The White Sox will designate infielder Wilson Betemit for assignment today so they can call up uber-prospect Gordon Beckham, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the Yanks should try to reacquire Betemit. Sure, we all remember watching him strike out a ton and boot grounders all over the infield, but when Angel Berroa and his .266 OPS occupy a bench spot, almost everyone’s an upgrade. Betemit would give the Yanks something they don’t have right now: power off the bench (.174 IsoP). And as an added bonus, he’s a switch hitter. The only downside is that Betemit’s kinda expensive ($1.3M this year), but that extra cost is worth the upgrade over Berroa. What do you guys think?
The Yanks’ 22-man roster
With the Yanks up 10-3 in the ninth inning last night, Joe Girardi turned the ball over to Jose Veras for the final three outs of the game. Veras, as Mike said, pitched to the score, and it was ugly.
The first batter, Shin-Soo Choo, homered. Then, Jose Veras hit Mark DeRosa with a pitch. After a ground-out, Ben Francisco plated DeRosa with a double. All of a sudden, the Yankees were a Cleveland home run away from a save situation.
For Veras, his appearance capped off a May to forget. After beginning the season with a 5.73 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP in April, Veras has been utterly terrible. This month, he has thrown 8.2 innings and has allowed 11 hits and 8 walks. He has a 7.27 ERA to go with that 2.31 WHIP. Jose Veras is now so bad that the Yanks can’t even trust him in a seven-run game.
Meanwhile, also making an appearance last night was Angel Berroa. The Yanks’ 25th man pinch ran for Matsui and never made it past second base. In his last pinch-running cameo, Berroa was thrown out at the plate by about 15 feet on a foul ball down the line. He earned himself a whopping four at-bats this month and hasn’t done anything.
Finally we arrive at Brett Tomko. Since being called up by the Yanks during the first week of May, Tomko has made five appearances for the team. His last outing was a one-inning effort against the Phillies last Sunday when he gave up a hit and two walks in the 11th. He got the loss and threw just 14 of 30 pitches for strikes.
With these three players rarely used or underperforming to an extreme degree, the Yankees are playing at a peak level with a 22-man roster. At AAA, they have Shelley Duncan, the International League’s leading home run hitter who would give the bench far more pop than Berroa provides. They have Mark Melancon and George Kontos throwing well and throwing strikes for Scranton.
At this point, we don’t even need to offer up more analysis. The Yankees have three dead spots on their roster. They owe nothing to these players, and we’ve seen enough — sometimes by simply seeing nothing at all — to know that they don’t belong anymore. It’s time for the Yankees and Brian Cashman to pull the trigger on these three players. With a full 25-man roster, the first-place Yankees, 16-5 over their last 21 games, could be that much better.
Berroa, Robertson hop on the Scranton shuttle (Update: Melancon too)
Chad Jennings reported a short time ago that Angel Berroa and David Robertson have been summoned to Boston for tonight’s game. Berroa will replace Cody Ransom on the roster, and his call up requires a corresponding 40-man move. We’ll update this post as soon as the Yankees announce it. Robertson replaces Chien-Ming Wang on the 25-man, and either he or Steven Jackson will be sent down on Tuesday when the Yanks call up what I am guessing will be Phil Hughes to make a start.
I wonder if the Yanks considered Eric Duncan for this move as well. While Duncan is no longer considered much of a prospect, he’s hitting .326/.400/.419 in the early going. The Yanks would have had nothing left to lose, and Berroa, 31, is what he is. On the flip side, with Ransom out, by summoning Berroa now, the Yanks can send Ramiro Peña back to the minors when A-Rod is activated in May.
Update 11:37 a.m.: Here’s a great useless number: Angel Berroa has played a grand total of 0.1 innings at third base in his career. It came in this game, and Berroa did not need to field a single baseball. My mini-case for Eric Duncan just grew stronger.
Update by Mike (11:54am): Word from Scranton is that Mark Melancon is also heading to Fenway. Sounds like they found something in Bruney’s MRI this morning. The team will need to make a 40-man move for him as well as Berroa now. We’ll keep you posted.