According to Dan Martin of the New York Post, left-hander Chasen Shreve has signed a minor league contract with the Yankees. Prior to making his last appearance with the Rangers on June 14, the southpaw had been pitching for their Triple-A affiliate in Round Rock under a minors contract. However, it appears that he chose to opt out of that agreement and returned to the open market.
Shreve made his major league debut with the Braves in 2014 and will turn 34 years old next month. He has played in ten MLB seasons. The next offseason, Shreve and David Carpenter were traded for Manny Banuelos and sent to the Bronx. Throughout 180 relief appearances, Shreve threw to a 4..99 FIP and 3.92 ERA in portions of four seasons with the Yankees. Midway through the 2019 season, he was sold to the Cardinals in exchange for first baseman Luke Voit, packaged with right-hander Giovanny Gallegos.
In addition to the previously mentioned Cardinals, Shreve has pitched at the major league level for the Mets, Pirates, Tigers, and Reds since leaving the Bronx. Throughout 169 innings of work, he has recorded a 4.26 ERA, which is precisely league average per the ERA+ metric. Last year, he had performances that were about average when he was with Detroit and Cincinnati. Shreve pitched to a 4.63 ERA and 4.28 FIP in 44 2/3 innings of work over 50 appearances. He also had a strong 23.3% strikeout rate versus a 7.3% walk rate.
Shreve, who is currently with Texas on a minor league contract, has been outstanding at Triple-A, recording a 1.61 ERA in 22 1/3 innings across 20 appearances and striking out 29.6% of batters faced. The Yankees bullpen would benefit from having him if he could match those stats at the major league level. Since the season started, the bullpen has lost Ian Hamilton, Nick Burdi, and Jonathan Loaisiga in addition to seeing players like Caleb Ferguson and Ron Marinaccio struggle. Shreve is probably going to Triple-A for the time being, but it wouldn’t be shocking if the team called up the veteran at some point soon, especially after they DFA’d lefties Clayton Andrews and Victor Gonzalez earlier this week.
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