Yankees: Brian Cashman drops roster decisions and bullpen injury updates

The New York Yankees are heading north in a few…well, minutes, and thanks to the extremely relieving Aaron Judge truth bomb that Aaron Boone dropped way too late in the afternoon, all that’s left to do is cross a few final t’s with the roster.

Or…is there something…more? Could Brian Cashman have an…un-finalized trade up his sleeve?!

Is that what we were waiting for during the arduous break without Judge updates?!?

Well…no. Nope. Cashman hopped onto the Zoom Monday around 3:30 (not what was promised!), and delivered a few important pieces of roster news, but without a bombshell to be found.

First came the official updates on the Yankees’ reliever timelines.

As many of us suspected, Justin Wilson will not be starting the season on the roster, despite making progress over the past few days. Though he didn’t suffer a debilitating injury, he’s very clearly not ready to contribute.

As for the Yankees’ other lost reliever this spring, Cashman dropped a bit of news that many of us would consider hopeful.

Injury timelines are relevant only until…they’re not, but according to Cash, we can expect Zack Britton back in May or early June — which feels relevant for the Luke Voit conversation, too.

The Yankees roster has 25 of its 26 men set.

Then came the roster updates.

Wilson’s spot in the bullpen still hasn’t been claimed, and ranks as the last bit of bookkeeping New York needs to do before Opening Day.

The other two members of the roster will be…hold your breath for a surprise…nope, it’s Tyler Wade and Michael King.

Wade’s roster spot was somehow never even in question after he hit a disappointing (or completely expected?) .170 last season, another in a long line of poor offensive campaigns.

The Yankees, though, did not bring in a single player to truly compete with Wade. Derek Dietrich, the other big-name infielder when camp opened, cannot play shortstop. Gio Urshela’s bizarre reps at the position were the only time Wade’s presence was somewhat threatened, and those can’t be taken seriously.

Even though Wade appeared to be limping a bit (?) on Monday, the roster spot is still his.

But you haven’t seen the last of Derek Dietrich! As many Yankee fans were hoping, both he and the recovering Robinson Chirinos (wrist fracture) will head down to the Alternate Site in lieu of looking for jobs elsewhere. Faced with a similar conundrum, Jhoulys Chacin left the organization instead.

So, how long before we see Dietrich in the bigs? Does he have a new opt-out date? Will the Yankees ever bring in some actual competition for Wade?

Only time will tell.

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