Former New York Yankees catcher Christian Bethancourt is back in the MLB.
New York is in the midst of a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels and is atop the AL Wild Card standings.
Before the second game of the series, it was revealed that a former Yankees catcher is having his contract selected to the MLB roster.
New York suffered a 10-1 loss to the Angels on Monday.
Pirates Promote Christian Bethancourt
The Yankees traded veteran catcher Christian Bethancourt to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a cash swap with the Yankees in mid-August.
Bethancourt was eligible to be traded after the deadline because he hadn’t spent any time on the Yankees’ 40-man roster. Since being acquired by the Pirates, he hadn’t played in any games in the minor leagues. Instead, he had been on their taxi squad.
Now, ahead of the Pirates’ series against the San Francisco Giants, the team announced they selected the contract of Bethancourt. Endy Rodriguez was transferred from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to create room on the 40-man roster.
The Yankees signed Bethancourt on July 28. He appeared in eight games for the Triple–A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, batting .333/.407/.708 with three home runs and 7 RBI before being traded.
Bethancourt made his MLB debut in 2013 with the Atlanta Braves and has appeared in 8 MLB seasons. He’s played for the Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, and Chicago Cubs.
In his MLB career, Bethancourt is hitting .229 with 35 home runs and 135 RBIs in 428 games.
Yankees Right Now
New York is atop the AL Wild Card, but the Yankees suffered a 10-1 blowout loss to the Angels on Monday.
“Obviously an ugly one for us tonight,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s just a great reminder that in this league, you’ve got to play well or you get it handed to you. So we’ve got to bounce back tomorrow.”
Luckily for New York, the Yankees could get Aaron Judge back during the next homestand, which would be a big boost to the lineup.
“I think it’s possible,” Boone said pregame regarding Judge’s potential return next homestand. “I’m not going to put a date on it, but I think those things are in play now. It’s again about getting the durability and the workload built up on him, which is the biggest thing now.”
Judge has been out since June 5, but the Yankees offense has been keeping up without him.
New York is 78-60 and 4.5 games back of the Tampa Bay Rays for the top spot in the AL East.
Former Yankees Catcher Promoted to MLB After Being Traded to NL Team