Just when you thought the outfield couldn’t be any bigger , it just got bigger. The New York Yankees claimed outfielder Taylor Trammell off of waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday. Infielder Kevin Smith was designated for assignment to make room on the roster.
Trammell was a Top-100 prospect. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in 2016. The Reds traded him to the San Diego Padres in 2019. He was traded to the Seattle Mariners in 2021. Earlier this month he was waived by the Mariners and joined the Dodgers.
To say that Trammell has struggled in the majors would be an understatement. Over four seasons in the majors he has hit .165 with 15 homeruns, 39 RBIs, four stolen bases with a .627 OPS.
With the Dodgers he went 0-6 with three strikeouts. In the minors he hit .271 with a .805 OPS, 71 homeruns and 143 steals.
Trammell was clearly good in the minors but for some reason hasn’t performed well in the majors. This makes me question why the Yankees added him. This move makes no sense and is clearly a bad move by the Yankees. The Yankees already have a croweded outfield with Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, Giancarlo Stanton, although he’s been the dh recently, and Trent Grisham. Adding Trammell does nothing for the Yankees except add some depth. If there’s an injury in the outfield then Grisham will be playing. There would have to be multiple injuries for Trammell to play.
Don’t expect Trammell to improve with the Yankees because he’ll be on the bench instead of playing.