Yankees sign righthanded reliever Luis Ayala

The Yankees have signed relief pitcher Luis Ayala to a minor-league contract. Per MLBTR, it is expected that Ayala will compete for a bullpen spot with the likes of Neil Cotts, Buddy Carlyle and Mark Prior.

Ayala last pitched in the Majors in 2009 and was pretty bad, throwing 40 innings of 5.63 ERA/4.67 FIP ball worth 0.0 fWAR. A quick glance at Ayala's ledger reveals that the only good season he's ever had came back in 2004 with the Expos, when he threw 90.1 innings of 2.69 ERA/3.18 FIP ball, worth 1.8 fWAR. He hasn't had a BB/9 below 2 since 2005, or a GB% above 50% since 2004 -- not that the latter is crucial for relief success, but for a guy with a 5.88 career K/9 you'd hope he'd generate his share of grounders. I suppose the career 47.3% GB% is something to hang his hat on.

In any event, this is yet another low-cost, no-risk move that will either benefit the team in the best case or be completely forgotten about if it doesn't pan out.