The New York Yankees announced on Saturday that they have officially signed Brett Gardner to his new contract. They also announced that they were DFA’ing reliever Stephen Tarpley. The move was a bit surprising, but not completely unexpected.
Tarpley bounced around a bit between AAA and the MLB due to his ineffectiveness against righties the past two seasons. He was one of the best lefty on lefty pitchers in baseball.
Lefties had just a .164 average against Tarpley, while righties had a .378 average against him. He was giving up hits to almost 2/5 of righties, which can’t happen.
With the new three batter minimum rule, it makes guys like Tarpley have trouble finding a job. The likelihood of three lefties appearing in a row are very slim, and it doesn’t leave him a spot in the bullpen because of the three batter minimum. Without this rule, he would have a job pretty easily.
Since the Yankees are only DFA’ing him, there is still a chance that he could remain with the organization. Other teams may not want to bite on a lefty specialist, giving the Yankees that chance to retain him.
If the Yankees do indeed keep him, they will likely sign him to a minor league deal and give him an invite to Spring Training. He could develop his skills against righties and learn new pitches, and if he shows progress in AAA then the team could reconsider him for the 40-man roster.
The Yankees are still pursuing Josh Hader in a trade, and he’d take Tarpley’s spot if acquired. He’s a lefty as well, but can retire batters on both sides of the plate.