The Yankees made some adjustments to their 40-man roster to prepare for the Rule 5 Draft.
Yesterday, Jason wrote a helpful article detailing all the Yankees' candidate for the upcoming Rule 5 Draft. Today was the deadline for teams to add players to their roster in order to protect them from being chosen, as the Rockies did with former Yankees prospect Tommy Kahnle last year. Rule 5 candidate must stay on the major league roster all of the next year to remain with their new organization; if they are cut, they are returned to their original teams. So who did the Yankees choose to protect?
#Yankees add OF Tyler Austin, RHP Danny Burawa, RHP Branden Pinder and OF Mason Williams to the Major League roster.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) November 20, 2014
Austin is the least surprising of the bunch, as he was terrific in the second half for Trenton this year, perhaps finally demonstrating that he's over the wrist injuries which plagued his 2013 campaign. Burawa and Pinder are a bit odder selections, but still understandable. The Yankees saw Kahnle pitch well in Colorado after letting him go for nothing, and while Burawa and Pinder probably aren't quite as good as Kahnle was in the minors last year, it still doesn't hurt too much to protect them, especially with openings in the big league bullpen. Not protecting strikeout machine Mark Montgomery was strange in light of this, but the Yankees know him a lot better than we do. They've soured on him the past couple years due to injury struggles, a high walk rate, and even showing up to camp out of shape. Someone will probably claim him, but so it goes.
Protecting Mason is... interesting to be kind. Williams was once considered among the best prospects in the Yankees' system, if not *the* best, but he has been pretty dreadful for a couple years now. Although a team probably would have scooped him up if he was unprotected since scouts still rave about his tools, would that have really been so bad? Williams has shown a complete inability to hit pitching above A-ball (he wasn't that great in High-A either), and the Trenton outfield is likely to be crowded next year anyway. Is holding onto Mason for this long really worth the long-shot payoff? Who knows.
In other news, to clear up one of the spots on the 40-man roster, the Yankees sold infielder Zelous Wheeler to Masahiro Tanaka's old team:
#Yankees sell the rights of INF Zelous Wheeler to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Pacific League.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) November 20, 2014
Wheeler was just infield depth, so it's not a big loss. Still, he was a fun bench addition to the team, and it watching him homer in his first career start was pretty awesome. Good luck in Japan, Zelous!
What do you think about the Yankees' 40-man additions?
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