The Yankees signed veteran infielder Cliff Pennington to a minor league contract, the team announced this afternoon. He’s heading to Triple-A Scranton. Clearly, this is a move to replenish depth after Miguel Andujar and Troy Tulowitzki joined Didi Gregorius on the injured list.
Pennington, 34, went 8-for-27 (.296) with the Athletics in Spring Training, and he did travel with the team to Tokyo for the Japan Series last month. He was released after failing to make their Opening Day roster though. Pennington played a handful of games with the Reds last season and spent most of the summer in Triple-A, where he hit .211/.311/.289 (64 wRC+) in 287 plate appearances.
A career .242/.309/.339 (79 wRC+) hitter in over 3,000 big league plate appearances, Pennington has always been a glove-first utility type. Given all the injuries, he very well might be the next player call-up should the Yankees lose another infielder to the injured list. Let’s all hope that doesn’t happen.