3 relievers you forgot the Yankees signed who could make an impact in 2024

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Promise me this. Look me in the eyes and promise me you saw Ian Hamilton coming when the Yankees inked him to a minor-league pact prior to the 2023 season. Pledge you knew -- just knew -- that Lucas Luetge would have an outsized impact on the big-league club after joining the team on a whim following several years out of the league.

You didn't. You didn't know. But the Yankees saw something.

Each and every season in recent years under Brian Cashman and Matt Blake, a name or two emerges from the ranks of the minor-league deals to wow at spring training, either with a new pitch (Slambio!) or with refined versions of their existing arsenal. Love him or hate him, even closer Clay Holmes was roster fodder once upon a time, traded over from the Pirates on a lark because Pittsburgh didn't want to deal with his 4.93 ERA/1.43 WHIP. It's barely a "hot take" to predict the Yankees will end up relying on a name that emerges from their fleet of minor-league pacts in 2024.

After checking the Yankees' minor-league transactions log, three names immediately jump out as potential contributors -- and that doesn't even include Matt Gage, the intriguing lefty who was just picked up and traded for Caleb Ferguson. Yeah, the signings went pretty deep.

Here are three names the Yankees' next gem could be, but who are we kidding? It'll probably be someone even more random and harder to spot.

3 forgotten relievers who could be Yankees' next Ian Hamilton on minor-league deals.

Nick Burdi

31-year-old Nick Burdi -- not to be confused with his brother Zack -- was (say it with me now) a Pittsburgh Pirate, once upon a time.

Burdi, the Minnesota Twins' second-round pick in the 2014 draft, ran into injury issues and was eventually thieved by the Bucs in the 2017 Rule 5 Draft. To say he's dealt with "poor injury luck" would be the understatement of the millennium. During his time in the 'Burgh, he underwent surgery to relieve thoracic outlet syndrom, which is often a killer for pitchers of all shapes and sizes. He then recovered from that ... only to trip directly into Tommy John surgery at the end of 2020, the second such procedure of his career.

To add injury to injury, he made a stunning comeback with the Cubs last season, only to see his big-league promotion felled by an emergency appendectomy. The fact that he made it back at all from a second Tommy John/thoracic outlet is noteworthy. Making it back by whiffing 19 men in 10 2/3 innings at Triple-A Iowa with a 3.38 ERA? That takes guts. Burdi's career isn't over quite yet, and if any team's going to reap the rewards from his pedigree this year, it'll be the Yankees.

Duane Underwood Jr.

You're not going to believe this, but Duane Underwood Jr. also used to pitch for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He toiled as a significant part of the Buccos' bullpen in 2021 and 2022 before falling off in 2023, leaving him ripe for the plucking on a minor-league deal despite throwing a largely effective 130 innings the previous two seasons. Hey, nobody ever said bullpen roles weren't fungible!

Underwood Jr.'s 2022 was particularly noteworthy. The sinker-changeup specialist was extremely effective at limiting hard contact, ranking in the 97th percentile for barrel percentage, as well as the 82nd percentile in ground ball percentage. Walks were his bugaboo; the 25 free passes he allowed in 57 1/3 innings helped his WHIP balloon to 1.45.

Below the surface, though, his 4.40 ERA looked a lot more like his 2.92 FIP, making Underwood Jr. the Anti-Wandy. The "other shoe" simply never dropped -- in a positive direction. The righty's 2023 season fell apart both in the bigs and at Triple-A, and he was unable to parlay a still-impressive ground ball rate into any sort of success. That said, the Yankees are certainly betting they can be the ones to uncover what makes him tick. Would you bet against them?

Yerry De Los Santos

Surely, Yerry De Los Santos didn't also come directly from the Pira -- HE DID?!

The 26-year-old hard-throwing right-hander is the easiest pick to click of the bunch considering it isn't even really clear why Pittsburgh dismissed him in the first place.

De Los Santos posted a 3.33 ERA in 24 1/3 big-league innings for last year's Pirates, allowing just a single home run and striking out 18 (and walking, yes, 13). He wasn't hittable, but he was prone to surrendering free passes. If he performed solidly at the big-league level, it stands to reason that he dominated the minor-league lev -- oh. Oh, I see here that he posted a 6.12 ERA, allowing 42 hits in 25 frames at Triple-A Indianapolis. What's ... all that about?

You don't have to look terribly far back to find minor-league dominance on De Los Santos' resume, but it's getting further in the rear view every day. Pre-pandemic, in 2019, he posted one of the all-time excellent relief seasons at Single-A Greensboro, whiffing 73 men in 50 innings, allowing just 32 hits and 12 free passes, and posting a 1.44 ERA as the Grasshoppers' primary closer.

Unfortunately, the fully realized version of the erratic De Los Santos hasn't looked quite as promising -- though, again, what are the PIRATES doing cutting bait on a hard-thrower who held his own last season (in the bigs, but certainly not at Triple-A). He might be the Yankees' most obvious redemption candidate ... which is exactly why it won't be him, but rather someone else entirely who doesn't appear on this list and hasn't even been signed yet.

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3 forgotten relievers who could be Yankees' next Ian Hamilton on minor-league deals.

Nick Burdi

Duane Underwood Jr.

Yerry De Los Santos

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