Yankees' Oswald Peraza grand slam can't erase brutal start to 2024 Triple-A season

Remember last summer after Ron Marinaccio was demoted, and his numbers were so jaw-droppingly awful that we felt it was necessary to call attention to it as a service? Current Yankees infield depth piece Oswald Peraza was very much in a similar boat after returning from injury ... until Tuesday night, that is.

Now, we'll soon find out whether Tuesday's impressive RailRiders victory represented a turning point or a blip on the radar for Peraza.

Prior to Tuesday's start of a new week of action against Rochester, Peraza checked in at a powerless .145 in 27 games, hitting three homers but just one additional extra-base hit (a lone double). Thanks to the minor-league requirement that all teams take Monday off before diving headlong into a new series, Peraza got a chance to clear his head, a la Anthony Rizzo, with a reset and breather.

It appears to have, at least temporarily, worked. Peraza started off the action Tuesday with a well-struck granny to left field on a hanging breaking ball. In all, he went 3-for-5 on the day, adding a pair of singles to his tater.

Yankees infield prospect Oswald Peraza buoyed Triple-A line with long-awaited grand slam

Once upon a time, Peraza felt like Gleyber Torres' most likely successor, rising through the ranks as a Top 100 prospect. His MLB debut, which came in the ninth inning of a blowout loss at Tropicana Field as a pinch hitter, should've tipped all of us off that his Yankees tenure wouldn't go quite as smoothly as predicted.

Now, battling back from one more injury indignity, he's likely behind Caleb Durbin on the future second base depth chart -- who would be his current teammate, if not for an unfortunate accident at the plate.

There's still hope, of course. Marinaccio's numbers looked powerfully hopeless last summer, but he's turned it around after finding the strike zone and is back to being a valued big-league contributor, someone Yankee fans complain about when he disappears. Tuesday could be the fork in the road moment for Peraza. Or, instead, it could be just another time we all got our hopes up.