Today the New York Yankees have acquired from the San Deigo Padres outfielder Greg Allen, putting the Yankee’s own veteran, Brett Gardner, in even more jeopardy for his return to Yankees Stadium. Joel Sherman, an MLB.com baseball insider, has reported that this afternoon the Yankees reached a trade deal with the Padres that will bring Greg Allen to the Yankee for James Reeves, a former 10th round pick of the Yankees back in 2015. The lefty pitcher has mostly served as a reliever for the Bombers in their minor league system, making it as high as Triple-A in 2018. He owns a career 2.30 ERA and 1.06 WHIP across 137 minor league games.
This move should dull the news that the Yankees might be considering Yasiel Puig. With the trade for Allen, it makes the second outfield backup move that the Yankees have made, earlier signing Socrates Brito to a minor league deal to provide the team with depth. With these new additions, it makes one wonder what lies ahead for the future of Brett Gardner and Mike Tauchman.
Allen came to the Padres in the Mike Clevinger deal but only played in one game. In 2020 he got one home run and batted just .154. In his career for the Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres, he has a batting average of .239 with just eight home runs over his four years in the majors. Neither of these additions seem not to be upgrades over either Gardner or Tauchman. It’s hard to understand some of the moves the New York Yankees have made this offseason while they seem to be doing nothing of substance while they play wait and see if they can re-sign DJ LeMahieu.