TRENTON- With the flurry of moves the Yankees made before the MLB trade deadline, it was a lock that some of the prospects would end up in Trenton, sooner or later. J.P. Feyereisen falls into the sooner category. The relief pitcher, who came over in the Andrew Miller trade with Cleveland, moved from Akron to the Thunder. He jumps...
TRENTON- With the flurry of moves the Yankees made before the MLB trade deadline, it was a lock that some of the prospects would end up in Trenton, sooner or later.
J.P. Feyereisen falls into the sooner category. The relief pitcher, who came over in the Andrew Miller trade with Cleveland, moved from Akron to the Thunder. He jumps from the thick of one pennant race to another, with the white-hot Thunder just three games back of Reading in the Eastern Division standings.
Trenton also started the day six games up on the Hartford Yard Goats, who happen to be in town for a three-game set starting Tuesday night, for the second playoff spot from the division. So bringing in Feyereisen, who was 4-3, with a 2.33 ERA and six saves with the RubberDucks, should bolster the already strong Thunder bullpen.
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"A couple of days ago I got the call," Feyereisen said. "I actually was woken up in the morning by the Indians minor league coordinator, Carter Hawkins. He called me, woke me up, and said I was traded to the Yankees, and Brian Cashman would be giving me a call."
"It is great," Feyereisen said. "We were in the playoff race over there, but now we are looking like we can win this side. It is going to be a lot of fun down the stretch here."
Thunder manager Bobby Mitchell was excited to get another quality arm for an already-strong pen.
"Yeah, it is always a good thing to welcome an arm like that, for sure," Mitchell said. "He will fit right in to our bullpen. I am not sure how we are going to use him in the beginning. He will be off today (Tuesday) with the trade, so he will be ready to go tomorrow."
Feyereisen indeed watched on as his new team beat Hartford 11-4, with an eight-run rally in the bottom of the eighth inning. It moved the Thunder to 69-40, and gave them a seven game cushion over Hartford.
Feyereisen faced the Thunder just twice this year with Akron. He was tagged for three runs in a 6-1 Trenton win on April 23, but came back on May 2 and struck out the side in the top of the ninth for a 2-1 Akron win. But with just two innings of work against his side, Mitchell has limited memory of the 23-year-old righty.
"He has a big arm," Mitchell said. "We faced him twice, and he did well once and we got him once. He was their closer then. So he has that mentality, which is huge, for any type of reliever when you come in. He is a big, strong kid, and we are really happy to have him here to help an already-strong bullpen."
"Right now, he will be in the middle," Mitchell said. "He will probably slide in to the fifth-sixth, sixth-seventh type of guy. Then we will see how it goes from there. I don't know how things are going to pan out in our bullpen coming up, so it is kind of hard to see."
For now, Feyereisen is ready to help his new team in any role that he can.
"Honestly, I don't know (where they will end up putting him)," Feyereisen said. "I am most likely going to be a short-stint guy, one or two innings. Hopefully it is in game situations that we can win ballgames."
"If they want to put me in the closing role, I would be comfortable there," Feyereisen said. "I have done it before. I am sure that they are winning a lot of ballgames here, so it would be fun to pitch a lot of innings."
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Two Thunder players were called up to Triple A Scranton Wilkes-Barre. Pitcher Jordan Montgomery (9-4, 2.55 ERA) and infielder Cito Culver (.252, 40 RBI) made the jump, and it is not sure if either will be back for the stretch run. But with reinforcements on the way from Tampa, the Thunder may not miss a beat in their chase of Reading for an Eastern Division title.
Contact Sean Miller at seanmillertrentontimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheProdigalSean