April Fool’s Rejected Post: Yankees Call Up Banuelos To Fill LOOGY Role

This is the April Fool’s post I wrote, which was scrapped when the Pettitte idea came up. As a bonus, here is the one I did last year on Cablevision dropping YES before the season, as well as the one from two seasons ago about the Red Sox acquiring Hanley Ramirez.

With Pedro Feliciano ailing and the Yankees down to one lefty in the bullpen, Brian Cashman made the surprise move of calling up top prospect Manny Banuelos to fill the LOOGY role. Our favorite SI reporter :

The Yankees surprised many in the industry this morning by calling upon Manny Banuelos to replace the injured Pedro Feliciano.

When reached for comment, Banuelos said, “I am very excited. I’ve always liked the bullpen. I think I have the mentality it takes to succeed there, and any way to get to the majors is good with me. I am excited to learn from Mariano and Rafael, and maybe one day I can be as good as they are, either in the bullpen or the rotation.”

Banuelos certainly looked prepared in Spring Training, where he was named the best rookie, and the Yankees may need a closer two or three years down the road.

“Hey, for now we just want get our best 25 in the majors. Will he get fewer innings? Sure. But having that killer lefty out of the pen is a huge weapon that Joe was just not prepared to go without. We can make it a 5 or 6 inning game, which is important with some of the guys we are trying to work into the rotation,” said GM Brian Cashman. “And if he succeeds there, you never know. He could take over for Mo if needed. Or he can go to the rotation and be an ace. All we know right now as that we wanted him in the majors, and we would be fine if he did well enough to remain in that role all season.”

Of everybody on the team conference call, Joe Girardi was the most excited. “Banuelos has a ton of talent, and those lefties can be an important 3 or 4 outs a week. Would we like him to get more innings, you bet, but sometimes you need to put the needs of the team first,” he told reporters. “Manny will get invaluable experience talking to Mo, Sori, Robby, and especially Joba, who can tell him all about being a prospect in the bullpen and in the big leagues. I think on the whole, it is a positive.”

A few scouts I spoke to were not so keen on the idea. One angrily told me, “They are pigeonholing the kid. Didn’t they learn anything from Joba.” Another wondered why they did not just stick him in the rotation, if they thought he was ready for the majors. “He’s better than Garcia, Colon, all those guys. Why waste that sort of talent?” One evaluator was on board, saying “He’s too small to start. His ceiling is probably LOOGY anyhow, why not put him there now.”

I cannot say this strongly enough: I hate this move. The most important thing for a talent like Banuelos to do is to build up innings so that he can contribute a full season’s worth to the Yankees down the road. Furthermore, he needs time to refine his secondary pitches, with the curveball in particular needing some work before it can be considered a plus pitch. He is not going to be able to work on these things facing 4 or 5 batters a week out of the bullpen, and some of those quotes make it sound like he might remain in that role all season.

Quite frankly, this shows that the Yankee front office has learned nothing from the Joba fiasco, and it may just be a fireable offense. While I do not mind breaking certain young arms in in the bullpen, Banuelos is a terrible candidate for that treatment, as outlined above. Pigeonholing a guy like that as a reliever is inexcusable and indefensible. As @aypralfuuls said on Twitter (go check out her feed on this, it is enlightening), “I’ve had enough of this organization’s pitching decisions. Trade them all.” I too have had enough, and cannot believe that this report is actually true.