Bronx Bomber Ball

The Yankees have signed left-handed reliever Luis Avilan to a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training.  Avilan, who has spent his entire eight-year career as a reliever, will compete for a spot in the Yankees bullpen.

With Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame class of 2020 set to be announced tonight at 6:00pm EST, the writers of Bronx Bomber Ball decided to run our own Hall of Fame ballot in the same format.The rules mirror those of the BBWAA: each voter is granted 10 votes, but is not obligated to use all 10, and a player must receive at minimum 75% of the vote in order to earn induction.

This year’s mock class was surprisingly large, with our writers showing no ill will towards players shrouded by the cloud of steroid use.Derek Jeter (predictably for a Yankees blog) was a unanimous election, while four other players were also voted in: Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez and Curt Schilling. Larry Walker, in his final year on the ballot, received less than 50% of votes despite currently polling at over 70% among all publicly announced BBWAA ballots. 

Below are the voting totals:


% of VoteDerek Jeter100.00%Barry Bonds90.91%Roger Clemens90.91%Manny Ramirez81.82%Curt Schilling81.82%Gary Sheffield…

On Friday afternoon, the New York Yankees agreed to terms with all nine of their arbitration eligible players on one-year contracts for the 2020 season.  This marks the third season in a row the Yankees will have avoided going to arbitration hearings with any of their players.  The team was set to go to a hearing with RHP Luis Severino last winter, but instead agreed to a four-year, $40 million contract before the hearing date.

A new decade is upon us and a new era of Yankees baseball seems to be on the horizon.After falling just short the past three seasons, 2020 has all the expectations of a championship in the making.Once again, I’m excited to bring to you Bronx Bomber Ball’s Bounce Back Candidates piece.If you need a quick refresher on how these work, be sure to check out the pieces from 2017, 2018 & 2019.We’ll be keeping the template the same for the third consecutive year – one starting pitcher, one reliever and one position player – with the same set of criteria for what qualifies someone as a bounce back candidate.
1.    Player spent significant time on the injured list in prior season 2.    Player performed well below their career averages in the prior season 3.    Player has not yet lived up to their potential

Former Major League pitcher of 14 seasons, five of which were with the New York Yankees, Don Larsen has passed away on the first day of 2020, at the age of 90. Larsen was most widely known for pitching the first, and only, perfect game in World Series history for the Yankees in 1956.

The Yankees’ offseason is off to a great start. The club’s main focus all along was to add Gerrit Cole, finally giving New York the true, dominant Ace, they have needed.  In the days following, the team was able to retain veteran outfielder Brett Gardner.  Now, the Yankees could look to the trade market to round out their roster and get set for 2020. Let’s take a look at who could be available and how they could fit in pinstripes.