Return Of Aaron Judge Spells The End Of Another Brother As Yankees Release Willie Calhoun

When it comes to mainstream media, the spotlight and focus when it comes to a superstar’s injury is about the severity of the injury, the length of time on the injured list and the date of return. Since Aaron Judge tore his ligament in his toe, the New York Yankees waited patiently for his return, which was at the Baltimore Orioles last Friday.

 

 

It didn’t take long for the reigning MLBbro MVP to make a major impact and bring hope for the Yankees postseason chances. In Judge’s second game back, he went 3-5 with two RBI and a 442-foot blast into the cheap seats.

 

 

However, the most overlooked part of stories like this is the player who gets released so all these great things can happen. In this case, in order for Aaron Judge to return, another MLBbro was designated for assignment. In English, that means let go.

The Yankees released OF/DH Willie Calhoun last Friday. The team had brought Calhoun back to the roster after being on the 10-Day Injured List with a left quad strain.

 

 

During his short stint with the Yankees, this bro had a batting average of .239 with five homers and 16 RBI in 44 games. In Calhoun’s career, which includes time with the Yankees, San Francisco Giants (2022) and the Texas Rangers (2017-22), he has a career batting average of .240 with 37 round-trippers and 120 RBI in 301 games.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone had high praise for Calhoun, but as it turned out, he got caught up in the numbers game.

“[Calhoun] did a nice job with us,” manager Aaron Boone said before the Yankees took on the Orioles Friday night. “Really enjoy the person, too. He was a guy that was a lot of fun to be around, while also taking advantage of some opportunities and doing a really nice job with us. So those are the hard decisions that sometimes have to come up in the course of the season.”

 

What’s next for our MLBbro Willie Calhoun?
If MLBbro.com is being honest, Willie Calhoun’s career in baseball is cloudy at best and just unknown at worst.

 

The Bright Side:
If Calhoun can stay healthy, there is potential for him to be a platoon option and occasional offensive punch coming off the bench as a pinch-hitter.

Assuming that he makes it through waivers without any takers, Calhoun can go the free agent route (Think Aaron Hicks’ situation) and possibly get signed to a team directly. If a contender doesn’t make a splash at the trade deadline, a cheap low-risk option could be ideal for our MLBbro for an audition.

At 28, Calhoun is still young. Maybe a change of scenery with more opportunities (As if Willie Calhoun was going to start over Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton!) can save his career.

 

The Dark Side:
If Willie Calhoun wants to keep his Major League Baseball career going, he’s going to have to find a way to stay healthy. Injuries are close to derailing his career. Remember he was just coming off the 10-day IL when he was DFA’d.

His career high for games played in a season is only 83 with the Texas Rangers back in 2019.

The message is clear here. If a team does give Calhoun a chance, it might be his last if he brings the injury bug with him. His resume is dominated by his injury history and it may scare teams that are thinking about signing or trading for him.

 

Retroactive as of Friday, the New York Yankees have seven days to either trade Willie Calhoun or place him on waivers. Let’s see how this plays out next week.