Yankees lose recent trade acquisition to injury

New York Yankees infielder Jon Berti

In between games of New York’s doubleheader with the Guardians Saturday, the Yankees announced a series of roster moves. Utilityman Jon Berti has been placed (retroactive to April 11) on the 10-day injured list due to a left groin strain, and left-hander Josh Maciejewski was also designated for assignment.  Right-hander Ron Marinaccio and infielder Kevin Smith have been called up from Triple-A to take the two open roster spots and in Smith’s case, his minors deal with the team was replaced with a new major league contract before being selected.  Left-hander Clayton Andrews was outrighted to Triple-A, while right-hander McKinley Moore was activated from the 15-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A.

Speaking with the YES Network, manager Aaron Boone indicated that Berti’s injury occurred in his most recent at-bat, when Berti beat out an infield single in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s 5-2 New York loss to Miami.  While the manager didn’t put a timeline on Berti’s potential return, Boone also didn’t think the issue was overly serious.

Berti was acquired as part of a three-team trade with the Marlins and Rays just prior to Opening Day and the veteran has been splitting third base duties with Oswaldo Cabrera while DJ LeMahieu and Oswald Peraza have been sidelined with injuries.  Cabrera is off to a scorching start at the plate, but Berti has slashed only .211/.250/.211 over his first 21 plate appearances in the pinstripes.  While Smith can continue acting as a veteran counterpart to Cabrera, Boone said he has “a lot” of confidence that Cabrera can keep producing with a larger share of the playing time with Berti sidelined.

Maciejewski’s contract was selected from Triple-A earlier this week and the 28-year-old officially became a big leaguer after throwing a perfect inning in last Monday’s 7-0 win over the Marlins.  With his MLB debut behind him, Maciejewski now heads to the DFA wire as part of the roster churn at the back of the Yankees bullpen.

There’s a chance that a team in need of multi-inning bullpen help or even swingman help could put in a claim on Maciejewski, who has a 3.52 ERA over 294 1/3 innings (starting 31 of 101 games) in his minor league career.  A 10th-round pick for the Yankees in the 2018 draft, Maciejewski has had limited success at the Triple-A level, with a 4.87 ERA in 61 frames with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

In selecting Maciejewski, the Yankees designated Andrews. The southpaw will remain in the organization after clearing DFA waivers.  Andrews made his Major League debut in the form of four appearances and 3 1/3 innings with the Brewers last season and he joined the Yankees in a minor league trade in February after posting a 2.53 ERA over 57 innings for Milwaukee’s Triple-A affiliate in 2023.  Control problems have limited Andrews’ effectiveness throughout his six minor league seasons, but Andrews has struggled badly in a small sample size this year – the lefty has a 14.73 ERA and six walks over just 3 2/3 innings at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

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