Yankees: 3 free agents NYY can likely sign after Spring Training begins

2. Oliver Drake

The Yankees could plunder from the Rays bullpen with the well-traveled Oliver Drake.

If the free agency process in general is the eternal tour through Willy Wonka’s factory, then the reliever market this offseason has been the chocolate river, moving like abject sludge through the floor.

Elite relievers like Brad Hand were deemed expendable luxury items, and remain unsigned. 2019 stars like Kirby Yates still haven’t found their foothold — and haven’t really been included in the slowly-churning rumor mill.

So where does that leave unheralded players like Oliver Drake, who never really got his just desserts for being unlocked by the Rays in 2019? Forgotten, likely until teams gather for the upcoming campaign.

Drake, nicknamed “Bucko” according to Baseball Reference (love it), finished an up-and-down 2020 season (mostly down) by suffering a flexor strain during the ALDS against the Yankees, and was sliced off the 40-man roster shortly thereafter. That felt like an inevitable blow, though. After all, does any team find relievers to be more fungible than the Rays?

The year prior, Drake rode his splitter to an all-time Rays redemption campaign after being property of the (clears throat) Brewers, Indians, Angels, Blue Jays and Twins in 2018. He posted a 3.21 ERA, only allowed 36 hits in 56 innings, and struck out 70 men that year, finally finding a home — one which he has now lost.

Drake has seemingly been lost in a shuffle this offseason that’s lost plenty more prominent bullpen arms, too. Don’t be surprised if he remains on the market into the new campaign.