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New York Yankees Announce First Wave Of September Call-Ups

By Kenneth Teape

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The New York Yankees, like all MLB teams this week, will be getting some reinforcements. With September now upon us, that mean that MLB rosters expand and teams are not eligible to carry more players on their active roster. The Yankees will be taking full advantage of that, as they announced their first wave of September call-ups.

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The Yankees will bring up eight players in their first wave. Some are not so surprising; Dustin Ackley, Rob Refsnyder, Jose Pirela and Austin Romine would all fall under that list for position players. Ackley, whom the Yankees acquired at the deadline from the Seattle Mariners, was placed on the DL two days after being acquired with a back problem. Knowing the roster expansion was soon, the Yankees were in no rush to bring him back up to the major leagues.

He showed well during his rehab though, picking up eight hits, two of which were home runs, in 17 at-bats. He probably will not find much playing time as a backup infielder, but his versatility could get him into the lineup at home despite his underwhelming career numbers; he is a career .296 career hitter at Yankee Stadium, so they could find him some at-bats during home games.

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Refsnyder and Pirela are both surprises to no one. Both have spent time with the major league team this season, and should provide some depth on the bench. There have been people clamoring for Refsnyder to take over the second base job from Stephen Drew, so this could be his chance should Drew go into another cold streak.

Pirela should fill a utility role off the bench, as he can play all over the infield and outfield, and has been hitting strongly in Triple-A after a poor showing at the major league level in June and July.

Romine will provide more depth behind Brian McCann and J.A. Murphy, allowing Joe Girardi to rest McCann more but not have to wait around to use him as a pinch hitter since he’ll have a third catcher at his disposal.

On the mound, the players that come as no surprise are Caleb Cotham and James Pazos. Cotham had a cup of tea with the big league club when they needed an arm on two separate occasions earlier in the season, while Pazos has been tearing it up in the minor leagues; he has a 1.27 ERA in 42 ⅔ innings pitched.

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The last two players come as surprises. First, Andrew Bailey; yes that Andrew Bailey. Bailey hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since 2013, as he underwent a serious shoulder operation in July that year. He was a dominant closer the first two years of his career with the Oakland Athletics, making the All-Star team both times and winning the Rookie of the Year award in 2009. If he can return anywhere close to that form, the Yankees will be ecstatic as they will have another arm to go along with Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller at the end of games.

The other surprise call-up comes from the outfield. Rico Noel is among the first eight being called up, and taking a look at his stats it’s head scratching why he would get the promotion. He is batting under .100 at Triple-A Scranton, hitting precisely .059. But, he does have nine stolen bases in 22 games. That would make it easy to assume that he will be called up strictly as a pinch runner; outside of Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury, the Yankees do not have much speed as the rest of the team has combined for only 13 steals.

It will not be as simple as these players come up and play right away though. The Yankees will have other roster moves they have to make, as Bailey, Pazos, Romine and Noel are all not on the 40-man roster. They will also have to make room, as players such as Chris Capuano, Nick Goody and Nick Rumbelow will all more than likely be back with the team once they are eligible to return; since they were optioned less than 10 days ago, they have to wait until those 10 days are up to return to the major league team.

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