Yankees Player Profile: Kyle Roller

By Ricky Keeler | Mar 2, 2015

One of the small surprises for the New York Yankees this winter was a decision that the front office made as to who would be on the 40-man roster and protected from the Rule V Draft last December. While the Yankees chose to protect the likes of Mason Williams and Tyler Austin, there was one player New York chose to leave unprotected. That player was first baseman Kyle Roller.

With the Yankees lack of depth at first base behind Mark Teixeira in recent years, there were some that thought the 26-year-old should have received a September call-up. Last season, at Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre, he hit .283 with 17 home runs and 51 RBI’s. His 17 homers were second on the team behind Zoilo Almonte (18) and his RBI total was fourth on the team in 104 games.

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When you dissect his 2014 season more closely, Roller was actually a better hitter for average in the second half of the season as he hit .301 in the final 45 games (.270 in the first 59 games). In the month of August, he hit seven home runs and drove in 19 runs in 30 games.

The left-handed first baseman was drafted by the Bronx Bombers in the eighth round of the 2010 MLB Draft out of East Carolina. When he was with the Pirates, Roller had 10+ homers in all four years, including driving in 75 runs in his junior year (2009). Plus, from 2009-2010, he hit above .320.

After hitting five homers in short-season Staten Island during the 2010 season, Roller had 16 combined home runs with low-A Charleston and high-A Tampa during the 2011 season. His 2011 season included being selected for the South Atlantic League All-Star Game.

The two-time MILB Organizational All-Star (2012 and 2014) spent all of 2012 in Tampa, where he hit .266 with 18 home runs and 85 RBI’s. The power would carry over to Trenton, where he hit 17 home runs in double-A the following season.

While Roller’s lefty power is a huge plus, one of the things that stand out on the negative side is the high amount of strikeouts. Yes, baseball doesn’t frown upon strikeout totals compared to past years, but 125 strikeouts in 104 games is somewhat of a concern. The 125 K’s led the team and was top ten in the International League.

Despite the high strikeout totals, Roller was actually the best on the team in drawing walks (48) and was fourth in on-base percentage (.378).

So, when you look at Roller’s chances to make the big club in 2015, it would more likely be as a September callup. However, if Mark Teixeira goes down and Alex Rodriguez can’t handle first base, maybe Roller gets his chance sooner rather than later to put on the pinstripes in the Bronx.

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