Yankees claim right-handed pitcher Jake Barrett from Pirates

While it’s easy pickings these days to talk about how poorly the Yankees are playing or the number of injuries they’ve sustained, I’d rather let you know that the club claimed right-hander Jake Barrett off waivers from the Pirates.

Another day, another Yankees injury. This time it was the oft-injured Troy Tulowitzki. And so, that makes 10 different Bombers already on the injured list.

This MASH unit has played a large part in the club’s less than stellar start and losing record. However, we’re just seven games into the season, and no one is ready to wave the white flag.

So with that, the Yankees claimed 27-year-old right-hander Jake Barrett off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates. To make room for Barrett on the 40-man roster, the Yanks moved Ben Heller, who is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery to the 60-day injured list.

A third-round pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks back in 2012, it wasn’t until this past January that Barrett was designated for assignment and subsequently traded to the Giants for cash considerations. Some 17 days later, Barrett was again DFA’ed by San Francisco, only to be claimed by the Pirates one week later.

And so Barrett will be assigned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre where he’ll get into game shape should a need arise in the big league bullpen. Because this is Barrett’s final minor league option year, he can be shuttled back and forth to Scranton.

Having spent parts of three seasons in the majors, Barrett’s most productive year was his rookie campaign of 2016 when he pitched to a 3.49 ERA, 1.264 WHIP and struck out 56 batters in 59.1 innings.

Barrett pitched almost entirely at Triple-A Reno in 2018, only getting seven major league appearances — moving his career line to 2-4 with a 4.05 ERA, 1.361 WHIP and an 8.5 K/9 across 93.1 innings.

Because of his mid-90’s fastball and mid-80’s slider with decent, yet unspectacular spin rate, it would come as a surprise if Barrett turns into anything more than organizational depth. Even still, we wish him the best of luck.