How about this for a baseball pipeline — from the New York Yankees to the Party Animals.
That’s not something anyone would’ve imagined, until right now, when a Yankees pitcher was drafted into Banana Ball to play for the Party Animals.
It’s part of the league that began with the Savannah Bananas but now includes multiple teams.
The Banana Ball Draft was on Wednesday night, and the entertaining brand of baseball picks a variety of player types to fill out their rosters.
One of them was a well-traveled former MLB All-Star who began his major league career in the Bronx with the Yankees.
Ex-Yankees Pitcher Drafted by Party Animals in Banana Ball
The Banana Balls used the No. 3 overall pick in the Banana Ball Draft to take Shane Greene.
The pick was announced Wednesday night on social media:
Bet you weren’t expecting this one 😏
The Party Animals’ first pick in the 2027 Banana Ball Player Draft is none other than MLB ALL-Star, Shane Greene! https://t.co/2MdYn5oqG1
— Banana Ball (@BananaBall_) October 28, 2026
Their post says it all. No one really knows what to expect out of the draft class into Banana Ball each year. Greene is an exciting addition.
Shane Greene MLB Career
Greene made the most of his beginnings. He was a 15th-round pick in the 2009 MLB Draft by the Yankees out of Daytona State College.
He climbed to the majors to debut for the Yanks in 2014. He threw in 15 games (14 starts) and had a 3.78 ERA.
Despite that, the Yankees included Greene in a three-team trade in December 2014. It got the Yankees Didi Gregorius from the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Tigers got Greene. The Diamondbacks got Robbie Ray and Domingo Leyba.
Greene threw in 243 games for the Tigers, who quickly turned him into a relief pitcher.
His finest season was 2019, when he made the AL All-Star team. That year with Detroit, he threw in 38 games with a 1.18 ERA and 22 saves.
The Tigers traded him at that season’s trade deadline to the Atlanta Braves.
Greene had a 4.01 ERA in 27 games for the Braves to close out 2019, then a 2.60 ERA for the Braves in 28 games in 2020.
Atlanta moved Greene midway through the year in 2021 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He pitched in nine games that year for the Dodgers, then one more for L.A. in 2022.
Greene also got one more game for the Yankees in 2022, allowing two runs in one inning.
His last MLB action came in 2023, when he threw 3.0 scoreless innings across two outings for the Chicago Cubs.
Greene is now 37 years old (turning 38 on Nov. 17), and he’s got his next baseball stop about three years after his MLB career ended. He’s going to be a Party Animal.
Ex-Yankees Pitcher Drafted by Party Animals in Banana Ball