New York Yankees: Roster Crunch Yields International Bonus Money

The New York Yankees have been very active this trade season.  They have already acquired 2-time All-Star Zach Britton and 1-time All-Star J.A. Happ.  Although these two moves were high-profile moves, the Yankees also made a lower profile move that improves their roster flexibility.

J.A. Happ will make his first start for the New York Yankees today.  In order to make room for him on the 25-man roster, someone needed to be removed from it.  As the Yankees already play with a short bench and most of their bullpen has performed very well, Chasen Shreve was the odd man out.  Shreve is out of options to be sent to the minor leagues, so the Yankees found a trade partner for him.

Shreve is a left-handed reliever with some potential, so he would have been very unlikely to pass through waivers if the Yankees removed him from the 25-Man roster.  Brian Cashman was able to salvage Shreve’s value by pairing him with Giovanny Gallegos to acquire Luke Voit and $1 million in international bonus pool money from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Shreve is 2-2 with a 4.14 ERA, a 4.95 FIP, and a 1.49 WHIP through 37.0 innings pitched this season.  The now 27-year-old Shreve was acquired by the Yankees from the Atlanta Braves in 2014 alongside David Carpenter for Manny Banuelos.  According to baseball-reference, Shreve is earning $825,000 in his fourth season with the Yankees.

As the Yankees are looking to make additional moves prior to the trade deadline, moving Shreve’s salary could be an important factor in their goal of staying beneath the $197 million luxury tax threshold.  The Yankees want to stay beneath this amount to reset their penalties for the next time they go over tax threshold.

According to MLB Pipeline’s rankings, Gallegos is currently the Yankees #26 on their top 30 prospects list.  Although he has performed well throughout the MiLB level, and decently in his brief 20 games at the MLB level, the 25 year-old Gallegos may soon be another reliever that would become the odd-man out on the 40-Man roster.

Justus Sheffield (#1 on the Yankees Top 30 Prospects list), Chance Adams (#13), and Juan De Paula (#27) all need to be placed on the 40-man roster prior to December when they will be eligible for the Rule V draft.  The Yankees recent trades with the Blue Jays and Orioles have also helped ease their worries of leaving players open to be selected in the next Rule V draft.

Instead of potentially losing players for nothing, they received veterans to help their playoff run in J.A. Happ and Zach Britton.

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In the trade with the Cardinals, the Yankees received a 27-year-old first baseman that has experience in the outfield at the minor league level.  Although Luke Voit does not have stellar MLB numbers, he holds a .370 on-base percentage and a .458 slugging percentage across his six minor league seasons.  Voit will be a depth piece that could potentially help the Yankees against left-handed pitching while Aaron Judge is out with an injury.

The key piece of the return for the Yankees comes from the $1 million international bonus pool money they received from the Cardinals.

According to Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com, the Yankees could use that money to sign MLB Pipeline’s #9 Top 30 International Prospects list, RHP Osiel Rodriguez.  Rodriguez is a 16-year-old right-handed pitcher out of Ciego de Avila, Cuba.  His fastball already has the potential to reach 97 mph on occasion.  If they can turn two players that did not have room on the 40-man roster into a young prospect with a lot of potential, this trade could be a huge win for the Yankees down the road.

As the Yankees have many of their prospects nearing Rule V draft eligibility, they will need to replenish the farm system with players who are far from eligible for the draft.  This may seem like a small trade right now, but it could help the organization restock their farm system in the long run if they are able to pull off a key signing with the added bonus pool money.