The Yankees acquired longtime Giants outfielder Austin Slater in a trade with the White Sox.
The New York Yankees acquired former San Francisco Giants outfielder Austin Slater on Wednesday in a trade with the Chicago White Sox, according to a report by Jack Curry of the YES Network. The Yankees will send right-handed pitching prospect Gage Ziehl to the White Sox in the trade. Slater will provide the Yankees with a right-handed platoon bat capable of playing all three outfield positions. In that role with Chicago this season, he has hit .236/.299/.423 with six doubles, a triple, and five home runs in 135 plate appearances (51 games).
Slater was drafted by the Giants in the eighth round back in 2014 out of Stanford, starting a decade long tenure with the organization. Slater made his big-league debut with the Giants in 2017 and remained a key part of the team’s outfield rotation for the remainder of his time. Across eight MLB seasons with San Francisco, Slater hit .254/.344/.391 with 39 home runs and 47 stolen bases in 593 games.
Injuries and inconsistent production against right-handed pitching have long prevented Slater from securing a larger everyday role in the majors. With that said, he’s proved valuable when deployed sparingly. It’s also worth noting that advanced metrics believe he has suffered from significant bad luck so far this season. His expected statistics like xWOBA (.389), xBA (.289), xSLG (.570), average exit velocity (92.2), and barrel rate (15.7%) would all rank among the league’s elite if he qualified.