Yankees: NYY Reportedly Sign Former Red Sox Lefty

The New York Yankees have reportedly signed lefty Fernando Abad.

In 2016, Fernando Abad was a big-time deadline acquisition for the surging potential AL East champion Boston Red Sox, arriving from Minnesota in the nick of time. Four years and many stops later? He’s joining the New York Yankees, reportedly.

Per Jon Heyman, the 34-year-old Abad has signed with the Yankees, following a solid season in San Francisco in 2019, and an unsuccessful tenure with the Nationals in Spring Training.

We didn’t know the bullpen was an area of need, but hey! Can’t complain.

It seems likely that Abad will report to the team’s alternate Summer Camp site in Moosic, PA, especially since we’re less than 24 hours removed from all the machinations that went into getting New York’s 30-man roster all set. That’s a unit, by the way, that’s already overstuffed, waiting on the returns of Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Cessa, and (a bit further behind) Aroldis Chapman, as well as Jordan Montgomery, demoted in name only.

When Abad arrived in the AL East back in ’16, he quickly found that it wasn’t much like Minnesota, posting a 6.39 ERA in 12.2 innings pitched, after a sterling 2.65 mark in a larger sample size with the Twins.

He found his footing in 2017, though, posting a 3.30 mark in 43.2 innings in Boston. Regrettably, his 2018 didn’t go so smoothly. He bounced from the Phillies to the Mets to the Long Island Ducks, exiled after testing positive for Stanozolol and facing and 80-game suspension.

Abad’s an interesting choice, but quite frankly, if the Yankees are looking for ‘pen help, there are some brighter names still available.

What can we say, though? Abad’s worth an audition, and came back from a positive performance-enhancer test to throw the ball very well in the NL West in 2019.

The free agent market was largely forgotten about when the season shut down, but there are still some big names (and fringe starters) lurking. Keep an eye on this 60-man pool movement in the coming weeks.