Yankees reportedly sign slugging catcher after we begged Brian Cashman for trade deadline action

Was Mitch Garver the prize of the trade deadline for New York Yankees fans? Absolutely not. Adley Rutschman was available to in-division squads, apparently. Tyler Stephenson ... yeah, we still don't know why the Reds didn't trade him. But if you can't get Ryan Jeffers, you might as well get the man who played the same role in Minnesota before he arrived, and the Yankees reportedly inked a minor-league deal with Garver on Friday.

Zero risk. Ali Sánchez stays, for the time being, but if he's unsatisfactory and Garver scorches, the Yankees now have options with a simple path to a 40-man spot.

As utterly insane as it sounds to say out loud, the Yankees' options (sans-Jeffers, Stephenson, and Hunter Goodman) essentially equated to an Adley Rutschman overpay, a Joey Bart bargain (his hand was broken in a freak on-field accident against the Red Sox on Thursday), or a waiver wire Garver nab.

Garver it is, per Ted Schwerzler and corroborated by Talkin' Yanks.

Yankees' waiver-wire shopping probably won't end with Mitch Garver

Look around you. The Yankees still have one or two bullpen roles to fill with experienced arms, and while trades have ceased (by law!), DFAs will continue. Matt Strahm of the Kansas City Royals, in the midst of a 7.32 ERA season, is available. Zack Littell - 4.97 mark in Washington - is on the table as well. If either inspires you more than Yerry de los Santos, they're probably worth taking a flier on.

Garver was the most obvious fit of all, though. Despite his season of drudgery, his positive bWAR (0.4!) indicates he's been Austin Wells' equal while out-OPS+'ing him 73 to 57 (again, we're talking about a bleak range here). His .432 OPS at home vs. .731 on the road tells a story of being spooked by Seattle's unfriendly confines. The Yankees will be explicit about righty-lefty matchups, too; Garver got near-equal ABs against both in Seattle and was quite pungent no matter who was throwing him the ball ... but, again, standards have never been lower.

The risk is zero. Garver only has a place laid out for him in Scranton, unless he produces. And while it feels awful the Yankees didn't get definitively better at the deadline, at least they threw a dart at the board after it ended.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow