Five Yankees minor leaguers have elected free agency, according to MiLB.com’s transaction tracker.
The list includes first baseman Ronald Guzmán and pitchers Anthony Banda, Luke Bard, Jacob Barnes and Chi Chi González. No member of the group played in more than three major league games for New York in 2022.
These free agent decisions are separate from players who reach major league free agency at the end of the World Series. Those players, like Aaron Judge, are on expiring contracts and have accumulated six-plus years of big league service time.
The players in this quintet, however, were eligible for free agency because they were not on the Yankees’ 40-man roster at the end of the season but had three-plus years of major league service, multiple career outright assignments and/or seven-plus seasons in the minors.
Guzmán is the most interesting name on the list, as he’s had success at the major league level. He hit 26 home runs for the Rangers from 2018-2019 before injuries interrupted his progress.
More intriguing, possibly, is that Guzmán experimented as a two-way player at the end of the 2022 season. He pitched in one game for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, New York’s Triple-A affiliate. He did not allow a run but walked two and only recorded one out, a strikeout.
Banda, Bard, Barnes and González, meanwhile, combined for just five MLB games with the Yankees.
González, a veteran journeyman, led the way with 4.2 innings pitched. He made one start at the end of the season after New York had already clinched the American League East. The righty allowed one earned run on Oct. 2 against the Orioles.
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