8:28pm: New York officially announced the acquisition of Allen in exchange for minor league right-hander Diego Hernandez and cash. Hernandez, an 18-year-old native of Mexico, signed with New York as an undrafted free agent last year. He spent 2022 in the Dominican Summer League, starting five of 12 games.
7:17pm: The Yankees are acquiring outfielder Greg Allen from the Red Sox, reports Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). Allen had been in the Boston organization on a minor league contract. Abraham adds the trade was due to an upward mobility clause in Allen’s deal which required the Red Sox to either promote him or trade him if another club offered an immediate big league roster spot.
While neither team has yet announced the trade, that suggests Allen is likely to step onto New York’s MLB roster in the next couple days. The Yankees will have to create a spot on the 40-man roster, though that can be done by transferring Carlos Rodón to the 60-day injured list. IL transfers are backdated to the time of the original placement (in Rodón’s case, Opening Day) and there’s no chance he’ll be ready for MLB action by next week.
Once official, it’ll be Allen’s second stint as a Yankee. The switch-hitting outfielder appeared in 15 games for New York two years ago. He played well, hitting .270/.417/.432 over 48 trips to the plate. Allen’s modest pre-2021 track record led the Yankees to place him on waivers despite that small-sample production. The Pirates claimed him and kept him on the roster for the majority of last season, but he slumped to a .186/.260/.271 line with a 31.3% strikeout rate in 134 trips to the plate. That brought his career slash to .232/.299/.336 in exactly 800 plate appearances over four teams.
Pittsburgh ran Allen through waivers at the end of the year. He caught on with the Red Sox on an offseason minor league pact and has impressed over 37 games for their Triple-A affiliate in Worcester. He’s hitting .250/.407/.388 in 151 trips to the plate. Allen has walked at a robust 13.9% clip and kept his strikeouts to a far more manageable 19.2% rate than he had in the majors last season. He’s also gone a staggering 23-23 in stolen base attempts. No other minor league player has run more often without yet being thrown out.
Allen has always had plus speed and strong basestealing instincts. He’s 45-53 in that regard in his major league career, an excellent 84.9% success rate. The introduction of more favorable rules for baserunners (larger bases, a pitch clock and pickoff limitations) should only make things easier for him in that regard. Allen’s athleticism hasn’t translated into universally strong defensive grades, however. Public metrics have pegged him as an above-average corner outfielder but given him mixed reviews over his 966 major league innings in center field.
The 30-year-old is out of minor league option years. Assuming the Yankees add him to the MLB roster, they’ll have to keep him in the majors or designate him for assignment. He’ll add another veteran depth outfielder behind Aaron Judge and Harrison Bader. New York has tried a number of different players in left field, giving the bulk of that time to Oswaldo Cabrera and Aaron Hicks. None of Cabrera, Hicks, Willie Calhoun nor Isiah Kiner-Falefa has contributed much offensively. Cabrera is the only member of that group who still has remaining minor league options.
This is a bit of a puzzler. Maybe the Yanks want to keep Judge at DH for an extended time, thus they want a defensive first outfielder like Allen. My guess Willie Calhoun gets sent down. I
You’re right, this doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Replacing Calhoun with Allen seems like a lateral move.
someone has to be hurt… bader not in lineup tonight but thought it was just a night off.
jk bader pinch hit
@Joe, Looks like we got our answer today. My first thought when I saw this yesterday was it ONLY made sense if they were planning to cut Hicks. They didn’t just pick up Allen, they traded a player (granted, not one of note) to get him, which means they planned to keep him to fill a role on the MLB roster. The only player he seemed logical to replace was Hicks. They won’t, however, play Allen as much as they did Hicks. He’s here to play defense late in the game and serve as a backup insurance for CF.
I was thinking this move brings the Jake Bauers experiment to its conclusion.
Oswaldo Cabrera could be sent back down to AAA also, since he still has options remaining also. My guess though it will likely be Calhoun or Bauers DFA’d, with Allen joining the team today in Cincinnati. We’ll see.
It was a precursor to cutting Hicks. They needed a defensive player since they plan to keep the other LFers.
Yup.
Oh for crap sake. Cashman needs to be kicked upstairs or down the road.
Why? The guy played well for the Yankees and is better than Hicks and IKF
This… (points pointedly) THIS is the move you’ve been waiting for!
Hicks finally hits and they get a switch hitting defense minded outfielder…
That’s it! The World Series is ours.
Maybe he can have similar numbers to his current minor league numbers, steal some bases, anything is better than Hicks. Dude isn’t on DFA list only because Cashman is trying to squeeze as much value out of him.
Take back what you said about Higgy.
TAKE IT BACK!
Babe Ruth
Roger Clemens
Wade Boggs
Greg Allen
Thank you, Red Sox!!
Umm didn’t Clemens go to Toronto before the Yankees? Yeah, I don’t think your implications are right here. Sounds like you’re just trolling Sox fans…
Okay, take away Clemens and add Red Ruffing.
Thanks, Red Sox!
Now it just seems forced.
Okay
J. Damon
J. Ellsbury
G. Whitlock
Thank you, Yankees!
You forgot Ellsbury.
You can have Ellsbury
Babe Ruth is the only player worth mentioning.
Roger Clemens left Boston for Toronto
Wade Boggs went to the Yankees at the tail end of his career
Greg Allen never even played a game for the Red Sox.
I liked the effort.
Just throwing it out there that in five seasons with the Yankees, Boggs hit:
.313/.396/.407/112 OPS+
Sparky Lyle
Jacoby Ellsbury has joined the chat.
Mike Easler.
The next Bambino to fuel the Yanks to decades of success.
Book the parades for the next 3 decades.
I thought it not possible but every comment on here is worse than the last. Carry on idiots. Ahahaha!
Does it matter? The Yankees probably found a new way to cheat.
Loser comment
Judge has 7 homers in 7 days… must have found some of those batting practice balls for him. Gotta love the Yankee cheating.
Cry some more please, all rise here comes the Judge!
Trolling is a sad and lonely life, but someone needs to step up and do it. Thank you for your service.
Now someone definitely sounds salty, or has just peed in his diaper?
More dumpster diving by the Cash Man….sigh
The more I think about this the more I wonder if more is coming. Do they finally have a move involving Hicks? IKF? They are both potentially centerfielders.
We need Tim Locastro and Mike Tauchman back and it’s a party!
Even more puzzling is what are they doing with Florial? Trade him already in a package.
Nobody wants Florial, they already DFA’d him and nobody put in a claim.
Seems like another dumb trade by Cashman. He is trying to trade away all the Yankee pitchers in the minors.
According to the picture, the trade was an error.
Yes. Yes. This is amazing.
First the Jets trade with the Patriots. Now the Sox trade with the Yankees?? What’s next, dogs and cats living together??
Pedro – Love the movie reference!!
So Rodon is basically done for the year. It’s a joke. We should have signed his wife. At least she’s got balls
Wow, way too many comments for such an unnewsworthy story. Who cares?
Has Bloom taught Cashman how to dumpster dive? Now that’s a decent story!!
Like it or not the Yankees will always be a popular topic.
Bright Side – Only in NY!! Sorry not the center of the universe!!
For all the Red Sox fans that wanted Hosmer around….. he’s available!!!
And he’s free!
I don’t recall ANY RS fan wanting Hosmer was were happy with the trade for Hosmer,
lamars – When folks figured out how dirt cheap he was and they saw Casas hitting .120 many brought up how dumb it was to cut a guy that had his talent and cost next to nothing. Since Casas is beginning to hit I think the point is moot.
95 years from now we’ll be talking about the curse of Greg Allen
Optioning Cabrera.
I don’t know if I can be staggered by the knowledge a guy went 23 for 23 stealing bases in the minors but I’ll try, MLBTR.
Nice move by Bloom. Traded a depth signing, whose contract was about to expire, and acquired a low minors pitcher, who doesnt have to be protected for a while on the 40-man. Hernandez has nice numbers so far, but its early.
Good job.
I agree. This seems like a good move by Bloom. It’s really a not risk trade on both ends.
Probably nothing, but given that Allen cost us -0-, this is kind of cool.
It doesn’t get noticed by the press, but our last 21 games have been against teams that were in the playoffs in 2022, and we went 13-8.
The Yankees wouldn’t dare trade a major league player who could spill the beans on their cheating, so they’re dumping some nodescript low minor league guy instead. Why do you think all those overpaid underperformers haven’t been released? Because they know the real story? Stay tuned for further developments as the plot thickens.
Stinky fingers and stolen signs,
Residue lingers along life lines,
Sudden dingers after wandering eyes,
Are bell ringers under the Toronto skies.
Kind of a strange trade
Kind of a strange comment
Kind of strange reply.
Kind of redundant and strange reply.