Following the Yankees’ 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, the Yankees announced that they have optioned Tyler Austin to AAA Scranton/Wilkes Barre.
Roster Move: Following tonight’s game, the Yankees optioned 1B Tyler Austin to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) June 15, 2018
This move was not entirely unexpected, but it may have caught some by surprise. Austin was the opening day first baseman in Greg Bird’s place, and has remained on the 25-man roster the entire duration of the regular season until now.
It was a big surprise when Ronald Torreyes was the guy sent down upon Greg Bird’s return. It is not that the move made no logical sense, but that Torreyes is so beloved in the clubhouse, and has been so good in his bench role.
Tyler Austin rewarded the Yankees for their vote of confidence by giving them virtually nothing in the interim. He has been in a huge slump since the Kansas City series a couple weeks back, although he did go 1-2 with a walk in his final game before the demotion.
The Yankees were able to use Masahiro Tanaka’s injury as a work-around for a straight sub of Torreyes for Austin, which would have been seen as an admission of a mistake by the front office.
When Tanaka went down, Torreyes was called up because they wouldn’t need to call up Tanaka’s replacement for a few days. They rolled with a four-man bench for a few days, and now will send down Tyler Austin in exchange for Jonathan Loaisiga, who is starting in Tanaka’s place for at least one turn through the rotation.
The Yankees calling up “Johnny Lasagna” is an intriguing move that might not make sense to some fans. Loaisiga has not pitched at AAA this year, and the Yankees have seemingly “better” options within the organization.
The answer is actually fairly simple. The Yankees placed the 23-year-old Loaisiga on the 40-man roster last offseason in order to prevent him from being taken in the Rule 5 Draft. Therefore, in order to add him to the MLB roster, they do not have to designate anyone for assignment, like they would have had to do to bring someone like David Hale up, who is not currently on the 40-man roster.
Additionally, while the Yankees like Loaisiga a lot—enough to prevent other teams from taking him this offseason—he is not one of their top-tier pitching prospects, so they aren’t as worried about potentially messing with his development as they might be for a guy like Justus Sheffield, one of the premier left handed pitching prospects in baseball.
Loaisiga was also lined up to start on the same day as Tanaka anyway, so that makes things easier.
Loaisiga’s story is pretty cool. The San Francisco Giants took a chance on him as an 18-year-old international free agent in 2013, but was cut, all the while dealing with a handful of injuries (he even had Tommy John Surgery). Loaisiga started playing in the Yankees’ system in 2016.
He spent 2017 in rookie ball and Low-A, started 2018 with four starts in High-A, and made six starts in AA Trenton. Now, he will start for the Yankees on Friday night against the Tampa Bay Rays.
I’m excited to see how he does.
Featured Image via Flickr/Arturo Pardavila III
