Yankees announce latest round of roster cuts and part with former closer

We’re getting closer and closer, New York Yankees fans.

Opening Day is almost a week away and we’ll know who will comprise the 26-man roster in days. Yes, single-digit days.

The Bombers took one step toward that goal by cutting four players on Wednesday after their loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Two outfielders and two pitchers have been reassigned to minor league camp.

Not a whole lot of analysis here. Outfielders Socrates Brito and Ryan LaMarre were never expected to break camp, especially after Brett Gardner re-signed. The minor league deals for Jay Bruce and Derek Dietrich didn’t help those guys either. Starter Asher Wojciechowski was likely signed as an emergency arm in the event the Yanks are short at any point during the regular season.

As for Kyle Barraclough, well, some fans thought he’d potentially be able to make some noise given his previous success in MLB coupled with the loss of Zack Britton for three months and Justin Wilson probably for a few weeks.

However, it appears missing all of 2020 affected the right-hander, who’s gotten tagged this spring for five runs (four earned) on two hits and a mind-boggling 10 walks in four games (6.2 innings). That’s a 5.40 ERA, 1.80 WHIP and .095 batting average against. Hard to say it’s common to see that assortment of stats lumped together.

The Yankees demoted Kyle Barraclough on Wednesday.

With younger guys like Nick Nelson, Michael King and Jonathan Loaisiga in addition to Tyler Lyons and Lucas Luetge out-performing Barraclough significantly, this move was simply one that had to be made.

Unfortunately for Barraclough, his days with the Miami Marlins couldn’t save him. From 2015-2018, the right-hander logged a 3.21 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and 279 strikeouts in 227 games (218.2 innings) for the Fish. He added 11 saves after serving as the closer for part of 2018. He seemed to have rebounded a bit with the Giants across 10 games in 2019 after a disastrous 33 games with the Nationals, but alas, here we are.

Barraclough was always going to have to stand out to make an impression among the Yankees’ stacked bullpen, but now he’ll have a different role, whether in New York or elsewhere, in 2021.

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