Yankees Add Four To 40-Man Roster; Send Wheeler To Japan

Earlier today, I wrote about the Yankees upcoming decision for their 40 man roster on who they should protect from the upcoming rule V draft. The Yankees had until midnight to decide and here’s what they did:

I had mentioned that Wheeler could be a DFA candidate, but I didn’t expect them to sell his contract. Wheeler hit just .193 in 29 games with the Yankees last season.

I had projected Burawa and Austin being added on. I thought Pinder had a shot. He had pretty good minor league numbers in AAA and you can never have enough good bullpen arms. If David Robertson leaves, Pinder has a shot to make the club. It came down to Pinder and Mark Montgomery and it was troubling that Montgomery was demoted last year. 

The one that surprised me was keeping Williams instead of Kyle Roller. I talked about him earlier today, and I dug a little deeper in this post from last month. Power in this game is hard to come by and someone will take a chance on a right-handed hitter with pop.

Williams once upon a time was a top 100 prospect. Last year, he hit just .223/.290/.304 in AA Trenton with five homers, 40 RBI and 21 steals.