NY 40 man roster 2022-23

[jon abbey]

This is not about the current 40 man roster but a thread where I can keep an eye on who is rule 5 eligible and who NY might protect, as many of the prospects NY trades are guys who need to go on the 40 man but NY has no room for them.

Here are a handful of names to start, the three pitchers all will need to be protected or dealt and the three position players are all ultra-talented but very far away from the bigs.

SP: Hayden Wesneski, Ken Waldichuk, Randy Vasquez
C: Antonio Gomez
1B: Anthony Garcia
SS: Alexander Vargas

 

[BigMike]

Depending on how the second half goes they may be able to hide Gomez and Vargas for a year. I can't imagine they would be able to hide Garcia, he is a beast

 

[jon abbey]

One guy who has pushed himself into consideration here the last few weeks is TJ Sikkema, the highly regarded lefty that NY took with the #38 overall pick in 2019 that they got for Sonny Gray.

Sikkema was expected to move quickly when drafted as he had been awesome in the SEC (a 1.32 ERA in 88.2 innings his senior year) but he has been hurt repeatedly plus the lost 2020 so he has barely pitched for NY until about two months ago. He finally got on the mound again in early May for high A Hudson Valley, a little low for his age (turns 24 in a couple weeks) but he has literally almost no post-college innings still. Anyway, they have gradually ramped him up, these are his most recent two outings:

4.1 0 0 0 3 8
5 2 1 0 1 11

That last one is still just 64 pitches (11 Ks in 64 pitches!), but hopefully if he keeps this up for a few more starts, he will get a quick promotion or two.

https://www.milb.com/player/t-j-sikkema-674674

 

[jon abbey]

Mike Axisa made a list of guys who might need to be protected this winter, Cashman often trades sone of these guys at the deadline.

Catchers: Josh Breaux, Antonio Gomez, Anthony Seigler

Infielders: Alex Vargas

Outfielders: Anthony Garcia, Ryder Green, Brandon Lockridge

Righties: Juan Carela, Jhony Brito, Matt Sauer, Randy Vasquez, Hayden Wesneski, Tyrone Yulie

Lefties: Edgar Barclay, Matt Krook, T.J. Sikkema, Ken Waldichuk

 

[jon abbey]

One guy who has pushed himself into consideration here the last few weeks is TJ Sikkema, the highly regarded lefty that NY took with the #38 overall pick in 2019 that they got for Sonny Gray.

Sikkema was expected to move quickly when drafted as he had been awesome in the SEC (a 1.32 ERA in 88.2 innings his senior year) but he has been hurt repeatedly plus the lost 2020 so he has barely pitched for NY until about two months ago. He finally got on the mound again in early May for high A Hudson Valley, a little low for his age (turns 24 in a couple weeks) but he has literally almost no post-college innings still. Anyway, they have gradually ramped him up, these are his most recent two outings:

4.1 0 0 0 3 8
5 2 1 0 1 11

That last one is still just 64 pitches (11 Ks in 64 pitches!), but hopefully if he keeps this up for a few more starts, he will get a quick promotion or two.

https://www.milb.com/player/t-j-sikkema-674674

Two weeks later, and... he's gone!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DT7bX-B1Mg

 

[jon abbey]

Sox fans aren't going to like it but Jeisson Rosario is pushing his way into 40 man consideration, very hot in AA in recent weeks, up to a .811 OPS for the season. He turns 23 in October, and NY's upper level OF depth isn't great.

I am sure there are people missing here, but an update anyway, adding Rosario and Greg Weissert (next year's Marinaccio?) and dropping the guys who were traded at the deadline:

================================================

Catchers: Josh Breaux, Antonio Gomez, Anthony Seigler

Infielders: Alex Vargas, Andres Chaparro

Outfielders: Anthony Garcia, Ryder Green, Brandon Lockridge, Jeisson Rosario

Righties: Juan Carela, Jhony Brito, Matt Sauer, Randy Vasquez, Tyrone Yulie, Greg Weissert

Lefties: Edgar Barclay, Matt Krook, Matt Minnick

 

[jon abbey]

Matt Sauer I think won his spot with his epic game tonight in AA, 8 2 1 1 0 17 on just 95 pitches.

He is finally healthy, just 23, not many guys capable of even a single game like that at any level.

 

[jon abbey]

I think as of now NY would protect Breaux, Sauer, Vasquez, Weissert (just added this week).

 

[jon abbey]

I added Minnick last night to the above list of possible protects, today he is promoted to AAA. Next in the line of Marinaccio and Weissert?

View: https://twitter.com/RailRidersTT/status/1563578402078355458

 

[jon abbey]

OK, NY needs to set their 40 man by Nov 18, not so much time. Let's see:

SP (6): Cole, Cortes, Severino (Cashman has said his option will be picked up), Montas, German, Schmidt
RP (14) : Holmes, Loaisiga, King, Marinaccio, Luetge, Peralta, Trevino, Weissert, Abreu, Ridings, Garcia, Gomez, Effross, Gil

C (3): Trevino, Higashioka, Rortvedt
IF (6): Torres, LeMahieu, Peraza, Cabrera, IKF, Donaldson
OF (5): Stanton, Bader, Hicks, Florial, Pereira

That is 34 guys currently on the 40 man, I don't know how many of these guys will be added. I starred some of the more likely ones, soon people who know more about this than me will make their guesses and I'll bump this thread.

================================================

Catchers: Josh Breaux, *Antonio Gomez, Anthony Seigler

Infielders: Alex Vargas, *Andres Chaparro

Outfielders: Anthony Garcia, Ryder Green, Brandon Lockridge, Jeisson Rosario

Righties: Juan Carela, *Jhony Brito, *Matt Sauer, *Randy Vasquez, Tyrone Yulie

Lefties: Edgar Barclay, *Matt Krook, Matt Minnick

================================================

Maybe some of the pitchers, especially since a few of the currently protected ones will go on the 60 day as soon as possible (Effross, Gil), Brito, Sauer, Vazquez. The catchers are all fascinating, Gomez is the most likely to be able to play there in the bigs but the farthest away. Chaparro is a 23 year old Venezuelan 3B who destroyed AA down the stretch this season. He hit a ball 117 MPH in the AFL last year, most major leaguers never hit even one that hard.

Also NY could clear out some of the above 34, Deivi Garcia has been a total waste of a 40 man spot for a while now (sorry Deivi).

 

[jon abbey]

OK, my first few predictions were right, NY added Brito and Krook who would have been eligible for minor league free agency otherwise (Krook is already 28, baseball is tough) and released Locastro.

View: https://twitter.com/YankeesPR/status/1590783899478945792?s=20&t=yVl4dUeWeBA_TRpmlWtlXQ

 

[jon abbey]

NY adds Jimmy Cordero, forgot about him but he has MLB experience, an option left, and was awesome as the AAA closer after NY promoted Weissert.

That brings them to 37, more moves coming.

 

[jon abbey]

NY first signed Cordero last offseason, on his way back from Tommy John. He has sick stuff, here are some highlights from a few years ago before he got hurt:

View: https://twitter.com/MaxTGoodman/status/1474466348831055872


His AAA numbers last year were even more impressive than they look overall, he missed the first few months and had a few rough games early on after having not pitched in a while, and then the final three months, his numbers were:

30 16 7 4 11 41

7 for 7 in saves in the final three weeks of the season, after Weissert was promoted. 1.20 ERA, .90 WHIP, 12.3 K/9, definitely earned this spot, at least for now.

 

[jon abbey]

NY still at 37 spots here, deadline for rule 5 protection is tomorrow at 6 PM ET.

There aren't any easy dumps from the current 37 either, Deivi is out of options and had a 7.96 ERA in AAA this year so maybe him, but the guy who would maybe be bumping him is Matt Sauer, who did have one insane 8 2 1 1 0 17 game late this year in AA, but who was terrible in his other three starts there (most of the year in high A) and is actually four months older than Deivi (still 23!!). Writing all that, hopefully NY has someone better than both earmarked for that spot...

Anyway it's an exciting day (for me anyway, heh) as it's the rare chance that teams are kind of forced to be very publicly open about which of their players they value most, so for instance last year this is when we were first really alerted to take Ron Marinaccio and JP Sears seriously, both added in mid-November last year and both were awesome this year.

I will guess they add the same four I starred above and trade Deivi somewhere for a 19 year old, leaving them at 40 even:

*Randy Vasquez
*Andres Chaparro
*Antonio Gomez
*Matt Sauer

 

[jon abbey]

So NY ends the day at 38 guys on the 40 man, a good sign that more moves are coming soon. Today's moves:

Resign Rizzo
Try to sneak Ridings through waivers, he made it through 27 of 30 teams (all of the AL and 12 of the NL) but the Mets who are desperate for relievers claimed him.
Add Vasquez

So the current 40 man:

SP (9): Cole, Cortes, Severino, Montas, German, Schmidt, Brito, Krook, Vasquez
RP (14) : Holmes, Loaisiga, King, Marinaccio, Luetge, Peralta, Trevino, Weissert, Abreu, Cordero, Garcia, Gomez, Effross, Gil

C (3): Trevino, Higashioka, Rortvedt
IF (7): Rizzo, Torres, LeMahieu, Peraza, Cabrera, IKF, Donaldson
OF (5): Stanton, Bader, Hicks, Florial, Pereira

Clearly they need to add more position players, also Effross and Gil can go on the 60 day IL on the first day of spring training in March and open up two more 40 man spots.

 

[jon abbey]

Rule 5 draft is over, and it went very well for NY. They had 2 guys taken, Greene by the Mets who is an OK relief prospect but not a big loss and a 32 year old reliever who I don't remember hearing about before. They had 5 more guys snatched in the minor league part of the rule 5, but the exciting thing is that all of the guys I was worried about possibly losing did not get taken, giving them another year to potentially develop without being on the 40 man and allowing them to be included as secondary prospects in deals.

So NY retains all of these guys I listed above, I think almost all of these guys would have been bigger losses than the guys who they did lose:

================================================

Catchers: Josh Breaux, Antonio Gomez, Anthony Seigler

Infielders: Alex Vargas, Andres Chaparro

Outfielders: Anthony Garcia, Ryder Green, Brandon Lockridge, Jeisson Rosario

Righties: Juan Carela, Matt Sauer, Tyrone Yulie

Lefties: Edgar Barclay, Matt Minnick

================================================

 

[jon abbey]

NY gets Zach Greene back from the Mets, not sure why they even took him to begin with.

View: https://twitter.com/anthonydicomo/status/1635705906267602949?s=46&t=0GHHaPVUX26Io0V2HIcS0g