September call ups

Its September and the rosters have expanded so the Yankees called up five players Infielder David Adams, RHP Dellin Betances, LHP Cesar Cabral, RHP Brett Marshall, and C J.R. Murphy. The Yankees will probably call up RHP Preston Claiborne tomorrow and we will have to see if  Zoilo Almonte, Kevin Youkillis or Travis Hafner can return before the end of the year. Betances, Adams and Marshall were already on the 40 man roster but Jayson Nix was moved to the 60 day DL and Melky Mesa was released to make room for Murphy and Cabral. Mesa could have been a call up as a Defensive replacement/pinch runner but he hurt his hamstring and it is apparently serious enough that he would not have been able to help the team in September. Mesa would have likely been Designated for assignment this winter anyways as he would have been out of options, Mesa had great tools but very poor contact ability.

Adams and Betances provide infield and bullpen depth respectively, while Marshall will be a long man which allows Huff to be used as a lefty specialist or for either Huff or Warren to start in case Hughes continues to struggle. None of these guys are going to see any high profile time as long as the Yankees remain in the playoff hunt. If you didn't realize all these guys have been with the big league team at some point this season, in fact Marshall and Adams actually debuted in the same game which I happened to be at.
Cesar Cabral was the Yankees rule 5 draft pick last season from the Red Sox and would have made the team out of spring training over Clay Rapada but he fractured his elbow. He stayed with the organization this season and had overall poor numbers but he has been decent against left handed batters so he gets to be the third lefty in the bullpen.
Murphy is a 22-year old catching prospect who hit very well between Double A and Triple A and has some good reviews about his defense as well. He was going to be added to the 40 man in the off season anyway and they wanted a third catcher for September so this move made a lot of sense. He's a good prospect but don't expect him to get much playing time behind Austin Romine and Chris Stewart.