Some people are surprised, others not so much. The New York Yankees haves designated long time backup utility infielder Eduardo Nunez for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for the current backup Yangervis Solarte. Earlier in the day the Yankees announced Solarte would wearing Nunez’s old number 26, which raised some eyebrows. From the early reports this weekend it seemed that the team would possibly designate relief pitcher Preston Claiborne, or place pitcher Nik Turley on the 60-day DL to make room, but that’s not the case now.
There was a time a when the Yankees thought Nunez was going to be the heir apparent to Derek Jeter, but since making his debut in 2010 he’s been somewhat of a disappointment. He’s continual fielding errors have made him a liability, and to be honest he has nobody to blame but himself. What’s next for Nunez? Well the 10-day DFA clock has begun ticking down. GM Brian Cashman was asked about possibly trading Nunez, he said “stay tuned”. If nothing materializes in trade department and I doubt it will, then he will hit waiver wire. At that point I don’t see him clearing waivers. There are quite a few teams in need of an experienced young shortstop right now, including AL East rivals, the Toronto Blue Jays.
It’s kind of hard to sum an article about player that’s brought mixed emotions to Yankee fans, but manager Joe Girardi might of summed it up best when asked about the 26-year-old Nunez this afternoon. “At times clubs get into roster crunches and sometimes you have to put a good player on waivers, I’ve said all along, it’s someone that we’ve been very fond of. A great guy in the clubhouse. It’s tough but we’ll see what happens.” For now it looks like we bid farewell to Eduardo Nunez and good luck.
