What First Rosters Cuts Really Mean

The New York Yankees made their first round of roster cuts from spring training to round out the week over the weekend sending 16 players back to the minor leagues. This happens with every team as we inch closer to Opening Day and as regulars need more playing time and the spring competitions heat up. The Yankees had a business as usual approach to their cuts sending players that had no legit shot at making the team out of spring back to the minor leagues, Jorge Mateo, Aaron Judge and James Kaprielian most notably, but one name really stood out to me. That name was Jacob Lindgren.

The Yankees bullpen is seemingly wide open aside from the “three-headed monster” and even more wide open with the fact that Aroldis Chapman is suspended for the first 30 games of the season. What did it hurt to have Lindgren in camp for another week or more?

You would think after Lindgren made his Major League debut in 2015 that the team would want to give him a shot at the 2016 bullpen but an elbow spur injury ended his season prematurely. Lindgren didn’t do himself any favors this spring struggling with command and effectiveness, but the same can be said for James Pazos who did not get cut just as an FYI, and will likely be the first one up if and when a need and/or an injury occurs.

Looking at the rest of the list no notable players really got cut but Lindgren, the rest are merely procedural. Here is the complete list again in case you missed it over the weekend:

Jacob Lindgren, Domingo German, Chad Green, Kyle Haynes, James Kaprielian, Brady Lail, Santiago Nessy, Tyler Webb, Francisco Diaz, Kyle Higashioka, Sebastian Valle, Jorge Mateo, Deibinson Romero, Tyler Wade, Lane Adams, Aaron Judge and Dustin Fowler.