Following his designation for assignment by the Dodgers earlier this week, outfielder Taylor Trammell was claimed off waivers by the Yankees. The Yankees placed infielder Kevin Smith on the roster for assignment in order to make room for Trammell.
The 26-year-old Trammell had only been with the Dodgers for a few weeks. Early in April, they claimed him off waivers from the Mariners. He only made six hitless plate appearances and struck out three times before being removed from the roster and placed back on waivers.
Trammell’s previous standing as one of the game’s top prospects suggests that the Yankees are interested.
He was on Baseball America’s top 100 lists for three consecutive years, beginning in 2018, after being selected 35th overall by the Reds in 2016.
However, his performance started to suffer as he started to get moved about the league a little. He was moved again, this time to the Mariners in the 2020 transaction that also brought Ty France and Andrés Muñoz to Seattle. He had been flipped to the Padres in the 2019 deal that sent Trevor Bauer to the Reds and Yasiel Puig to Cleveland.
Over the previous few years, the Mariners provided him intermittent playing time in the majors, but he fell short of the initial prospect buzz. With 357 plate appearances under his belt, his current line is.165/.266/.361, with a 37.3% strikeout percentage.
Although he walks at a great rate of 10.9%, the overall results are clearly subpar. The Mariners and Dodgers have both had to designate him for assignment in recent weeks because he is now out of options.
There are causes for hope based on Trammell’s triple-A performance. He has 812 plate appearances at the top minor league level going back to the beginning of 2021. He hit 38 home runs and drew walks at a rate of 14%, but he also struck out in 24% of those. Although those home runs were all in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, so that should be taken with a grain of salt, his batting line of.274/.381/.506 converted to a 116 wRC+, meaning he was 16% over league average. In 40 attempts, he also stole 33 bases throughout that period.
Trammell will be given a spot on the roster by the Yanks in an attempt to make the long-awaited breakthrough in pinstripes. Although that choice makes sense in a vacuum, it doesn’t seem like the best one when it comes to building a roster.
The Yankees already have a very strong outfield trio, with Alex Verdugo, Juan Soto, and Aaron Judge all seeing a lot of playing time. Most days, Giancarlo Stanton is the designated hitter, with Trent Grisham available as a glove-first backup.
