Ex-Guardians farmhand just had Yankees call up announced in one of the oddest ways possible 

Last November, the Cleveland Guardians released reliever Bradley Hanner to almost no fanfare. And why should there have been? 

Hanner had just finished a season pitching exclusively for Triple-A Columbus, which meant he left the team as a minor league free agent. And he elected free agency at the same time as Parker Mushinski, Christian Cairo and Tyler Naquin (who was attempting to come back as a reliever). 

But Hanner was thrust right onto the phone screen of every baseball fan when MLB insider Jeff Passan tweeted that the Yankees were calling Hanner up to their big league bullpen after a strong showing at Triple-A. 

While the idea of Passan reporting a call-up before it happens isn’t foreign considering he’s the premier MLB insider, there are plenty of prospect promotions that occur every day that Passan never tweets about. But that’s the Yankees for you. 

Bradley Hanner is getting an opportunity with the Yankees that he never got with Guardians 

As Passan noted in his tweet, Hanner’s recorded a 2.10 ERA in 51 1/3 innings pitching out of the bullpen for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. 

While whatever game Hanner gets into will be his big league debut, this is the second time he’s been called up this season, as the Yankees called him up after the All-Star break after he triggered an opt-out in his deal, but he never got into a game before being sent back down to the minor leagues. 

He’s struck out 29% of the batters he’s faced off along with 11.4% walk rate, which shows that he still has some command issues.

Those command issues were evident last year with the Guardians, as he walked 25 batters in 49 1/3 innings last year with the Clippers along with having a 4.74 ERA. 

He first arrived in Cleveland’s system after the Guardians picked himin the Minor League portion of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. 

He made an immediate impression at Double-A in 2023 (2.78 ERA in 64 2/3 innings). He pitched even better at the level in 2024 (2.77 ERA in 55 1/3 innings), which helped him earn a promotion to Triple-A. 

But his performance fizzled out at the level, which is why he never earned a big league call-up with the Guardians. 

Now he’ll get a shot with the Yankees bullpen that has a 3.11 ERA, which is the second-best mark among relief units in baseball.

Even though Hanner won’t fit into the back of New York’s bullpen, they have a clear need for someone to fill some low-leverage innings after Kervin Castro was placed on the injured list. 

Although the Guardians’ bullpen is (theoretically) one of the team's strengths, it’s still a bit disappointing to see the Yankees be able to unlock something with Hanner that Cleveland’s pitching lab wasn’t able to do. 

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