The Yankees added depth behind the plate with a familiar face.
The New York Yankees have added some catching depth in wake of their Trade Deadline activity. The day after a 6-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch reported that New York had signed 36-year-old backstop Rob Brantly to a minor-league deal. The team assigned him to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders once it became official.
Brantly’s name might be familiar to some, as he was with the Yankees earlier in his career. The 2010 Tigers’ third-round pick out of UC Riverside was already in the journeyman phase by the time he joined them in December 2020. Brantly played in the organization from 2021-22 and saw some brief action at the big-league level within that short span, playing in seven games while registering 24 plate appearances. He slashed .174/.208/.261 for a .469 OPS — a forgettable figure, though he did have one fun moment when he doubled to break up a May 2022 perfect game attempt by then-White Sox pitcher Michael Kopech.
Brantly served as the third catcher on the depth chart behind the likes of Gary Sánchez, Kyle Higashioka, and Jose Trevino. He’ll likely serve in a similar role for Ben Rice and Austin Wells, though J.C. Escarra is ahead of him as well. Since leaving the Yankees, Brantly has had cups of coffee with the Rays and Marlins, last appearing in the majors for Miami this past April until a lat strain and knee inflammation had him on the shelf. He appeared in 12 games for Triple-A Jacksonville before getting released a week ago.
Brantly joins the Yankees’ Triple-A club at a time when catching is at a premium. Escarra returned to the Yankees when Amed Rosario was put on the IL, and even though the latter is not expected to be out for long, the RailRiders really only had 24-year-old backstop Omar Martinez (organizational catcher Edinson Duran briefly appeared to bridge the gap). And Martinez was only just promoted after the Trade Deadline, when Scranton’s Jesus Rodriguez and Rafael Flores were sent to the San Francisco Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates, as part of package for Camilo Doval and David Bednar, respectively.
The odds that Brantly will see major league action is unlikely, unless something unfortunate and unprecedented occurs. But the main purpose of bringing him back to the organization is to provide some depth, which he has done in the past and can continue to do throughout the remainder of the 2025 campaign.
