Yerry De Los Santos, Yankee for a minute?

Every now and then, in the bowel movement of a dreary month - like, well, now - the Death Barge briefly brings aboard a new and mysterious stranger, much like the episode of Gilligan's Island where a loopy, beefcake surfer rides a tsunami all the way to their tropical paradise, prompting a lustful competition between Ginger and Marianne, which eventually requires the castaways to band together and convince the interloper to surf back to civilization. (Note: He hits his head on a rock and suffers amnesia - shocker here - stranding the group for another season.)  

In this case, the wandering traveler signs a Yankee contract, fills a roster slot, gets replaced by a slightly warmer body and surfs off into the cold, cruel winter. And for the rest of his life, he can appear at Ramada Inn card conventions under a sign that says, "Former Yankee..."

Whatever.

That's how I see yesterday's signing of Yerry De Los Santos, a 25-year-old (turns 26 Dec. 12) bullpen lug nut, by way of Pittsburgh, whose 3.33 ERA last year (over 24 scattered innings) would have placed him between Ryan Webber (3.14) and Anthony Misiewictz (3.38) in the 2023 Yankee pig book.

De Los Santos throws a sinker, which the Yankee AI brain trust likes. He's a 6'2" righty from the Dominican Republic, with two minor league options, who won't become a free agent until 2029, when we're all dead anyway,  so - I mean - WHATEVER. He sorta fills the pre-Thanksgiving news gap, which is increasingly filled by things like pickleball, cornhole and pumpkin chucking. 

But there's a reason why I'm devoting an entire post to him today, and it's the effortless way his name rolls over your gin-bloated tongue.

Yerry De Los Santos. 

Lyrical, no? Up there with my all-time fave: Ramiro Mendoza. 

Let the record show that Yerry De Los Santos donned a Yankee cap in the cold final months of 2023. I mean no disrespect, but my bet is that he'll be gone by Dec. 31, replaced by a Moonlight Graham. Who knows, maybe a rogue wave will take him to another city, another team. As for us Yank fans? This is a tale of our castaways. We're here for a long, long time...