Manny Banuelos was in the Yankees’ clubhouse Wednesday night, as one of the players tabbed to make the trip to Tampa for the Yankees-Rays series as part of the Bombers’ taxi squad.
He wasn’t there as an active player, but just being in the Yankee Stadium clubhouse for the first time was a bucket list item for the lefty, finally achieved 14 years, several organizations, three countries, and a lot of struggle after the Yankees signed him back in 2008.
“There’s a lot of emotion for me. It’s been a long journey to make it here, and finally I did it,” Banuelos said. “I’m really excited.”
The active part was then rectified Thursday, as the Yankees officially added Banuelos to the 26-man roster, using the spot opened when the team optioned lefty JP Sears back to Triple-A after his spot start Wednesday night, and the 40-man spot opened when catcher Rob Brantly was DFA after Wednesday’s game as well.
The culmination of a long journey for a once-heralded lefty, who was once upon a time a Top 50 prospect in the game but has thrown just 77 major-league innings so far.
“The last two years I’ve pitched in Taiwan, but the dream was always there to pitch in the Big Leagues with the Yankees,” he said. “When I got the chance to re-sign here, I didn’t have to think about it, I said yes. I wanted to make the Big Leagues here, and I did it, I’m here. It’s a dream come true.”
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Banuelos impressed in spring training, leading some to wonder if he would make the team out of camp, but he went to Triple-A and had a 2.35 ERA in 30 2/3 innings for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Five of his seven outings were as a starter, but he now comes up to join a bullpen that has lost Chad Green, Aroldis Chapman, and Jonathan Loaisiga to injury over the last week.
Where the 31-year-old slots in remains to be seen, as the pecking order is fluid outside of Clay Holmes as the closer right now, but just being a Yankee is a second first chance he wondered if he’d ever get.
A decade ago, Banuelos was one-third of the Yankees’ heralded “Killer B’s” – a trio of pitching prospects, all of whose surnames began with B, expected to be rotation fixtures for years to come. However, as GM Brian Cashman always says, ‘prospects are suspects until proven otherwise,’ and none of that worked out as planned.
Andrew Brackman, the statuesque 2007 draftee with the rocket right arm, was basically an earlier Clarke Schmidt: a first-round pick who needed Tommy John surgery right away, but was expected to overcome. He did make it to the majors in 2011 and pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings over three games, but the Yankees declined to tender him in 2012, and after spending that year with the Reds (mostly in High-A) and an injury-plagued 2013 in the White Sox system, he hung up his cleats.
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Dellin Betances also arrived as a 2011 call-up and started that year’s memorable Game 162, but control issues pushed him all the way back to Double-A before he came up for good in 2014, and became one of the best relievers in baseball. Over a five-year span, Betances was a four-time All-Star and set Yankees records, but a shoulder injury followed by a torn Achilles ruined his 2019, and he has pitched only 13 1/3 MLB innings over the last three-plus seasons, and is now rehabbing another injury with the Dodgers.
And then there’s Banuelos, who also had Tommy John in 2012 and never quite got over the hump, dealt to Atlanta on New Year’s Day 2015 instead of heading to camp with the Yankees that spring.
He made his MLB debut in 2015 and pitched 26 1/3 innings over seven outings for the Braves, but posted a 6.71 ERA in doing so – and thus began a second phase of his career where he bounced from the Braves to the Angels to the Dodgers to the White Sox, pitching 50 2/3 innings in Chicago in 2019 before heading overseas for two years.
And now, full circle, Banuelos is in Tampa in an actual Yankees uniform for the first time, ready to make the debut he had hoped to make many years earlier.
“A lot of people are telling me that it was supposed to happen like 10 years ago, but it’s never too late, and I never gave up,” Banuelos said. “This is my dream, so it was very emotional when they told me I had to go to Yankee Stadium. I was in shock, to be honest.”
He called his family upon finding out, and when he got to Tampa, he found a familiar number on the jersey hanging in his locker: No. 68, formerly worn by fellow Killer B Betances – and now blessed by his former teammate for the lefty to wear.
“In Spring Training, he called me and said, ‘Man, I just watched you on TV. You look good,’” Banuelos said. “I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m using your number,’ and he said, ‘No, no, keep using it. I like it. I like to see that 68 on your back.’”
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