Yankees Decline Andrew Brackman's Option

The New York Yankees declined their 2012 option on prospect Andrew Brackman, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters in a conference call (via Marc Carig of the Star-Ledger). The Yankees were forced to release Brackman if they didn't pick up any of his options through 2013.

As ESPN's Keith Law notes, Brackman's salary for 2012 under the option would have been $500K in the minors and $1MM in the majors. Scott Boras and Andrew Brackman easily got the best of this deal, arguably one of the worst draft deals ever, Jim Callis of Baseball America notes.

The 25-year-old spent most of the 2011 season in Class Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he posted a 6.00 ERA, 7.0 K/9, 7.0 BB/9 in 96 innings. One of Brackman's most memorable (for the worse) performances came on July 29, 2011 against the Mets' Triple-A affiliate. Brackman allowed 3 runs in 3.1 innings, despite not allowing a hit, because he walked 9 batters during the outing.

Brackman, a former two-sport standout in high school and college, was drafted 30th overall in 2007 by the Yankees. He missed all of 2008 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, and the command might still be missing as of a result of the surgery.