Catching up on some information that was put aside in the course of the commerce deadline frenzy, the Yankees introduced yesterday that infielder Jeter Downs was launched and signed with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan’s Nippon Skilled Baseball.
Downs, 26, wasn’t a Yankee for very lengthy. He was claimed off waivers from the Nationals in December, with the Yankees then passing him by means of waivers unclaimed in January. He didn’t have the appropriate to elect free company at the moment and has been within the Yankees’ system in a non-roster capability since then.
He has been having an honest yr at Triple-A. In 69 video games for Scranton Wilkes-Barre, he hit 10 dwelling runs and slashed .264/.360/.498 for a wRC+ of 117. He additionally stole 15 bases whereas bouncing between second base, third base and shortstop.
Regardless of these respectable numbers, he by no means obtained known as as much as the majors despite the fact that the Yankees have had loads of infield challenges. Gamers like Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu and Oswaldo Cabrera have had disappointing seasons to date and Jon Berti has been on the injured listing for a lot of the yr. However the membership by no means felt compelled to name upon Downs and finally acquired Jazz Chisholm from the Marlins and plugged him onto their roster. Since he was pretty blocked from getting any enjoying time within the Bronx, he’ll as a substitute go abroad to see if this chance will work out for him.
Downs was as soon as a prime 100 prospect throughout his time within the Dodgers’ system, earlier than being traded to the Purple Sox within the now-infamous 2020 deal that despatched Mookie Betts and David Worth to Los Angeles. He struggled to dwell as much as the hype within the subsequent seasons, hitting .200/.309/.365 within the minors over the 2021-23 campaigns. He was solely given transient seems within the majors, producing a line of .182/.260/.273 in 50 plate appearances. He went from the Purple Sox to the Nationals on waivers in December of 2022 however then the Yankees obtained him off waivers a yr later, as talked about.
If he fares nicely in Japan, he might intrigue groups primarily based his previous. He hit .267/.359/.458 within the minors from 2017 to 2019, although largely on the decrease ranges, with solely 12 video games above Excessive-A in that point. However he has the previous prospect pedigree and was performing nicely in Triple-A this yr. A pleasant run with the Hawks might maybe prepared the ground to a return to the majors down the road, particularly since he’s nonetheless solely 26 years previous.
