Yankees take shot on former top Mets prospect Jarred Kelenic with career in jeopardy
Just a few days after the Yankees added former Mets farmhand Michael Fulmer, the club took a no-risk flier on Jarred Kelenic.
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On Saturday, the Yankees signed the former Mets (and Mariners) top prospect to a minor league deal, and the outfielder stepped right into the lineup for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and went 3-for-5.
Kelenic has served as a cautionary tale for how difficult the transition is from the minors to the majors, a rising-star prospect who has had repeated chances in MLB and not found much success.
Locally he is best known for the December 2018 trade in which the Mets — who selected him sixth overall in that year’s draft — sent him to Seattle in the package that brought back Edwin Díaz and Robinson Canó.
As Kelenic shot through the Mariners system, it seemed as if the swap would haunt the Mets for years.
And yet several failed major league stints and teams later, Kelenic has a lifetime .211 average and .655 OPS in 443 games with the Mariners, Braves, White Sox and Rangers.
Now 27, Kelenic again did not hit with the major league White Sox or Rangers this season but slashed a combined .310/.408/.584 in 63 games in Triple-A. The Rangers gave up on the outfielder Sunday, when he was designated for assignment and soon after became a free agent.
A lefty hitter who can play the corner outfield spots, Kelenic projects as depth for the Yankees, who have lefties Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham and Spencer Jones in the majors and Duke Ellis, Yanquiel Fernández and switch-hitting Jasson Domínguez in the minors.
As Max Fried was activated to start the 9-2 win in the nightcap, the Yankees designated righty Justin Topa for assignment.
The veteran Topa was signed Aug. 14, brought up Tuesday and pitched three innings allowing one unearned run — including a scoreless sixth in Saturday afternoon’s 6-0 loss to the Red Sox — before becoming a roster-crunch victim.
Elmer Rodríguez will get another start.
Coming off the best major league outing of his career, the top prospect will get the ball Monday in Anaheim, Boone said.
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Because of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Yankees needed one more spot starter in a rotation that now has a healthy (if building up, in the first two cases) Fried, Carlos Rodón, Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole and Will Warren.
It is possible that Monday is Rodríguez’s last start if the rotation remains healthy, but he showed enough Wednesday — when he was charged with three runs in six innings, but pitched better than his line and had an impressive sinker that he ran up to 98.5 mph — that he at least has the ability to help in other roles.
The Yankees have a thin bullpen and plenty of pitchers — such as Ryan Weathers, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil — who could jump into the bullpen mix.
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“I don’t know how that dynamic is going to shake out, but [Rodríguez is] certainly in the bubble of, you know, 12 to 15 pitchers we’re dealing with right now,” Boone said.
In his first rehab game, Schmidt (Tommy John surgery recovery) faced four batters, struck out a pair and allowed a triple and home run to the other two with Double-A Somerset.
Schmidt, who threw 20 pitches (16 strikes), was charged with allowing two runs in two-thirds of an inning.
Ryan McMahon (thumb sprain) also began a rehab assignment with Somerset and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts while playing third base.
Boone said the Yankees would “probably” wait until rosters expand Tuesday to activate McMahon.
Weathers, who has been shut down for a week since leaving a game Aug. 12 with a flexor strain, has been amid a no-throw period that the club said would be for two to four weeks — and the difference between two and four weeks, in late August, is significant.
Boone said he believed Weathers would begin throwing again on “the very short side” of that spectrum. Asked to elaborate, Boone declined.
Brendan Beck was called up to be the 27th man for the doubleheader and finished off the nightcap with a scoreless, one-strikeout ninth. He was then returned to SWB.
