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Yankees silently lost a fan favorite minor-leaguer to free agency this week

Never got a shot here.
Adam Weinrib
Adam Weinrib

Yanks Go Yard

New York Yankees Photo Day / New York Yankees/GettyImages

Nobody knows what Andrés Chaparro can be at the major-league level. Nobody knows whether his potent bat could help a team desperate for an infusion of offense -- so desperate, in fact, that they're willing to call up rookie after rookie down the stretch in hopes that even a single one latches.

But, if anyone finds out next year, it won't be the Yankees.

After risking it all and leaving Chaparro, a slugging third baseman with an atypical build and sterling exit velocities, unprotected last winter from the Rule 5 Draft, the Yankees lucked out. Nobody else was willing to risk an MLB roster spot on him. New York had gambled on a 20-homer bat with a .963 OPS at Double-A and won.

His 2023 season wasn't quite so exemplary, but by the end of the campaign, he'd fought out of a massive early season homer rut. The counting numbers were there. 25 bombs and 89 RBI at Triple-A. The OPS was down to .775. The strikeouts rose from a remarkably low 54 at Double-A to 131 in Scranton. And (sigh) ... if the Yankees weren't willing to protect him at his peak, why would they protect him after he'd sunk somewhat?

New York sent a fleet of minor-league fillers and once-upon-a-time prospects into minor-league free agency on Tuesday and, hidden in the laundry list, Chaparro elected his freedom.

Yankees send Andrés Chaparro into minor-league free agency

So ... so that's a no on protecting him in the Rule 5 Draft, then?

Also notably on the way out is righty Aaron McGarity, who began the season as a "mystery pitcher" in a primetime spring training contest who immediately surrendered a homer. We dubbed him "McLongball," he saw it, loved it, and gave us the time of day for a little bit. He's a good dude, and here's hoping someone else gives him a shot.

Chaparro is the clearest prospect loss of the group, even though no one in MLB seems willing to take a chance on a bad-body masher who grips it and rips it. Maybe it's time for the righty swinger to put out a memo to executives across the game reminding them the DH spot exists. In both leagues now, actually.

Man, right-handed, swings from his heels ... how did the Yankees not give this guy a shot?

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib is a Content Director on the FanSided network, and has been the co-editor at Yanks Go Yard for 6 years. He also co-hosts The Baseball Insiders Podcast thrice weekly, alongside FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray, as well as the Yanks Go Yard Podcast. Previously, he was a Senior Editor at 12up.com, and has been covering MLB and NFL for 10 years. He was also a headline and features contributor at ClickHole and Onion Sports, as well as the Associate Producer of the ESPN 30 for 30 film "Believeland". An avowed fan of the New York sports teams -- specifically the Yankees -- as well as the North Carolina Tar Heels, you can find Adam complaining mid-game on Twitter, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn if the game goes really poorly.