Armando Galarraga Headed to the Yankees As Minor League Instructor

According to Erik Boland of Newsday, the New York Yankees have hired former major league pitcher Armando Galarraga as a minor league pitching instructor.

As Boland so kindly noted, Armando Galarraga is best remembered for his perfect game that wasn’t on June 2, 2010 thanks to a blown call by first base umpire Jim Joyce.

Anyway, we’re all human and the past is the past, but this is a rather interesting decision by the New York Yankees.

The 34-year old Armando Galarraga decided to hang up his cleats last December after a few stints in international leagues, but he last pitched in the MLB in 2012. As a six-year MLB veteran, pitching with the Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, Arizona Diamondbacks and Houston Astros, he finished his MLB career with a record under .500 (26-34) and a rather high 4.78 ERA. As a matter of fact, his only winning season came in 2008 when he pitched to a 13-7 record with a single season best 3.73 ERA as a member of the Detroit Tigers.

His major league resume isn’t all that impressive, and though he has no ties to the New York Yankees, Galarraga will now focus his career on coaching and minor league player development in the Yankees farm system.

The Yankees minor league coaching staff will have a rather different outlook this summer. Former Yankee slugger Marcus Thames was promoted from the minors to the Yankees major league staff at the assistant hitting coach and long-time Yankees minor league pitching coordinator Gil Patterson left the Yankees to return to Oakland amongst other minor league coaching transactions.

Galarraga will have the luxury of working with top Yankees pitching prospects such as James Kaprielian, Ian Clarkin, and Brady Lail just to name a few.

Hopefully the first-time minor league pitching coach can continue to develop the future of Yankees pitching.