Yankees land intriguing international catcher via trade with Pirates

While the baseball world waits for Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s decision between the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, and potentially the New York Mets, general manager Brian Cashman continues to make smaller moves.

On Thursday, the Yankees traded outfielder Billy McKinney to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for international pool money. Fortunately, the Yankees had their eyes on one interesting catcher and they used their new cash considerations to acquire him out of the Dominican Republic. For $450K, Capellan will join the Yankees farm system, another catcher with upside.

Yankees Must Like Capellan’s Upside

There isn’t much out there about Capellan aside from a few older workout videos. Capellan is 17 years old, standing at 6-foot and 160 pounds. With a bit more size, he could be a great physical specimen to develop in the Yankees’ farm system. The expectation is he will start with the Florida Complex League along with several other international players, notably Roderick Arias.

Arias is an exciting young player who underwent season-ending surgery on his hand last year. At 19 years old, though, he was hitting .267/.423/.505 across 27 games, including six homers and 26 RBIs in the complex league.