Yankees Sign Former Highly Touted Player Amid Recent Slump

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The New York Yankees are searching for answers.

The New York Yankees are searching for answers after losing six of their last 10 games heading into the team’s August 13, 2025, matchup against the Minnesota Twins. New York is now in danger of missing the MLB playoffs.

The Yankees added some depth at catcher by signing 10-Year veteran Rob Brantly, who will start his latest Yankees stint in the minor leagues. New York’s minor league Triple-A affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders announced the news.

Most recently, Brantly played three games for the Miami Marlins in 2025. Brantly previously played two years for the Yankees from 2021-22.

Here’s what you need to know about the Yankees’ outlook with the postseason fast approaching.

Rob Brantly Is Unlikely to Make a Major Impact for the Yankees

Ideally, Brantly will not be relied on by the Yankees, but the team traded away some of the team’s prospects at catcher. The addition of Brantly gives New York some added depth in case of a series of unfortunate injuries.

“The Yankees have signed veteran catcher Rob Brantly to a minor league deal, per an announcement from their Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliate,” MLB Trade Rumors’ Steve Adams wrote in an August 12, story titled, “Yankees Sign Rob Brantly To Minor League Deal.” “He’ll return to the Yankees organization and provide some depth behind the plate.

“… The Yankees are set at catcher in the majors, with Austin Wells, J.C. Escarra and Ben Rice all on the roster. They traded catching prospects Rafael Flores and Jesus Rodriguez in respective deals to bring David Bednar and Camilo Doval into the bullpen. Brantly will help to replenish some of that lost upper-level catching depth.”

After a standout college career at UC Riverside, Brantly was once a touted prospect. The Detroit Tigers selected Brantly in the third round of the 2010 MLB draft.

Aaron Boone on Yankees’ Slump: ‘We’re in Control of Things’

There continues to be mounting pressure on Yankees manager Aaron Boone, but there is no sign New York will make a change this offseason. Despite the team’s inconsistent play, Boone remains confident, at least publicly, that the Yankees can turn things around to make a run in October.

“The game is littered with dead and buried teams,” Boone said on August 10, per The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner. “We’re in playoff position right now. We’ve been through two bad months where we haven’t performed at a level we need to. Go back the year before, the year before, you can pick out a number of teams that are sitting in a worse position than we are right now that go on a run. We have the people to do that, no doubt in my mind. It’s just sitting here as talk right now.

“We haven’t been good enough the last two months. This is different than ’23 where I didn’t think we were necessarily capable of that run that we needed to really get hot. We were out of it at that point. This is different. We’re in a position right now where we’re in control of things. We’re in a playoff spot, technically. I believe we have the people to get it done. We got to play consistent baseball, period.”

Jonathan Adams is a veteran sports contributor covering the NFL, NBA and golf for Heavy.com. His work has been prominently featured on NFL.com, Yahoo Sports, Pro Football Talk, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and Sports Illustrated. More about Jonathan Adams