Yankees acquire Reid Brignac

The Yankees have acquired Reid Brignac for $75,000 after Brignac was designated for assignment by the Rockies. Its assumed that Brignac will replace Alberto Gonzalez, but the team has not officially announced anything.
Brignac, can't really hit or walk with a career line of .228/.270/.321 (60 wRC+) in 769 plate appearances. You might remember him from his time with the Rays from 2008-2012. What Brignac does bring is above average fielding at all three non first base infield spots and so is a marginal upgrade over Gonzalez. I expect that Brignac will play short against right handers and obviously provides the versititlity that the Yankees did not have with Gonzalez. Its a small upgrade, but still an upgrade.

David Adams & Dellin Betances called up

David Adams has been called up to the New York Yankees and Chris Nelson has been designated for assignment. This was first reported by Josh Norris and I am a little bit late because they did not officially make the move until after I had left to go to the game last night. Adams went 1-4 with a solid single for his first Major league hit and had some good plays at the hot corner and all on his 26th birthday too.  Dellin Betances was called up today and Brett Marshall was optioned after Marshall threw 108 pitches going 5.2 ugly mop up innings after Hughes gave up 7 runs in 2/3 of an inning. Marshall did not look very good, giving up 5 runs, walking 5 and striking out 1 but he did soak up a lot of innings for the Yankees and left the bullpen rested. Betances was part of the Killer B's just three years ago and then Brackman was terrible, Banuelos got hurt and Betances was wild, but Betances was moved to the bullpen recently and is getting the call up until Joba Chamberlain is back from his Oblique injury. This is Betances second stint with the big league club after making two appearances in September 2011, including starting the last game of the year. This is really Betances last chance to carve out a role in the majors with the Yankees as he is out of minor league option years after this year and could very well find himself in jeopardy of being DFA if he cannot pitch well out of the pen.

Granderson activated from DL

The Yankees activated Curtis Granderson from the disabled list and optioned Vidal Nuno to AAA Scranton. Curtis will start tonight in Left Field and batting 4th hopefully with his much needed power on display against the Mariners Ace, Felix Hernandez. In case you don't remember Granderson was hit by a pitch two pitches into spring training by Blue Jays pitcher J.A Happ. Granderson had a mixed season last year, his Batting average and Slugging percentage were suprisingly low considering his 43 Home runs, but he still walked a lot and I would hope that he will improve on his contact rate. Some people think that Granderson is absolutely worthless because he struck out 195 times last year, but honestly I subscribe to the idea that most players make 300-450 outs a year, so does it really matter how they are made? Some people have actually suggested that the Yankees are better off without Granderson, which is completely absurd; Ichiro has a sub .300 OBP and an OPS of .650 and if you ask some people that's apparently better because Granderson strikes out a lot.

Nunez to the DL

The Yankees list of wounded has increased again as they have placed Eduardo Nunez on the DL today due to his left ribcage issue, the team announced. Infielder Alberto Gonzalez will be recalled from Triple-A to take his roster spot. Mark Teixeira has been transferred to the 60-day DL to clear a 40-man roster spot.
The problem was thought to be minor but it ha lingered and the Yankees would like to have a backup infielder, the good news though is that its retroactive to last Sunday so hopefully he only has to spend a little more than a week on the DL. The Yankees acquired Gonzalez a few days ago in a trade with the Cubs for a player to be named later or cash considerations. The Tex thing isn't a huge deal as at this point he wasn't likely to come back until June anyway and just started swinging a bat.

Yankees intend to call up David Adams

When Kevin Youkillis went down with a back injury the Yankees called up Corban Joseph before trading for Chris Nelson to get some infield help. The man playing third base for the AAA Railriders was David Adams was not called up because he had been released to free a 40 man spot and because it was in spring training he could not be called up for thirty days after he had resigned. For those of you asking why he was released it sounds like the Yankees basically had already set up with him that he would resign after his release to clear a 40 man spot and if they had DFA him he could have been picked up off waivers. Kind of a weird situation but Adams had missed most of spring training with a back injury and so he wasn't going to be useful early in the season and the Yankees must have assumed Youk could be healthy for a month and a half, way off on that one. A report out right now is that the Yankees will bring up Adams as soon as he is eligible, which will be this Wednesday  May 15th. Adams has been manning third base regularly but has gotten time at 1st and 2nd this year as well, as well as hitting .325/.411/.494 with two home runs and nine RBI in 23 games at Triple-A this season. The Yankees intend to play him regularly when they do call him up and it will be interesting to see where they play him, it would make sense if he played at 1st with Nelson/Nix at third, but if that was the case I expect that Adams would be playing 1st more in Scranton rather than the two starts he has there this season. We will just have to wait and see what happens, but if Adams gets the call then it probably is the end for Ben Francisco as a Yankee. Fun fact May 15th is also David Adam's Birthday, so getting a call up and start would be a good birthday present.

The end of Derek Jeter?

Derek Jeter’s 2012 season cannot be undersold he was absolutely amazing, I don’t think anybody thought that at age 38 he would possibly hit as well as he did, I did not even realize until I saw the stats but his 216 hits in the 2012 season was the second most in his career as in only once in his 18 year Major League baseball career did he have more hits than in 2012 and that was way back in 1999 when he had 219. That being said everything changed when Jeter broke his ankle in the ALCS, let’s be clear this happened because he played through the pain his ankle had been bothering him all September and instead of resting he got a cortisone shot to keep playing because the Yankees needed him too. Derek said he would be back by opening day and that seemed unlikely because he was coming off a BROKEN ANKLE, and sure enough despite the possibility being raised during spring training Derek wasn’t ready. Then it turned out that he had fractured his ankle in his attempt to be ready and now will be out until at least the all-star break but no return date has been set.

 There are a huge number of problems with this injury beyond the fact that Derek Jeter is not playing with the Yankees and they really could use his bat right now. The biggest problem that comes up is “Can he play Short stop?” I mean Derek hasn’t had good range in years and it’s been especially bad the last three years and now he has a broken ankle on top of that. It would be one thing if Nunez was still throwing the ball away every other play, but his fielding has been pretty good and if we are being honest definitely better than Jeter’s. It’s a monument to Jeter that he has been able to play Short stop for 18 years and it’s the only place he has ever fielded, but I honestly do not think that he can play there on that ankle. The Yankees will probably try him out at Short a bit but I expect that he will mostly DH when he returns, but what about next year? I don’t know if Derek will pick up his player option for next season and it is technically possible that Derek could possible at the end of the year, I expect that he will want to play more after the season and what if he doesn’t want to DH 100 games or if the Yankees say he needs to change positions and he won’t do it, what happens then?  In 2014 the Yankees cannot have the left side of their infield feature a shortstop with a broken ankle and a 3^rd baseman who has had two hip surgeries and both Jeter and A-Rod will likely need to DH frequently anyway. Also Jeter’s speed will likely be completely gone, it happens to most people who break an ankle and it does make me wonder how well Jeter will be in taking the extra base, I expect that he will push himself to do it but it’s very possible that he just won’t be able to anymore.  As of right now this doesn’t impact the Yankees as they need to actually be close to getting The Captain back before we can truly wonder where he will play and what his impact will be, but it’s still in the back of my mind.This off season contract negotiations could end up being a lot more stressful than the one that caused so much controversy in the 2010 off season.

Preston Claiborne called up

Well with Joba Chamberlain going on the Disabled list with an oblique injury the Yankees decided to call up Preston Claiborne and designated Cody Eppley for Assignment to clear a 40 man spot.
Some people were surprised that  top relief prospect Mark Montgomery but apparently the Yankees liked the fact that Claiborne has some more experience in AAA. I don't expect that Claiborne will be anything important, his 10.1 Strike out to walk number is great but its way above his career norm and his overall numbers aren't exactly eye popping. He will likely only be with the team until Joba is back, but its possible that if he impresses he could stay on the roster over somone like Adam Warren or Vidal Nuno.
Eppley's Designation for Assignment isn't a huge surprise as he was not mentioned as an option to be called up by Brian Cashman and unfortunately he is just not a great bullpen piece, as he is a side arming right hander which limits his usefulness to right handers. I wrote this piece last year about Eppley who ended up having a pretty good year with the Yankees last year, mostly paired up with  Clay Rapada. Eppley was great to get ground balls but he really had no future as anything other than an up and down guy. He actually broke camp with the team pitching in two games before being sent down for Phil Hughes, but he was pretty awful in the small sample size. Its possible that Eppley will clear waivers and remain with the Yankees, but having previously proved himself as a useful bullpen piece some team will likely pick him up even if its just to try and put him right back onto waivers to keep him in their system. Best of luck to Claiborne who will apparently wear number 38, which had been Eppleys number