With an overworked bullpen needing a fresh arm, the New York Yankees on Sunday called up right-hander Bruce Billings and designated Alfonso Soriano for assignment to make room on their roster.
"We designated Soriano, which is extremely difficult because he's been a great Yankee and been a great player," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "We felt we needed some more pitching today, so we called up Billings. Bullpen has been extremely taxed."
Soriano made his major league debut with the Yankees in 1999. He went to seven straight All-Star games at second base from 2002-2008. In 2004 Soriano was part of the trade that brought Alex Rodriguez to New York from the Texas Rangers. Soriano went on to play for the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs before being reacquired by the Yankees in a trade with the Cubs last July.
Soriano had been struggling this season, batting .221 with six home runs and 23 RBI's. As his struggles mounted he lost his right field spot to Ichiro Suzuki. Soriano grew increasingly frustrated with his performance and his lack of playing time.
"For Sori, it's a guy who came in and did a tremendous job for us last year," said Girardi. "He's had his struggles this year, and he's a guy who's used to playing every day. It wasn't everyday at-bats for him, so maybe it was harder for him to get going."
In the final year of his eight year, $138 million contract, Soriano had mentioned that he was considering retirement, especially if he continued to play badly. After being designated for assignment, Soriano said he would take time to figure out what his next steps would be, retirement or continuing to play somewhere else.
In a separate move, the Yankees made a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks for right-hander Brandon McCarthy. In exchange, the Yankees sent left-handed pitcher Ivan Nova (2-5, 5.42) to the desert. With injuries to several of their starters and the news last week that C.C. Sabathia would not be returning to the mound this season, the Yankees were desperate for arms to put into the rotation.
With the Diamondbacks, McCarthy was 3-10 with a 5.01 ERA. The Yankees tried to acquire Jeff Samardzija from the Chicago Cubs before he was traded along with Jason Hammel to the Oakland Athletics on Friday. The Yankees are finding that they don't have the talent in their farm system that most teams are looking to trade for.
Billings was 4-4 with a 5.31 ERA in 11 starts at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre. He has made one prior appearance for the Yankees this season in a game against the Los Angeles Angels on April 25. Billings gave up four runs in four innings of work.