ago the Yankees wouldn’t trade Andujar or Torres for Jacob deGrom. 5 years later and Andujar isn’t worth a waiver claim and the Yankees have put effort into moving Torres. We will never know if deGrom would have been the difference maker in the Yankees potentially having won championships the past 5 years, but imagine if deGrom for Torres/Andujar had happened.
sny.tv/articles/yankees-reportedly-wouldnt-trade-t…
I remember that popped up on sports talk shows. Certainly Yankee fans know this, although not sure if Mets fans do. What SNY (Mets channel) left out was Heyman then asked the Yankees about the rumor and they laughed, saying the Mets would never trade deGrom to the Yankees. There was no trade offer, just gullible Mets fans, Remember, SNY also reported there was some backroom deal between Hal Steinbrenner and Steve Cohen that the Mets wouldn’t pursue Aaron Judge. Yeah, right.
Thats something Carton would do just to rile up some people
He was an fine hitter prior to the shoulder surgery. I always cringe when I hear a position player has this type of surgery. The recovery rate is good, but the skill level often takes a significant hit in a high percentage of players.
The issue was the moment he came back, the Yankees forced him to play the outfield when in reality, they should’ve just said play first base and focus on hitting. I think the repetition of throwing the ball from the outfield might’ve impacted his swing.
No. The issue was he lost bat speed. Just a fraction can have a significant difference. Same thing happened to Greg Bird.
Rob, I remember a scout once saying that most unexplained bad seasons, or significant loss in production with younger players, is 99.9% injury related. Slicing a shoulder open and performing a procedure is bad, very bad.
I was a big Miggy fan. I’m still pulling for him to get his act together.
He’s only 27 years old Pirates might be able to retool him.
There’s no reason not to. There’s no pressure there, and they have plenty of time to work on his game at AAA and give him a ton of ABs. I’m just surprised he went unclaimed.
Exactly this guy needs at bats and consistency something Pittsburgh can give him.
He went unclaimed only because the Pirates offered him arbitration and then settled on a contract with him. Which if you think about, was a fairly shrewd plan on their part. It severely chances of his being claimed on waivers, and I wouldn’t be shocked if they explained this all to him ahead of time. Now he can got to AAA, work on his game without much pressure, and quit like;y get a chance soon enough in the bigs.
That makes a ton of sense and very shrewd on the Pirates to work out a deal like this with him.
He needs to play winter baseball in Dominican Republic and show his potential and if do not respond well,,,he is done, hang the spikes.
That’s definitely a good place to showcase his skills, he’d definitely improve his value with a good showing.
Pardon my bad editing in the above post; my iPad is being difficult today.
No problem always appreciate good grammar lol
Uncle- good post.Maybe BC was shrewd enough to do that and if he was I give him loads of credit.
I thought for sure that he would get claimed but they seem to want to give him time in AAA while they give chances to Suwinski,Mitchell,and Joe.
I don’t know if that was on purpose. I think they found themselves in that position after the McCutchen signing. And considering Andrew texted Bob Nutting about the whole thing, I think it’s safe to assume that Cherington’s master plan wasn’t to do this. I think that’s giving them too much credit. Call it a “Happy Accident” for the Pirates.
Cali- On second thought you are probably right.I forgot about the timing.I had hoped MCutcheon would be signed early on but I think that this was his backup plan in case a contender offered him this much money.He could always have come back next year.BC definitely did not plan this.The fly in the ointment was Joe.He May not have been added if BC knew Cutch was coming..I just think Andujar has talent and deserves a chance to show that his surgery injury did not permanently stall his progress.
Yep. I love to bash them, but this worked out great for them.
If he is able to retool his hitting, he’d be a prime candidate for replacing any outfielder who gets injured on the parent club
Paul- Or if they do not pan out.Suwinski was great in AA and Mitchell in AAA but not so much their first year in ML.
And I would be surprised if Connor Joe can hit ML pitching,
I would also not be surprised if Suwinski and Mitchell hit better,good enough for them to trade Reynolds at the trade deadline.
“Retool? You dont retool me, I’ll retool you!”
I remember Yankees fans saying Frazier and Andujar were more than enough to get Luis Castillo.
I remember the Pirates saying Andujar would get Cole.
Straight up? I think you’re memory is foggy.
Not straight up but he was the main piece.
There was a package of players offered, although the Yankees exact offer wasn’t known. What was known was the Pirates preferred the Astros package of Joe Musgrove, Colin Moran, and I believe Michael Feliz.
Happens to all teams. The bluejays had a pitcher a few years back named aaron Sanchez, im sure u remember him. He won the ERA title and teams tried to trade for him. Apparently good deals and the jays balked, which a 1/2 starter with 5 years of control you can see why. My point is every team has guys they hild on to that they should have traded.
That’s correct Joe, and Cashman of course refused to do it. Another blown deal by Cashman.
Yeah Dr what bothers me is the evaluation of talent. They need to keep the guys who are going to be impact players and trade the guys who aren’t and learn to tell the difference in the two.
With injuries to Andujar and Bird, it’s hard to judge what could have been but guys like Sanchez (who was reported to be the target of a Realmuto trade) and Frazier should have been moved while they had value.
Thanks for responding Joe. You’re right about that. That is a big problem. Likely will not change as long as cashman is there. Unless unexpectedly, he takes some much needed advice from minaya or Sabean. Let’s hope he does not do the same with Volpe or peraza. I would say that I would like the Yankees to get andujar back, and give him a real chance in left-field, we know Hicks is not the answer, but I know they won’t, so I wish him well catching on with another team.
chronic blisters really ruined him. he really looked good in the beginning for the Jays
I remember when the Yankees would win WS without spending $200 million dollars plus
That must’ve been before Cashman.
but that was a result of 4 under .500 seasons (89-92) and the legend Gene Michael and the scouting staff. 1992 was the last under .500 season 30 years of over .500 baseball is pretty good. but yes I never liked the 2000s and George overspending and taking on all the bad contracts other teams gave out and thus bailing them out of bad financial decisions just to recieve luxury tax revenue/sharing.
Depends on timing. Yankees mishandle their prospects. sny.tv/articles/yankees-reportedly-wouldnt-trade-t…
@thegreatgoodbye, note my post above regarding this story and Mets fans. No one would believe the Wilpon Mets would ever do a deal with the Yankees for their Cy Young pitcher. The Mets actually traded other players for a lesser return rather than make a deal with the Yankees. Come on. Use an IQ point.
Apologies. That last sentence might have been unduly harsh.
yes that last sentence should get a great goodbye from your post if we could edit on app
by “were” do you mean “is”???
Another later product of the Yankee Hype Machine. Following in the footsteps of Greg Bird and Kevin Maas before him. Esteban Florial is the latest, and that bloom is already off that rose. Count in Deivi Garcia. It is why you don’t see the Yankees making trades for other teams stars and giving up just prospects anymore. Teams gave gotten smart to that trick. Sure the Yankees have some future big leaguers down in the farm. Servicable players. All teams do. But living off the reputation of the Core Four has evaporated.
Yankee fans are aware. Cashman wants Mike Trout for every prospect. Detroit Tigers offered Michael Fulmer straight up for Andujar last year and Cashman wanted more. And then it’s coupled with the fact that the Yankees don’t even play their prospects they just keep them in the minors until they have no value and then they release them.
I know he’s not a “star” but they got Montas last season for prospects, and he has been a very solid pitcher for the past 2 years. Hopefully his shoulder heals up and he doesn’t become the latest Sonny Gray in pinstripes
You can drown in the NY media hype machine. However Deivi i feel for as he really showed promise, numbness in fingers can obviously mess up a pitcher but who knows maybe the spyder tac ban hurt worse, never know but hope he can get back to form. They had to hype Maas because he’d be replacing Donnie, Bird well injuries again and yes true farm players do get overhyped, but his swing was smooth. Joba was another big hype, the list has many names like other teams just the popularity of the Yankees and the media makes it last in the headlines because more money. Oh and I totally thought Ricky Ledee was going to be amazing as I combed through the baseball America magazine minor league stats
I thought the Orioles might have taken a flier
Im still surprised that NOBODY claimed him. Hell even the A’s can afford a gamble of 1.5m
A’s have (most of) their next core IF figured out: Soderstrom rotates through backupC/1B/DH, Gelof at 2B, Allen at SS…
Andujar is plain horrible at 3B.
Every team and every front office has plenty of “woulda’ coulda’ shoulda'” moments. Trades that were made; trades that were not; free agent signings or failures to sign when available; draft picks made and failed, or passed over. The talent biz is a harsh one, and the general rule is that even a really good front office will fail more often than not with the available decisions.
As a Phils fan, we are quite used to regimes that fail, and do it much more often than the average bear. Having DD & Co. is pretty awesome for us now, but it is hard for me to imagine the need to critique each and every move as if I know better when the team being criticized has made the playoffs six years running, and something like 22 out of 25 seasons.
Young players falter – even talented ones. Injuries happen, and opportunities are lost as a result. Heck, I loved Scott Kingery while seeing him in the minors and he seemed like a lock as a very good 2B for years to come. But they fouled up his development, and then a shoulder injury appears to have derailed him for the long haul.
If the Yankees have a failing to point to when it comes to young talent, it is more on the player development side. The pressure of the market to win at all times can hamper that, and yet teams need to find a way to do so. And that requires some patience. Fans are not patient…especially in NY.
finally! just normal baseball talk without generic anti-teamname insults or casting shade about a minor league player.
to note I would often snag Moniak and Sixto for my u-20 TheShow franchises.
Agreed. Look any top 100 prospect list from the last decade and a very high percentage of those players don’t become stars or even serviceable big leaguers. It’s easy to say in hindsight that you should have traded Player X when their value was high.
But I thought he was sooooo good, just needed an opportunity to play, I guess no one else wants to pay more than the minimum for him. I still think maybe there’s something there but seems like Pittsburgh has more options at the moment.
For a change, well played by the Pirates, and in the long run probably a smart move by Andujar to accept the assignment.
It was kind of a no brainer for him to take the assignment and keep the guaranteed money. If he elected FA he’d give up the $1.5M and since no one claimed him, no one was willing to pay him that.
40/60 hes on the 25 man out of spring
50/50 hes on the 25 man the first month or two.
70/30 hes on the 25 man after the trade deadline
assuming health for him and those he would be replacing
baring an extension 100/100 he isn’t on the team by 2024 spring
Poor not Yankee fan has more to say about them than anyone else, including your own team. Andujar wasn’t over-hyped, everyone was surprised by his 2018 production. Sheesh, at least be a logical troll.
Who are you talking to besides yourself?
What’s not logical about my post? Did I hurt some feelings?
Injuries slowed another career.
There are some players, and Andujar is one of them, that brings out every Yankee-detesting MLBTR commenter. It’s a little like going to an early bird special where no one is under 75, and they already know all the jokes, with the punchlines usually including references to Mike Trout.
There are some. But most of them don’t seem to have anything against the actual team, just their arrogant unintelligent fans. Most fans of any team are but Yankee fans take it to the max. The Andujar Frazier trade proposals didn’t end until both were off the team. Even last year at the deadline I seen proposals with Andujar. I replied Pirates don’t want Andujar in a Reynolds trade package. They will get him for free when the Yankees dfa him in a month or two. I have nothing against Yankee fans. I actually think Clipper is one of the most valuable commenter on this site. Most Yankee fans aren’t at his level and I will call out anything I see ridiculous. Now it’s going to be Deivi and Schmidt until they are gone. Better options but not good enough for Ohtani and likes.
I see my Tyler Wade and Rob Refsnyder offer for Ohtani (with the Angles paying part of his salary to get the Yankees under the CBT threshold) isn’t going to fly with this crowd. Bummer.
Mike-Every team has knucklehead fans.
The Yankee fans who are truly despised are the arrogant ones.
They are not a majority but they seem to be the worst at trolling the weaker teams.
And what they do not understand is that money sometimes really does buy championships.
Thank the gods. This dfa caused so much anger, stress and pain for pirate fans. I cried reading their comments last week. Now they can have peace knowing they didn’t lose this stud. Andujar is definitely going to get back to his 2018 form. Other 29 teams need new gms.
Nothing on this site should be enough to make a grown man cry.
Remember this quote?
“I think (Andujar) is a hell of a player,” Cashman told Joel Sherman of the New York Post. “We have said ‘no’ to him (in trade talks) not just this year but from Double-A on up. I have not included him any deals and that should say how I feel about him.”
Cashman added: “We have been challenged many times to move him or coerced to move him. He is here because of what we think of him. And I mean ‘we.’ His makeup is off the charts. His work ethic is off the charts. His energy is off the charts. And his physical ability is off the charts. He is a major contributor, which is what we thought he’d be.”
www-thescore-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thesco…
Cashman is a bum
Cashman is a bum
Nah, he’s just a liar trying to build value. I have heard him do this song and dance over and over right before he trades the player or signs someone to take that player’s position. Now that I think about it you are right, Cashman is a bum with a terrible poker face. Sorry I blew up
Time to call up Miguel Andujar and give him more than 33 ABs. The dude is hitting .365 with 15HR and 77 RBI. Do you think you might DH him at least??? What else does the guy have to do to get another look. Last I looked, no one is batting .365. Actually, Cutch leads the team at .264. BRING HIM UP!!!
It an absolute crime that they have not called Andujar up and put him at first base.They bring up Rivas instead.I hope that Andujar hits 340 next year but not with the Pirates.They have dragged him along for too long without giving him a real chance.BC must think that his team has too many good hitters.He has one more year to prove it.