The New York Yankees announced on Wednesday that they have traded reliever Stephen Tarpley for third base prospect James Nelson of the Miami Marlins. Tarpley was recently DFA’d by the team.
The lefty from Los Angeles, California had a 5.88 ERA in 31 career games. He was DFA’d with the new three batter minimum rule, since he is considered a lefty specialist. Batters hit just .146 from the left side compared to .378 from the right side. There was just no real reason to keep him on the 40-man roster.
Miami should be a nice fit for Tarpley. He will be able to get consistent major league appearances while figuring things out in a low pressure environment. With Miami picked last in the NL East, they are looking for relievers. Good luck to him there.
The Return:
James Nelson is, well…… a prospect. I would of thought that the Yankees would of done much better, unless they see something we don’t.
In 2016 and 2017, Nelson had success in rookie ball and A-full season, batting .284 and .309 respectively. He was called up to high-A afterwards and has stayed there since. He hit .211 in 2018 and .228 in 2019. The power really isn’t there either, just 14 career home runs and seven of them were in one season.
He had five stolen bases last season, so I guess that’s…… something.
Nelson is an awful fielder to say the least. He made less than 89% of plays at third, 35 errors in 119 games. That’s an error every three to four games.
Maybe Nelson will surprise us, but he needs a lot of work. He obviously won’t be a factor for a few years, if at all.