Yankees Release 17 More Minor League Players

At first sight I thought this was a recap of the Yankees releasing those 16 minor league players a week or so back but New York has released another 17 minor leaguers just in time for Christmas. No huge names pop out at you but here is the list anyway:

Ryan Baker

Jeff Farnham

Sean Black

Saxon Butler

Shane Brown

Neil Medchill

Tim Flight

Victor Beriguete

Mariel Checo

John Brebbia

Rich Macheri

Charlie Haslup

Hector Crespo

Ty Afenir

Johnny Falla

Aaron Gates

Daniel Aldrich

Baker was the guy who got suspended for 50 games for refusing to take a drug test, just in case the name sounded familiar to some of you out there. I am a bit surprised by the Butler release as he was only drafted in the 2012 draft, talk about a short leash. Crespo is really surprising as he was drafted in 2013 and made it all the way to Scranton this season and now he is a free agent, head scratcher. Afenir was also drafted in this past June's draft but did not turn many heads in his debut season. The rest of the names I have either never heard of or are so far off the radar that they are not huge losses at all. I don't know what is going on in Yankee land down on the farm but someone is definitely cleaning house.