The Yankees have signed left-hander Tim Mayza to a minor league deal, according to a report from Brendan Kuty and Katie Woo of The Athletic. The lefty will presumably be assigned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre shortly.
Mayza, 32, was recently released by the Blue Jays as he’s had an awful season thus far. He made 35 appearances for the Jays, logging 24 2/3 innings with 8.03 earned runs allowed per nine. His 9.9% walk rate on the year is passable but he has only struck out 13.2% of batters faced and his ground ball rate has been subpar at 39.1%.
Despite the recent struggles, it’s easy to see why the Yanks would be interested. Mayza underwent Tommy John surgery late in 2019 and missed all of 2020, but has was quite good between that absence and this year’s dip. Over the 2021-23 period, he made 193 appearances for the Jays with a 2.67 ERA, 24.9% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 58.3% ground ball rate. He earned four saves and 56 holds for the Jays in that time.
All those numbers have moved in the wrong direction here in 2024, but there are reasons to suspect he’s not been as bad as an 8.03 ERA would suggest. His .367 batting average on balls in play and 54.8% strand rate have both been on the unfortunate side of average, which is why his 4.91 FIP and 5.08 SIERA paint a rosier picture of his work this year. The lack of strikeouts and ground balls this year undoubtedly exacerbated that bad luck a bit, but expecting some better results going forward is within reason.
The Yanks have been trying to solve the left-handed relief portion of their roster this season. Victor González was recently bounced off the roster after some shaky outings. Caleb Ferguson has held onto his spot despite a 5.46 ERA this year. They recently bought low on veteran groundballer Tim Hill and have also given limited looks to Anthony Misiewicz and Josh Maciejewski.
If Mayza can turn a corner and show that the first half of 2024 was just a bad stretch, there’s a path for him to get into that mix. The Yanks can get an up-close look at him for the next few weeks while they also assess who could be available on the trade market prior to the July 30 deadline.
Mayza is making $3.59MM this year but the Jays are on the hook for that since they released him. If the Yanks add him to the roster at any point, they would only have to pay him the prorated version of the league minimum for any time Mayza spends on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Jays pay. Mayza crossed over five years of service time earlier this year and can no longer be optioned to the minors, but if he gets a 40-man roster spot at some point, he can be retained via arbitration for the 2025 season.
Giving up 1.95 hits per inning as a reliever is never a good thing
We have rooted out the problem.
Good Luck Tim Mayza , going to a contender is always exciting !!
No more Cleveland Clowns for you !
Now it’s on to the 3 ring circus that is Yankee Stadium.
Some guys do well, some get eaten alive.
“You must be truly desperate to come to me for help.”
Yeah, this’ll turn the Yankees around!
Its right in front of us..
Now we have to get after it.
Mayza has lost 2 mph on his sinker from previous years. Its not a luck thing. Until he gets that back, he will struggle.
The Yankees are generally great at optimizing pitch selection and velocity. Just don’t let them touch young hitters…
I like this – Tim has good stuff. I watch a lot of Blue Jays games and like his arm!
He had good stuff.
He’d been a consistent bullpen piece for them but this year the wheels have completely fallen off.
I know it’s been painful to watch. Maybe Matt Blake can straighten him out … who knows. I am hopeful
Blake does have a rep for doing that. Mayza certainly seems like someone in need of a change, unless it’s physical. Of course if it was physical, I’d think the Jays would have tried to get him right.
Yeah…agreed…but based on everything else that’s happened to the Jays this year, luck would have it…he’d find the missing spark….
It’s one year, he has a decent enough track record where taking a flyer on him can be warranted. I wonder what his personal life has been like this year? A lot of times that explains a sudden drop then a recovery. If his wife or girlfriend is unhappy causing him a ton of stress, his production usually drops depending on the kind of guy you are. Some men it will fuel them to the best year ever, those are defiant souls.
Hopefully Aaron Boone gets fired before he has a chance to mismanage Mayza in the bullpen. It’s times like these that I really miss The Boss. He would have fired Boone ten games ago.
I’m not entirely sure Boone would have survived 2018, and he definitely wouldn’t have survived 2021, if George was still around. Boone might not be the root cause of the Yankees’ struggles but it’s definitely time for a change
If George was still around he either dies of a heart attack when the Astros cheated, or gets banned for life again trying to out cheat the Astros
This team is getting brutalized in the first round of the playoffs if they think this misfit group of relievers is adequate.
Even if they were adequate, Boone would screw up their usage. We need a better bullpen and a better person deciding when to use them and when to take them out of a game.
Robotic take from every baseball writer in America;
When Mayza did well, he was pitching in “good luck ”
When he did not do well, he was pitching in “bad luck.” Laughable
I am a huge cashman fan and I don’t blame Boone for all the Yankee problems but it’s time to rip the band aid off
Higher Kim Ng away from Her new position that she just took Within a newly formed softball league And put her in the Yankee GM position while keeping Cashman within the organization in a high level management Position.
Replace Arron Boone with Buck Showalter. Boone should also be kept within the organization if he chooses to stay. The P should not be blamed for all of the Yankees issues no one person is at fault
Don Mattingly should be the hire, not Showalter. Boone is the manager. If the team isn’t performing to expectations, then the manager is responsible. He might not be the person to “blame”, but he is the person responsible for having his team ready to win baseball games and they are not.
@larkraxm
You want Donnie Baseball, he’s all yours.
I do want Mattingly. At least he is a real Yankee. Boone is a poser who also sucks at managing baseball games and players.
Mattingly is showing this keen ability with the Jays this year….
He is the bench coach for the Blue Jays. I guess he should be bench coaching them to a better record? It is shameful that he isn’t with the Yankees.
He’s lost velocity and his groundball rate has diminished. He’s batting practice unless they solve those issues.
Sure , this will fix everything
@Whyme, you are correct. The Yankees need to identify the cause of the dip in velo and ground ball rate. I suspect because he was given a new arm and did the physio in previous years that this year he did arm work and leg work but his core is not as good. It happens with age. It might take a few months to get it back if he is not hurt.
The trouble is the Yankees have a habit of burning out relievers not fixing them. Just look at Chad Green, Dellin Betances, Micheal King, Scott Proctor etc etc….All hurt and career bascially torpedo’ed after being overused by the Yankees manager.
Maybe he will get lucky and find a tin of Pineda’s magic lotion syrup under the bench or in an old locker…
The Yankees have a habit of turning castoffs into major-leaguers. Look at the magic Matt Blake worked with guys like Clay Holmes, Nestor Cortes, Luke Weaver, Michael Tonkin, etc… If I’m Mayza I’ll take my chances and work with Matt Blake and his staff. Boone sucks though and doesn’t know how to manage a pitching staff, so you are right on that point.
I would agree with your point on Matt Blake. The Manager is the guy responsible for burning them out while the pitching coach and trainers are responsibile for keeping them performing.
Is Brubacker healthy yet? I thought that was a nice signing