Yankees Acquire Mark Leiter Jr Yankees Acquire Mark Leiter Jr

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The Yankees announced that they have acquired right-hander from the Cubs. In return, the Cubs will receive infielder and right-hander . The Yankees had two open 40-man spots and jump to 39, while the Cubs drop down to 38. Leiter, now 33, has been great for the Cubs over the past few years after a late-bloomer trajectory. The son of and nephew of , the younger Mark made it to the big leagues by 2017 but didnt impre s in his first tastes of the show. By the end of 2018, he had a 5.53 earned run average in 114 big league innings. He then required Tommy John surgery early in 2019 and was on the shelf for an extended period of time. He signed a minor league deal with the Tigers in 2021 but didnt get a call to the show. A minor league deal with the Cubs going into 2022 turned into the opportunity he needed. He was selected to the big league roster by mid-April that year and eventually to sed 65 2/3 innings for the Cubs with a 3.99 ERA. He struck out 25.9% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.9% clip and kept the ball on the ground at a 48.9% rate. Despite that generally strong work, he was nudged off the clubs roster in January of 2023. He had exhausted his final option year and so the Cubs designated him for a signment, with all 29 clubs pa sing on the chance to grab him off waivers. He elected free agency but re-signed with the Cubs on a minor league deal prior to the next season. He was added back to the roster for Opening Day and has been a key part of the Chicago bullpen since then. Going back to Paul George Jersey the start of 2023, he has a 3.75 ERA in 100 2/3 innings. His strikeout rate is up to 30.9% in that time while he still has decent walk and ground ball rates of 8.8% and 47.1% respectively. This years 4.21 ERA doesnt look pretty but thats mostly due to a tiny strand rate of 55%, well below the 71.9% league average. Since hes striking out 34.9% of batters faced and also getting grounders at a 50.6% clip, his 2.11 FIP and 2.42 SIERA suggest hes been about two runs better than his ERA would have you believe. The Cubs have been balancing present and future needs at this deadline. , president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said that the club would be prioritizing 2025 and beyond in their transactions. That didnt nece sarily point to a deadline selloff, as the club then went out and acquired from the Rays and from the Blue Jays, with both of those players having multiple years of control. But there were also some rumors that they might make some pitching available and theres a logic to Leiter being moved out. Due to his unusual trajectory, Leiter still has a couple of years of club control remaining after this one. But given his age, the Cubs probably didnt consider him a core piece of their future-focused agenda and made him available. Those circumstances are likely also why the win-now Yankees wanted to get him. He only just qualified for arbitration for the first time coming into this season and is making $1.5MM, not much above this years $740K league minimum. The Yankees are slated to pay the competitive balance tax for a third straight year and finish well above the top tier. That means they face a 110% tax rate for any new spending, so Leiters minimal salary fits in nicely for them, and they can keep him around for two more years beyond this one. While Leiter is cheap in terms of dollars, the Yankees have paid the price of two prospects to get him. Neely, 24, was an 11th-round pick in the 2021 draft. Hes been exclusively a reliever in his profe sional career, racking up significant strikeout totals. In 160 1/3 minor league innings overall, he has a 2.75 ERA, 38.8% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate. That includes 41 2/3 innings this year between Double-A and Triple-A with a 2.81 ERA, 36% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate. currently lists him as the #20 prospect in the Yankees system. Cowles, 24, was a 10th-round pick in 2021 and has played in 88 Double-A games this year. His .294/.376/.472 batting line leads to a strong 141 wRC+, indicating hes been 41% better than league average. His .340 batting average on balls in play is high but hes also got strong walk and strikeout rates of 10.3% and 17.7%, respectively. He also has 14 steals and has lined up at the three infield spots to the left of first base. Both Neely and Cowles are Rule 5 eligible this winter, so the Yankees would have been facing a decision about whether or not to add them to their 40-man roster. Instead, they have cashed them in for an immediate bullpen upgrade, meaning those decisions will now transfer to Chicago. Rob Zamparelli first reported that Leiter was headed to the Yankees. Jeff Pa san and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN relayed the full trade . Andre Roberson Jersey