NY 60 man roster

jon abbey

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So the rumor is that this year will have 30 players active per game with a 20 man taxi squad. Obviously there is tons to figure out here (Does everyone on the 40 man have to be part of this 50 man active squad? Mike Axisa thought no when he did this exercise in April but I am guessing yes.) So this is the current 40 man to start, 39 actually because I put Severino on the 60 day DL.

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SP (13): Cole, Paxton, Tanaka, Happ, Montgomery, Loaisiga, King, Garcia, Gil, Medina, Yajure, Abreu, Nelson

RP (9): Chapman, Britton, Ottavino, Kahnle, Green, Cessa, Holder, Heller, Kriske

C (2): Sanchez, Higashioka

IF (8): Torres, LeMahieu, Voit, Urshela, Estrada, Andujar, Ford, Wade

OF (7): Judge, Stanton, Hicks, Tauchman, Gardner, Frazier, Florial

Suspended: German

Out for the season: Severino

=============================

Let's add to that:

Chris Iannetta
Erik Kratz
Chris Gittens
Kyle Holder
Zack Granite
Rosell Herrera
Chad Bettis
David Hale
Tyler Lyons
Dan Otero
Clarke Schmidt

We noticed that NY cut Hale inexplicably but it turns out it was just a paperwork thing and he is still in the organization.

https://nypost.com/2020/04/03/david-hale-bombarded-with-scary-texts-that-yankees-cut-him/
So my quick shot at a 50 man roster is:

=============================

SP (14): Cole, Paxton, Tanaka, Happ, Montgomery, Loaisiga, Schmidt, King, Garcia, Gil, Medina, Yajure, Abreu, Nelson

RP (13): Chapman, Britton, Ottavino, Kahnle, Green, Cessa, Holder, Heller, Hale, Bettis, Lyons, Otero, Kriske

C (4): Sanchez, Higashioka, Iannetta, Kratz

1B: (3) Voit, Ford, Gittens

2B/SS/3B: (7): Torres, LeMahieu, Urshela, Estrada, Wade, Holder, Herrera

OF (9): Judge, Stanton, Hicks, Tauchman, Gardner, Andujar, Frazier, Granite, Florial

Suspended: German

Out for the season: Severino

=============================
 

jon abbey

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Bumping this and changing the title from 50 to 60...

So as best I've gathered, teams will have:

1) A 30 man roster to start the season, which later drops to 28 and then 26.
2) The remainder of the 40 man roster.
3) 20 additional players as part of a 'taxi squad', so 60 total, and those 60 are the only players who can be used this season (this last part seems a bit odd, what if a team has a lot of injuries and Covid problems, but maybe there are exceptions for extreme cases.)

Since the actual MLB teams and the taxi squads will likely be the only way for players to get real reps in for at least the next few months, initial reports are that teams will add 5-10 of their top prospects to the back of the 60 man team, just for the experience/development and planning not to use them. NY can't do this quite as much because they already have a bunch of those guys on the 40 man:

Gil
Medina
Yajure
Florial

But I would add a few at least, including 17 year old man-child Jasson Dominguez. Oswald Peraza is another, and Kevin Alcantara, Ezequiel Duran and Alexander Vargas are all already top 100 MLB prospects on Fangraphs, so maybe that's five more position players. I'll also add 5 more depth arms:

Luis Avilan
Nick Tropeano
Tony Zych
Trevor Lane
Kaleb Ort

So a 30 man Opening Day roster, assuming all are healthy including Judge (I will believe this when I see it):

=============================

SP (6): Cole, Paxton, Tanaka, Happ, Montgomery, Loaisiga

RP (9): Chapman, Britton, Ottavino, Kahnle, Green, Cessa, Holder, Heller, Hale

C (2): Sanchez, Higashioka

1B: (2) Voit, Ford

2B/SS/3B: (5): Torres, LeMahieu, Urshela, Estrada, Wade

OF (6): Judge, Stanton, Hicks, Tauchman, Gardner, Andujar

Suspended: German

Out for the season: Severino

=============================

Clint Frazier is a tough cut but not sure what else to do, I don't think you can bump a 5th infielder (Estrada) for a 7th outfielder (Clint), and Mike Ford was just too good last season (the single best hitter in all of MLB against LHP, just ahead of JDM, despite Ford hitting lefty).

Bettis also is a perfect guy to keep around as a swing man but not sure who he could replace.

=============================

Taxi squad (players 31-60) (starred players are prospects who NY would probably prefer not to bring up this year):

SP (9): Bettis, Schmidt, King, Garcia, , Abreu, Nelson, *Gil, *Medina, *Yajure
RP (8): Lyons, Otero, Kriske, Avilan, Tropeano, Zych, Lane, Ort
C (2): Iannetta, Kratz
1B (1): Gittens
2B/SS/3B (5) Holder, Herrera, *Peraza, *Duran, *Vargas
OF (5): Frazier, Granite, *Florial, *Dominguez, *Alcantara

=============================

At first glance, that might seem a bit thin for position players, but there are 22 listed there (not counting the asterisked prospects) and only 24 position players got PAs for NY in 2019 in a full 162 game season, so I think it's ok.

And that is 27 usable arms even without counting Abreu/Nelson, both of whom I think could be potentially used also. NY used 30 pitchers last season (not counting position players) but 8 of those 30 were under 5 innings and again, that was a 162 game season.
 

jon abbey

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Maybe Austin Wells makes it too, but only if he signs soon, because the deadline to set the 60 man rosters are Sunday.
 

jon abbey

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Chad Bettis retired today, forgot he is coming back from cancer, so he’s off the list.
 

jon abbey

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Austin Wells just signed for almost exactly slot ($2.5M), wouldn’t be surprised if he’s on the 60 man roster as I said above.
 

jon abbey

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NY has a seemingly endless set of power RHH currently (like the Bugs Bunny cartoon come to life) but still very little LH power despite their ballpark, so I think Wells might be one of their best lefty pull power options already, even at 20 and just signed today. These are the other lefty hitters I have above.

Aaron Hicks (as Verlander can testify to)
Mike Ford
Brett Gardner
Mike Tauchman
Tyler Wade
Estevan Florial

People are comparing Wells to Schwarber, I will be surprised if he is not on the 60 man team and don't think he'd be entirely off limits for some lefty DH ABs in an emergency.
 

jon abbey

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OK, Mike Axisa took a shot at the 60 man roster today. Since NY doesn't seem to be giving reporters any guidance on this, and since Mike and I are the only two people I know who took a shot at this, let's see our differences and who ends up doing better when they announce it on Sunday, me or the guy making about $1000 a week posting twice on Patreon (1936 patrons at $2/month). We have 54 overlapping, 6 differences.

Axisa:

Wynston Sawyer
Josh Thole
Hoy Jun Park
Roansy Contreras
Alex Vizcaino
Domingo German (this is an odd one as he is suspended 63 games which would last until 3 games into the postseason. He would be on my list if he had to be to be activated for the postseason, but the rules here are unclear currently.)

Me:

Chris Gittens
Oswald Peraza
Kevin Alcantara
Ezequiel Duran
Alexander Vargas
Kaleb Ort

I love Contreras and Vizcaino and they both would need to be added to the 40 man next winter, so those two make sense. Dunno about six catchers instead of the four I took, but I guess we'll see.
 

jon abbey

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Also neither of us put TJ Sikkema on but he was a supplemental #1 pick in 2019 and has SEC experience as a lefty reliever, he was expected to move fast and is 22 next month, so throw him in the mix.
 

BigMike

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NY has a seemingly endless set of power RHH currently (like the Bugs Bunny cartoon come to life) but still very little LH power despite their ballpark, so I think Wells might be one of their best lefty pull power options already, even at 20 and just signed today. These are the other lefty hitters I have above.

Aaron Hicks (as Verlander can testify to)
Mike Ford
Brett Gardner
Mike Tauchman
Tyler Wade
Estevan Florial

People are comparing Wells to Schwarber, I will be surprised if he is not on the 60 man team and don't think he'd be entirely off limits for some lefty DH ABs in an emergency.
One good thing on Wells, is it gives you a depth bullpen catcher. Even if there is no chance he'd ever play the position. If you have 17 pitchers on you taxi squad, they are going to have to throw a ton, and even potentially 2 taxi squad catchers may not be enough. So you add Wells, and you can spend time both developing the pitchers, and also developing his catching skills.
 

jon abbey

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OK, NY has announced a 58 man roster, neither Mike nor I did especially well. One thing to note is they signed Matt Duffy, who played last year with TB and was in camp with TEX.

 

jon abbey

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So NY didn't add any position player prospects and just Vizcaino among non-40 man pitcher prospects. They have 25 position players and 33 pitchers currently on there. I had 22 of the position players correct, plus Duffy and Max McDowell (another C) who they just signed and Josh Thole (another C). I had 32 pitchers, the ones I missed:

Domingo Acevedo (an old fave, welcome back)
Daniel Alvarez (AA closer last year)
Adonis Rosa (came up briefly last year)
Alex Vizcaino

No Trevor Lane, Kaleb Ort (minor league relievers) or Chad Bettis (retired).

So I got 51 of 60 and six of the nine I missed were young position player prospects far away from being to help. Also poor Chris Gittens continues to get no respect, all he did last year was be the MVP of the AA Eastern League. It's tough out there for a RHH 1B.
 

jon abbey

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Matt Duffy put up a 2.9 bWAR in 2018 with TB, mostly as a 3B but has played a bit of SS and 2B in an emergency too (Urshela had a 3.9 bWAR last year by comparison). If Duffy bumps Estrada from the 30 man roster, the infield depth chart would look like:

1B: Voit, Ford, maybe Andujar?
2B: LeMahieu, Wade
SS: Torres, Wade
3B: Urshela, Duffy
 

jon abbey

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I haven't really kept this up, but NY just signed lefty reliever Ryan Buchter for the 60 man squad.