Miller’s contract was a veritable bargain, as he is one of the fiercest lefties in the majors and a strikeout machine, with 77 K’s in 45 1/3 innings.
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“It’s great to hear”, Antonetti said. It’s a time I’m going to look back at fondly.
Betances has 10 career saves, successfully converting five of six opportunities last season while filling in for an injured Miller for a month. Alex Colome pitched a flawless ninth to earn his 25th save and third in as many days. He was recently ranked the 69 best prospect in baseball by Baseball America. He’s been very good there as well, and the 24-year old could be a decent reliever in the near future.
The Rays scored two runs in the sixth inning when a strategic move by Girardi backfired.
The two main prospects the Yankees are getting back are Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield. At that time, Miller was a struggling starter with a sky-high walk rate. Frazier turns 22 in September, and could be in the major leagues as early as 2017.
Previous year he had 36 saves with a 2.04 earned run average while fanning 100 hitters in 61.2 innings.
Since being converted to a full-time reliever at the beginning of 2012, Miller has become one of the best left-handed relievers in the game. He was named to the Eastern League Mid-Season All-Star Game and appeared in the 2016 Futures Game in San Diego, going 2-for-3 with a single, double and a run scored. “We just didn’t get the huge hit when we needed it”. Miller added a solo home run – his 17th, and second in as many days – for a 3-0 lead in the fifth. He is scheduled to make $9 million over each of the next two seasons.
Rodriguez struck out during a pinch-hitting appearance in the ninth inning Sunday. He had pitched once May 31 before returning to the disabled list. Chapman is entering his free agent year while Miller can remain in Cleveland for a few more seasons.
The Indians have agreed to at least one deal and maybe two that line them up as the best team in the American League, acquiring Andrew Miller from the Yankees and maybe Jonathan Lucroy from the Brewers, although Lucroy has exercised his no-trade clause, meaning that trade is now off and will have to be restructured with Lucroy given more incentive to agree to it. NY views Frazier, the fifth overall pick in the 2013 amateur draft, as a Mike Trout-type player.
Sheffield was the Tribe’s seventh-best prospect heading into the season and has continued to pitch well, this year with Advanced-A Lynchburg. I’m not sure it’s quite as good as what the Yankees could have gotten from a club like the Washington Nationals (with a little-induced pressure), or the haul they got from the Chicago Cubs for Aroldis Chapman, but at least it’s a proactive deal. NY also received right-handed pitchers Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen.
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If the Yankees were looking for some to replace Andrew Miller in not too long a time, they might have found their man in right-hander Ben Heller, who was rated the second-best right-handed relief prospect in the Cleveland system.
