MLB New York Yankees

New York Yankees Add Some Needed Minor League Depth

Fresh Videos

By @ogab_3

shawn kelley

Kim Klement – USA Today Sports

The New York Yankees made a minor move on Monday, trading relief pitcher Shawn Kelley to the San Diego Padres. In return, they picked up Minor League pitcher Johnny Barbato. While it’s not a big deal for either team by really any calculation, it is at least somewhat indicative of the Yankees renewed interest in committing to their farm system over big league players who won’t add too much to their goals besides some short-term competence.

Kelley won’t be a huge loss for the Yankees this year, but he did play a role in their bullpen. He appeared in 59 games, doing some long relief work but mainly working in short appearances. He had a good K/9 stat (11.67/9) and chewed some innings for the team. His problem was simply that a 4.53 ERA out of the bullpen isn’t the best looking stat in the world. Instead, he will go to San Diego, a team that is trying to acquire as many players as they possibly can.

Meanwhile, Barbato was a sixth-round pick back in 2010 and has performed pretty well this far into his career. He throws very hard and has a career ERA of 3.79. The one drawback with Barbato is that he was shut down last year due to an arm injury that ended a promising season. He will probably start the season in Double-A.

Again, this isn’t a big move; it’s just another showing the Yankees’ slow commitment to start moving away from players who aren’t helping them to start developing the future. This is probably something that they should have been doing for last year as well, and it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Owen Gabbey is a baseball writer who also contributes for the NFL for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ogab_3, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google. 

Share Tweet
Trending Now on