Yankees Designate Reliever Nick Goody for Assignment

The New York Yankees designated right-handed reliever Nick Goody assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for newly signed closer Aroldis Chapman.

In a surprising move, the Yankees DFA’d one of the more promising members of the Scranton Shuttle on Thursday evening, 25-year-old right-hander Nick Goody.

Although he put up an ugly 4.66 ERA in 27 big league appearances last season, Goody has shown an impressive ability to miss bats thanks to a wipeout slider, which allowed him to strikeout 27% of the MLB batters he faced (10.6 K/9) in 2016.

Goody’s issues with the long ball this year are likely the reason behind his release. He pairs his plus slider with a very average low-90’s four-seamer, which seems to have been the main culprit behind the seven homers in 29 frames he allowed with New York during his second big league campaign.

Still, it’s a surprise to see Goody get the axe when seemingly obvious DFA candidates like 29-year-old minor league journeyman Richard Bleier and 24-year-old righty Johnny Barbato, who had a 7.62 ERA in 13 innings for the Yankees and didn’t even merit a September call up.

It seems very likely that Goody will be claimed by another club if New York doesn’t work out a trade first. Of course, even if they find a trade partner for Goody, they are unlikely to get back anything of any value in return.

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The team needed a 40-man roster spot at some point for Aroldis Chapman, so it was clear a corresponding move to make room was inevitable, it’s just a shame the team has to lose a useful arm like Goody.

The Goody is definitely a work in progress, but had showed his potential by absolutely dominating Triple-A hitters the last two years, pitching to a 1.64 ERA in 44 IP while striking out 35.5% of opposing batters (12.3 K/9) and walking just 6.5% (2.2 BB/9). He showed no signs of being homer prone in the minors, with a respectable 0.7 HR/9 across five MiLB seasons.