The Yankees have signed right-hander Ian Hamilton to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. Hamilton will presumably be invited to participate in major league Spring Training.
Hamilton, 28 in June, has 15 scattered major league appearances, with 10 of those coming in 2018, four in 2020 and one last year. He has a 4.91 ERA over 14 2/3 innings in that time, striking out 14.1% of hitters while walking 12.5% of them and posting a 39.1% ground ball rate.
Last year, he was in the Twins’ system but not on the 40-man roster. He was briefly added to the big league club as a COVID substitute, making a single appearance of 2 2/3 innings. He made 23 appearances for the Triple-A St. Paul Saints, posting a 1.88 ERA with a 32.1% strikeout rate, 7.1% walk rate and 51.6% ground ball rate. He was then traded to the Guardians for catcher Sandy León, but the switch seemed to throw him off his rhythm. He posted a 6.27 ERA in 15 appearances after the deal with his walk rate jumping up to 13.1%, though he still got strikeouts at a 28.6% rate and kept 50% of balls in play on the ground.
Between the two organizations, Hamilton posted a 3.61 ERA in 47 1/3 Triple-A innings while striking out 30.6% of batters faced and getting grounders on more than half of balls in play. His 9.7% combined walk rate was a bit high, but it was still a solid showing and the Yankees are intrigued enough to give him a closer look. The club has lost some bullpen pieces this winter, with Chad Green, Aroldis Chapman and Miguel Castro having signed elsewhere, while Zack Britton is still a free agent. The most significant addition to the Yankee bullpen so far has been the signing of Tommy Kahnle, but Hamilton will provide some non-roster depth and try to earn his way into the club’s plans. If he can succeed in that regard, he still has an option season remaining and comes with plenty of club control since he’s yet to cross the one-year service time mark.
#BringBackSimonHampton
Lame. Honestly what is your point? What does this have to do with Baseball? If you’d like to somehow explain the relevance I will gladly reconsider the first word of this post.
I feel he would be the best person to write a post like this on Ian Hamilton since he wrote a similar one on Juan Minaya yesterday that was good. Thus, your comment is lame and unneeded.
Fraham, your comment was generally weak, borderline stupid, but kudos for a great retort, thus supporting your point. Nice work and a hat tip.
Context is everything. I appreciate your reply. Your original comment yielded no Google results that helped explain your initial crypticism.
Now we all get it, but I doubt I was alone in wondering what you were trying to say.
I’m sorry but George Santos says he is the best man for the job and since he told me he was a star player for the Yankees last year he would know!!
Look like the NY Yankees are like guys that head out to the bar on Friday night.
With a pocket full of money In the beginning of night and around 2 or 3 In the morning on Saturday.
Are dinning on Mcdonald one dollar menu
The Yankees spend all their cash on 2 overpriced free agent. And now are hoping to strike lightning In bottle with low cost signing
“Yankees spend all their cash on 2 overpriced free agent. And now are hoping to strike lightning In bottle…”
Pretty much sums up Brian Cashman’s tenure. If he cannot overspend he tries to employ the Rays baseball version of analytics, which inevitably fails. However, he does get lucky every once in awhile which only encourages this delusion.
This one is a depth signing though because we need arms that can come up at a moment’s notice to provide innings in the event of rest/injury.
If theyre bringing up Ian Hamilton things will have goe seriously wrong forYanks pen.
You’re right about that clipper. I am sure that’s the first of many. We need depth arms desperately ,since cashman foolishly traded most of our depth for the injured montas, who may never help this club
Did you write that comment at 2am or 3am, your time?
In my younger NYC years, plenty of my nights at 4am ended with me at McD’s or Grey’s Papaya hot dogs. I swear it’s the best ever. You avoid the popular late night spots bc the rush wait would be too long. Then if we caught a second-wind, we’d go to after-hours until 7am.
Ahh, Gray’s Papaya. Love them dogs.
one thing cashman has done well season after season is build a killer bullpen. this is the thinnest pen i can remember. will likely need more depth from the starters this year
It’s really not considering that they traded Lucas Luetge for two Braves minor leaguers even after the fact that Chapman departed who was more harm than good last year.
huge upside for sure if king/holmes/marinaccio/Loaisiga pitch close to their ceilings
@Logistics Guy, I understand what you were going for there, but I don’t know if the analogy of shopping for a bargain basement drunk girl at the bar makes sense for a team like the Yankees who spend big.
Cashman made more embarrassing statements to the media again, preferring to ignore the obvious problems and obfuscate roster issues by telling the Chicago media the NYY had a great season and were only four games short of the WS. Not only is his logic concerning, and it could be dismissed as Cashman looking at the glass half full, but he then blames the NY fanbase (again!) for expecting more.
I think we are in for another three years of Cashman’s excuses and falling short, unfortunately.
No, the Yankees are like guys that go to a bar because their friend asked them to go and since he is loaded they all went expecting a good time but when that friend got there he started pulling out coupons, demanding happy hour prices and claiming he forgot his wallet at home. That has to be what it is like going to a bar with Hal.
You need to hang around better people when going out to bars, @coffinnail.
Minor league deal so basically no commitment. So we’ll see.
The most significant addition to the Yankee bullpen so far has been the signing of Tommy Kahnle, who has pitched 13 2/3 innings in the past three seasons after being grossly overused by the Yankees in the regular and especially post season of their (tenth annual) failed “championship” run of 2019.
At least it wasn’t their 85th annual failed championship run of 2003.
It’s a shame that Cashman traded away seven or eight better pitchers last year.
I wonder how Hamilton’s 4.50 ERA, 4.94 FIP, 2.25 WHIP, 11.3 BB/9 and 9.0 K/9 in 4 innings in 2020 worked out to a 107 ERA+. How did those lousy numbers work out to a better-than-average ERA+?
Depth signing, but the Yankees build bullpens quite well. They’re one of a handful of teams I pay attention to when they add a bullpen arm.
Yeah, this is a no-risk signing.
We need the depth, unfortunately. The only advantages that we truly have (since Hal has an absolute limit on spending at $293MM) are building bullpens and finding pitchers for Blake with which to achieve maximum results.
I am not as down on Cashman after it surfaced that he did attempt to acquire Castillo, but wouldn’t give up Volpe. But, Volpe better well perform and be the stud he’s reported to be or I will bash Cashman for both.
@Yankee Clipper
Agree with you. I for one am very big on Volpe. Did you know that he stole 50 bases last year? Good combination of speed and power. I sincerely believe that no later than July he’ll be starting in Yankees infield SS,3B, 2B who knows!!
I hope you’re right Mickey7s. I am excited about Volpe & Peraza. I just heard Montas could need surgery on his shoulder on a Yanks podcast. If they ultimately determine he does need surgery, it will go down as one of the worst trade seasons ever. IKF/Donaldson and then a useless Montas (if he can’t pitch). Not to mention whatever the doctors were looking at when they cleared him.
@Yankee Clipper, totally understand, but would you have been okay if they signed Seager and traded Volpe, Peraza and Dominguez for Castillo? That is the equivalent package the Mariners sent. (Actually, we’d have to add a fourth player!).
Well, that’s a good question Rob, but I don’t view the choice as quite so specific. From my perspective they’ve passed on a litany of players just to retain Volpe/Peraza/Dominguez – players that could’ve greatly contributed to advancing past the Astros. To clarify, I think they could’ve acquired any number of players and also traded for any number using those prospects.
It’s so hard to determine the outcome because it wasn’t as simple as passing on one player or not completing one trade. It was a domino effect. Could they have traded for an excellent defensive SS (for argument sakes, say Nick Ahmed) and then went after Juan Soto? Yes. Then they still have FAs to evaluate. Could they have traded for T. Turner & Max Scherzer? Yeah, they could’ve.
But the major problem with the Montas deal is they blew their top pitching prospects – they essentially handed them to the A’s for nothing. Then we took on Donaldson & IKF. Like I said, it’s like dominos. To unwind the poor decisions resulting from failing to adequately improve the team is too complex to draw the cause-effect line. We do know the Yankees could’ve had Harper, Soto, Turner, Machado, or even Correa (last season), or any other number of players on this team.
agreed although this is the least confident i’ve felt about their bullpen in a long time
Come On Guys,
You’ll want it both ways. Cashman is Damned if he does or Damned if he doesn’t. The Yankees pick up cheap relievers all the time that have not done well elsewhere but improve here. Even when we got Abreu back from Texas, he performed better here then there.
This is a Pitcher that gets Swings and Misses along with a lot of Ground Balls. A few too many Walks but the Yankees may see something Blake can work with and improve.
He sounds a lot like Holmes Lite whom many of you were against when the Yankees got him, the same with Peralta and others.
Give Credit where it is due.
Hey, have you heard from Ducky? Nobody on here has in a long time.
Ducky!!!!!
YC, I was wondering what happened to him? I haven’t seen any comments from him in a Long time.
I hope he’s okay man. Last I recall he went on a grouse hunting trip and hasn’t been back on in several months. Ducky was awesome. He balanced me out.
Lol @Clip! It’s actually been close to a year. Time flies. He went silent before ST started. Last time we spoke was about his son, his gf, and, of course, hunting. Hopefully, the gf plucked him away from these boards.
Oh shoot! I was thinking the offseason…. Ugh, I’m so brain dead.
Man I can’t wait til the season gets going! U really notice this on the weekend b4 the superbowl. Yankees vs Jays should have some great games. Plus the O’s are gonna be better(they just need better starters), and don’t forget the Rays. Glasnow should be ready to go and I wouldn’t be too surprised if he dominates like b4. AL East will be fun!
Until Hal opens the bank vault we may be waiting a long time for another ring.
I actually think the Yankees have done well constructing this years roster. As for the bullpen there are about 9 relievers with a proven MLB experience and a few guys like weissert, krook and Vasquez waiting in the wings. Who sits out? All of these minor league signings are depth who can be stashed in AAA if 1 turns out to catch lightning in a bottle great maybe he turns into a Lucas luetge type for 1 or 2 years and gets us a prospect down the road.. but with that I can also see the yankees making another trade with a spare part. Something like a IKF and low low prospect to the tigers for a tyler Alexander type reliever. Not saying exact in Alexander but that type of player that has a few years of mlb experience and has been a mop up innings type guy so they don’t tax their bullpen. As it stands I don’t really see a pitcher that will give multiple innings. King could be along with German or schmidt but what if montas is out? German or schmidt takes the 5 spot the other will be used a lot. That’s a need in my opinion
Most of you look real stupid this point. Hamilton has arguably the best out of the pen for the Yanks. Thank Cashman ya mutts.