Yankees Release Right-Handed Minor League Pitcher

Minor League Pitcher Duane Underwood Jr. Released By Yankees

Underwood Jr. has played for the Chicago Cubs, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Puerto Rico national baseball team. His release comes as a surprise, as he was putting up decent numbers in Triple-A. He had a 3.26 ERA and a strikeout rate of 23.4% across 38 2/3 innings of work. Underwood never got the opportunity to play in the majors with the Yankees this season, mostly because of his walk rate, which was 14%. He has a 5-10 record with a 4.63 ERA in his MLB career.

His time in the majors with both the Pirates and Cubs had both ups and downs. His best ERA (2.25) was in 2018 but through a very small sample size across four innings pitched. But this season in the minors, he has had some memorable moments. On July 9th, Underwood Jr. made an impressive catch on a 100.3 mph line drive from New York Mets prospect Luisangel Acuña. The play was made effortlessly, which ended a 10-inning game. Back on June 4th, Underwood Jr. came on in relief and pitched a 1-2-3 inning and recorded a pair of strikeouts, and the RailRiders ended up winning that game 4-2 against Norfolk.

In addition to the Yankees releasing Underwood, they also placed outfielder Oscar Gonzalez on the IL and have promoted infielder Caleb Durbin from Double-A Somerset to the Triple-A RailRiders. This will be a big plus for them as they use him at multiple infield positions. Durbin sports a .277 batting average this season across three levels (A, AA, AAA). His offensive spark can be utilized in Triple-A.