The Yankees announced this afternoon that they’ve claimed infielder Jordan Groshans off waivers from the Marlins. New York designated lefty reliever Matt Krook for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Miami designated Groshans for assignment last Tuesday as the corresponding transaction when they traded for fellow infielder Jonah Bride. Groshans heads back to the AL East, the division in which he began his career. A highly-regarded talent in high school, he was drafted 12th overall in 2018 by the Blue Jays. His stock had dipped by the 2022 trade deadline, when Toronto flipped him to the Fish for relievers Anthony Bass and Zach Pop.
Groshans got to the big leagues not long after that trade. He appeared in 17 MLB contests, hitting .262/.308/.311 with one home run through his first 65 plate appearances. Miami optioned him back to Triple-A to open the 2023 campaign. Groshans spent the whole year there, thanks in large part to a mediocre offensive season.
The right-handed hitter put up a .243/.339/.330 slash line over 528 trips to the plate. He showed strong awareness of the strike zone, walking at a 12.5% clip while striking out only 17.4% of the time. Groshans provided very little impact when he made contact, though, hitting just six home runs, 20 doubles and a triple. He split his defensive work between the two corner infield spots, playing mostly third base. Groshans had experience in the middle infield early in his career but was always viewed by most prospect evaluators as a better fit at the hot corner.
Last year was Groshans’ first minor league option season. New York can still send him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the next two years if they keep him on the 40-man roster. He slots in at the back of an infield depth chart that also features Oswald Peraza, Oswaldo Cabrera and Jorbit Vivas behind the starting group of Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Volpe.
Taking a flier on Groshans could come at the expense of Krook, a 29-year-old who made his major league debut last season. The Oregon product pitched in four MLB games, walking six batters and allowing 11 runs in four innings. While that’s obviously a dismal small-sample showing, Krook turned in a 1.32 ERA through 34 frames in Scranton. He punched out 39% of batters faced in Triple-A.
The 6’4″ southpaw clearly has swing-and-miss potential, yet he has never thrown strikes at a tenable rate. Krook walked over 18% of opposing hitters with the RailRiders last season. He’d issued free passes at a 12.1% rate there the year before that, leading New York to move him to the bullpen by 2023. That didn’t result in the necessary step forward in his command, but it’s possible another team takes a flier given the gaudy minor league whiff rates. The Yankees have a week to trade Krook or attempt to run him through waivers.
Krook could really be a steal for another club
Yep, that 24.75 ERA says he’s a must-have. Claim him now. Don’t wait for anyone to snatch him up!
Yes BMFB,
ERA is the end-all be-all stat for a pitcher.
Especially in 4 IP.
show us you don’t know how to interpret baseball stats without saying you don’t know how to interpret baseball stats
Hmmm…OK, not caring for ERA? OK, let’s go with something not debatable.
Having only 4 MLB innings through age-28 and being DFA-ed to make room for Jordan Groshans says all that needs to be said.
Do you comprehend that better?
Yes, no player has ever been a “late bloomer”.
In 2021, Adolis Garcia was DFA’d, to create a roster spot for Mike Foltynewicz. Getting DFA’d must mean he isn’t a good ball player.
I’m not a Matt Krook stan by any means, but to say there’s a 0% chance he could find some success elsewhere because:
1. His ERA is bad
2. He’s 28 and has 4 IP
3. He got DFA’d
Is just a bad take.
BMFB seems exactly like the kind of commenter who’ll never say anything that I need to read
Muted
To be fair, “late bloomers” often are fringe guys who go on PEDs as a last resort.
I think the bad take would be banking on him to take large steps forward at this point.
@guilderc2000
I wonder what the stats are on guys that haven’t done anything by age 28 actually becoming something.
I’m betting the percentages are extremely low.
@filihok Is clearly the type of idiot I won’t waste my time with.
One of the rare times I’ll mute someone.
@BannedMarlinsFanBase
xERA was 5.70 and FRA was 5.23 in 2023 for 4 innings. Very small sample size but this is more informative than the ERA which is more an evaluator of the team overall than him.
His AAA numbers show an ERA of 3.43 and if you convert that to MLB, losing about 18% production, you’d get an ERA of 4.19. Not amazing but definitely closer to what we should expect from him than a 24.75 ERA in 4 innings.
I wouldn’t bank on that ERA ever materializing in the bigs. But taking anything from 4 innings is worthless. Doesn’t matter what metric.
Nolan Ryan had an era of 15.00 after 3 innings. That guy stunk. First 3-4 innings in the bigs should be the metric for future success as that is a good sample size.
@Human Being
Nolan Ryan wasn’t 28 when he did that.
True. If you are older, you will have a higher ERA coming into the league. Definitely a bust at 4 innings pitched.
Krook = steal, don’t think you caught the reference there.
29 y.o. with command issues. Not really.
I see what you did there. (apparently, I’m the only one) Lol
Lol. I’m slow today.
The OP’s joke flew waaaaaaay over some of y’all’s heads…
Actually, it didn’t We got it. Just wanted to add more to it.
Ok. If so, then seems odd to reply to his joke rather than start a new comment thread.
Good depth grab by Cashman
If the light-hitting Groshans sees time at 3B, the Yankees have bigger problems. He’ll probably be DFA’d in ST.
I am confused by this move. Not that Krook was good, but neither is Groashans, and we are not hurting for backup IFers….we are, however, in need of pitching depth. I really don’t understand these decisions sometimes.
Same, Clip. Krook can at least make an emergency start for 3.1 IP, 5 ER. There is no need for that guy at 3B even at AAA.
They’ve decided the fungible lefty reliever on the bubble is less valuable to them than having Groshans as an up-and-down infield option. Krook could very well go on to have a longer MLB career than Groshans, but for 2024, they view Groshans as more important. Improvement on the extreme margins.
Why are you confused? Groshans has more talent than Krook. A lot more. Neither are likely to stick in the majors but Groshans is 5 years younger and you always bet more on talent.
You do understand “depth” doesn’t mean put out crap which Krook has often been. The Yankees have three LHP right now in the pen that are all way better than Krook and can find people better than Krook for depth.
Uh, the point is not to put him right into the ‘pen, it is to hedge against the injuries that will occur since we traded away about ten pitchers…… did you see the rotation’s health problems last year or are you just trying to argue for no reason?
Why do we need a subpar 3b who won’t ever sniff the ML roster? Your argument makes zero sense.
He has played a lot of SS. Your backup SS is Peraza, who badly needs AB reps at AAA. That’s the need.
Gasu: while I understand what you’re saying, a backup SS is not nearly as necessary as rotational depth, which we traded away. The pitchers who stepped in last season a pitched a good deal of innings are gone (Brito, German, Vazquez ++).
Rotation depth is a far bigger issue. But Osis brings up a valid point about an impending trade, which makes much more sense in this context. They have plenty of IF depth that can meet or exceed a DFA Player’s production.
This seems like a placeholder move for someone else they actually intend to sign. Players like this are easily expendable, we’ve been seeing this all winter with the multiple waiver claim/waiving of same player a week or two later for someone else; not to mention one or two being part of a trade package. What’s to lose at this point either; Krook was not likely going to be a factor in the pen in NY unless they needed someone to mop up or something catastrophic happened (again). If they truly needed someone like him, someone will shake out during ST.
If Krook is as valuable as implied, it’s not out of the question a trade is imminent, in which case “We thank Jordan Groshans for his contributions to the organization…”
I’d rather keep Krook.
Not a surprise that Groshans was claimed. I hope the guys the Marlins brought in work out better than Groshans.
Oh the hits keep coming. Stack that minor league system Cashman. NYY has a line up of 6 &1/2 guys that can’t hit their weight.
According to Fangaphs depth charts, using the projected FGDC WAR, the Yankees are expected to win around 93-94 wins. 93-69 record is pretty good. If there are 6.5 guys that can’t hit their weight, why do you think Fangraphs projects a high win tally?
ZIPS says they’ll win 88: blogs.fangraphs.com/the-2024-pre-spring-training-z…
Gambling. Just like they were projected to be playoff bound last season…. They were bet heave and everyone lost. Yankees won’t win more than 85 games. Place your bets now.
@178iq
In today’s MLB, just making the playoffs means you have a chance to win it all. Last year, two WC teams played in the world series.
2 great teams. With lineups that score run and HIT! Yankees stunk bad last year and they were favorites to be in the post season. They have to score runs this year and need to HIT to do it!
Two great teams?
Using the Pythagorean Winning Percentage formula, Arizona should have had a 0.491 winning percentage during the regular season. They had a .519 percentage, meaning they were slightly lucky. They gave up more runs than they scored, so they couldn’t hit. DBacks were 14th in BA, 14th in OBP and 17th in SLG. Arizona was 18th in wRC+ (97)..
Texas on the other hand should have had a 0.593 winning percentage but sat at .556 instead, meaning they got unlucky. Texas did hit, with #2 in BA, #3 in OBP and and #3 in SLG. Texas was 4th in wRC+. (114).
One great team and one team that should never had been in the playoffs.
I’m not sure it was pure luck. The Pythagorean thing is crude, and is based solely on the average runs scored per game. But if a team has some “magic power” to win close games, they would beat their Pythagorean expectation. Joe Torre, over his managerial career with the Yankees, won 41 more games than the Pythagorean expectation. Did Joe have a “magic power” to win close games. He sure did. It was called “Mariano”.
@Gasu1
I didn’t just use the Pythagorean formula to justify my argument. All the numbers suggest that they were not tow great teams. Now, if we had the Dodgers-Rangers or Braves-Rangers in the WS, that would have been true.
The last picked player in the NFL draft just took one of the greatest QB’s ever to an overtime game in the Suoer Bowl.
But NO ONE EVER gets it wrong when evaluating talent.
Yeesh.
Halfway through his career, Sandy Koufax had a 4.10 ERA which was exactly average, to go along with a below .500 won-loss record. And he had started over 100 games for a team that won quite often, which seems like a credible amount of work.
I wonder why they didn’t just trade him away for prospects?
Because a 4.10 era in 100 big league games is different than a 25 era in 4 innings.
MeP
Neither one says very much
Stop. Posting. No name. Articles. THANK YOU.
You’re not very cute. More pathetic if we’re honest.
Thanks
Stop. Reading. No name. Articles. THANK YOU.
disagree. krook and pop are top-shelf names
Cute pomeranian? More like angry, needs-to-touch-grass pomeranian lol
Groshans has been injury-prone since being drafted. Little power despite his size. Blue Jays needed to move him to 3B and off SS after draft day and didn’t. Split his time at both and struggled defensively while missing time due to various injuries. It’s too bad. He hit well in the lower levels.
I was wondering for a second what sterling’s home run call would be for him before I realized it’s pretty unlikely to come up.
Murderers row
Someone will claim Matt, by hook or Krook.
He will protect Judge in the lineup
when Judge is coming back from an injury on a minor league rehab assignment
worth a shot, can’t be much worse than Volpe
Yep, kid went 20-20 as a 22yo true rookie while playing good defense at short, no room for growth there. Weird they haven’t just released him already.
He didn’t impress me much last year, defensively he looked like a second baseman at best. That being said, I thought Clint Frazier was “electric” and on his way to become a superstar when he first came up with the Yankees. I’ve been wrong quite a few times in my rookie assessments over the years, so we’ll have to wait and see I guess.
The guy who the GG at SS in his rookie year looked more like a second baseman to you? I think you need your eyes checked.
That’s why “looked like” is not considered to be a good metric.
So you’re saying he could be a serviceable and decent regular player with lots of potential for further growth then lol? That is a bold and bullish take on Groshans my dude.
Krooked deal!
Actually if he ends up staying, Groshans isn’t a bad IF depth guy to have in the minors.
Can never have enough former 1st round picks
Unbelievable that we’re debating a Krook v Grosahms move….with the pitching depth the Yankees have in the minors, they can use infield options in case of injury…..that in itself can be debated which is my point….
Cashman and Dombrowski are the best.
Jordan is more talented than Krook, but the Yankees have a greater need for a LH relief pitcher.
Sure but that doesn’t necessarily mean krook’s the guy to fill that need. If he catches on elsewhere and unlocks something good for him but I wouldn’t put my money on it.
Serving up nothing burgers at the “we’re pretty f’n good steak house” featuring Chef B Trashman on the grill
You made an account just to post complete nonsense?
I like the move. The Yanks just added 2 LHP’s for the pen, and while Krook has swing and miss stuff, he’s got serious control problems. In 7 minor league seasons he has a 5.88 BB/9. He’s 29 already too, so odds are his command is what it is.
Groshans on the other hand is only 24. He was the 12th pick in the draft out of HS, and had pretty good #’s up thru AA (.291/.367/.450/.817). He was a consensus top 100 prospect, reaching as high as #34 in 2021. Neither of these players is likely to make it, but Groshans is the younger, more talented player.
Groshans’ swing has to be completely changed. Hopefully he went to some hitting lab all off-season and worked on it.
He won’t do anything beating balls into the dirt. He doesn’t swipe bags or beat balls out.
maybe Judge turns him onto his hitting approach during spring training. but this is just a depth move – they need someone in AAA to eat up the innings that Chapparro gave them at 3B and 1B so they don’t have to rush someone else up who is not ready. and with DJ & Rizzo’s age if injuries affect them and Peraza and Cabrera continue to struggle in MLB, he might get a shot in the bigs again.