Lefty reliever Yankees swiped from Twins might have serious spring training juice

As the calendar turned to February, the New York Yankees had two plain holes on their roster. They didn't import a third baseman after shifting Jazz Chisholm back to second, and they didn't have a left-handed reliever on their 40-man roster. Not among the active group. Not stashed at Triple-A. Nobody. Even Anthony Misiewicz was a whiff in the troposphere, gone to Minnesota.

Luckily, on Feb. 4, the Yankees ended our long national nightmare by agreeing to reunite with Tim Hill. They also ended our other nightmare by bringing in a viable third basema -- nope. Sorry, actually have not done that yet.

After Hill's arrival, though, the floodgates swung open. New York imported Brent Headrick from the Twins as part of an ongoing effort to churn the bottom of the 40-man. They also brought in a familiar face in Tyler Matzek to compete for a roster spot as a last-second invitee. Within the first 12 days of February, they'd tripled their collection of viable southpaws.

While Matzek is likely the early favorite to nab a surprise role, Headrick, a reliever who'd gotten so lost in the third base panic that we thought his first name was "Brett" for several weeks, has arrived at Yankees camp on a mission to display his whiff-gathering ability early.

Wednesday's outing against the Cardinals — a banner day for all Yankees, it seemed — featured a remarkable number of whiffs in two innings, as Headrick mostly utilized his rising fastball. The Yankees love a lefty who commands the zone and pitches off the heater, and bonus points if that pitch has impressive movement.

Yankees might have a steal in former Twins lefty Brent Headrick

Headrick likely won't make the Opening Day roster, but there's far more value in the Yankees trying to rehab and exploit a lefty short reliever than there is in trying to turn former top-100 prospect Owen White back into a viable longman of some sort (White was DFA'd in order for the Yanks to claim Headrick).

Now, the next step is to raise the leverage of Headrick's appearances slightly, and mismatch him purposely with some righty hitters to see how he translates in the era of the three-batter minimum.

It's too soon to call Headrick a gem or take Minnesota to task for letting him slip, but it's not too soon to be intrigued by a name that seemed buried just a few weeks ago.