New York Yankees

Yankees Cut Ties with Three Relievers to Kick Off the Offseason

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The New York Yankees have begun the process of clearing space on their 40-man roster by releasing Anthony Swarzak and allowing Blake Parker and Kirby Yates to be claimed on waivers.

The New York Yankees have begun their offseason by ridding themselves of the obvious dead wood on their crowded 40-man roster. They recently released 26-year-old righty J.R. Graham, who managed to make it through the majority of 2016 on the Yankees roster without anyone remembering he was there. On Wednesday the team parted ways with three only slightly more notable relief arms.

The Los Angeles Angels claimed a pair of right-handed relievers from New York on Wednesday, 31-year-old Blake Parker and 29-year-old Kirby Yates, both of whom had been claimed by the Yankees off waivers from the Mariners and Indians respectively earlier in the year. It’s the circle of life as a middle reliever.

Parker was heavily used by the Yankees down the stretch, inexplicably becoming one of Joe Girardi‘s favorite go-to guys in key situations. He did have some success at times, but finished with an ugly 4.96 ERA and 3.94 FIP in 16 appearances. More than anything, I’ll remember him for giving Girardi another excuse to not use Ben Heller and Jonathan Holder as much as he should have.

Sadly, only two Yankees pitchers made more appearances for the 2016 club than Kirby Yates. To his credit, he did an excellent job in the first two months of the season, doing a pretty good Aroldis Chapman impersonation while the Cuban Missile serving his suspension. He finished May with a 2.25 ERA and had a pretty solid case for being the team’s fourth best reliever outside of No-Runs DMC.

The magic wore off pretty quickly in June, however. When Yates was demoted at the end of the month, his ERA had ballooned to 5.72 through 30 appearances. He was called back up in mid-August, but only pitched sporadically down the stretch, mostly in blowouts and junk time.

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The Yankees also announced Wednesday that they have released 31-year-old right-hander Anthony Swarzak, who allowed an eye-popping 10 homers in 31 IP, pitching to a 5.52 ERA and 6.11 FIP overall.

None of these moves come as a major shock. Journeyman relievers tend to be the first on the chopping block when it comes time to free up roster space. New York has a number of top prospects who are Rule 5 eligible this winter who will need to be protected.

GM Brian Cashman announced the first of these additions Wednesday when he acknowledged the team would add 26-year-old catcher Kyle Higashioka to the roster. This first wave of cuts give them some breathing room, but there are likely more on the way.