Yankees Outright Antoan Richardson

On Monday afternoon, the New York Yankees did a small bit of roster re-shuffling as they outrighted Antoan Richardson. He had the option of staying with the Yankees’ as a member of the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Railriders, but has elected to choose free agency. The 31-year-old was only with the Yankees this past season. He was signed by New York as a minor-league free agent in November of 2013 after playing with the San Francisco Giants, Atlanta Braves, and Minnesota Twins’ minor league organizations. He did play in nine games for the Atlanta Braves back in September of 2011.

The 35^th round pick in 2005 out of Vanderbilt got his chance to play with the New York Yankees this September when the roster expanded. In 13 games, he went 5-for-16 with no home runs and one run batted in. The Yankees mainly used him as a pinch-runner as he stole five bases without being caught. 

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Of course, the one thing that Richardson will always be remembered for is the night of Jeter’s final home game. In the bottom of the ninth inning, he pinch-ran for Jose Pirela after his leadoff single. He would later score on Derek Jeter’s walk-off RBI single.

In Scranton last season, Richardson hit .271 with three home runs and 22 RBI in 93 games. Some aspects of Richardson’s game that stood out in Triple-A were that he walked 33 times (fifth on the team) and stole 26 bases in 27 attempts. Those stolen bases were 11 higher than the second most on the team (Pirela with 15).

The outfielder from the Bahamas had most of his starts in center field, where he made six errors in 79 games. Richardson had the speed, but the bat hasn’t been quite there for a player who has spent ten seasons in either the minor leagues or independent leagues.