With New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman saying he needs to add an effective right-arm to the bullpen, the search for that arm began on Tuesday as the Yankees inked right-hander Sergio Santos to a minor league deal, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.
Santos, 31, spent a portion of the 2015 season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 12 games, Santos posted a 4.73 ERA in 13 1/3 innings of work. But with their bullpen a continuing question mark, the Dodgers elected to go in a different direction, designating Santos for assignment. Despite clearing waivers, Santos elected to become a free agent, rather than go to the minor leagues.
From 2010-2011, Santos was one of the Chicago White Sox most trusted relievers, including a 2011 season in which the Los Angeles native notced 30 saves to go along with a 3.55 ERA. But since being traded to the Toronto Blue Jays prior to the 2012 season, Santos struggled during his time in Toronto. In 2012 and 2014, Santos recorded ERA's of 9.00 and 8.57, respectively.
In an interview with MLB Network radio last week, Cashman confirmed that his looking for a right-handed arm after the team designated David Carpenter for assignment.
“We lined up a lot of moves this winter to give ourselves a really deep bullpen, some of which have really paid dividends” said Cashman. “Others, recently with the designation of David Carpenter, haven’t. So, I need to probably find a right-handed arm. Not probably, I do need to find a right-handed arm for the bullpen here at some point. We have Miller, Betances, Wilson, Shreve, Lindgren, Capuano and Esmil Rogers as the long man."
Under his new deal, Rosenthal also added that Santos wll report to Double-A and pitch for the Trenton Thunder. If he is able to replicate his past success, we will likely see Santos move up quickly and perhaps slot into the major league bullpen, which as stated, currently holds five left-handers.