Chad Gaudin Signed by New York Yankees: Updated

There is an old saying in baseball about never having enough pitching depth. The Yankees just got another lesson in that.

The Yankees released reliever Chad Gaudin in spring training this year because they thought his price tag was not worth his depth. That’s when they thought they had plenty of depth.

Then they got bad news yesterday about Alfredo Aceves' back, and according to Mark Feinsand of the NY Daily News, they have re-signed Gaudin, who was recently released by the Oakland Athletics after opening the season 0-2 with an 8.83 ERA in 17.1 innings.

Gaudin is earning $2.95 million this year, and when the Yankees released him in March they had to pay about $737,500 of his salary. Now that they’ve re-signed him, they will only be responsible for a pro-rated portion of the major league minimum, or less than $400,000 over the rest of the season.

The funny thing about Gaudin is that I recently wrote a piece at Flushing Baseball Daily advocating that the Mets should sign him, but I never really considered him for the Yankees. That makes me think that either the Yankees liked Gaudin and regretted letting him go or that Aceves’ injury is worse than they’re letting on.

Less than a week ago Aceves was insisting that he was close to returning, but he had to cut a throwing session short yesterday. That leaves a possible return up on the air. So suddenly a little depth isn’t such a bad thing.

Now Gaudin is back, and despite his bad numbers this season, this is a good move to get him back. He’s pitched 17.1 innings so far this year and has struck out 20 batters and walked just five. His problem has been home runs. If he can manage to cut those down, this could be a solid pickup by the Yankees.

Updated

Chad Gaudin was activated by the Yankees before the start of today’s second game against the Twins. To make room for him on the roster, they optioned LHP Boone Logan to the minors. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Yankees designed Shane Lindsay for assignment (via Chad Jennings).

Lindsay was recently claimed from the Colorado Rockies.

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