The New York Yankees have reportedly resigned Cito Culver to a minor league deal and released Michael O’Neill.
According to Pinstriped Prospects, the New York Yankees have re-signed shortstop Cito Culver to a minor league deal while also releasing Michael O’Neill.
Culver was selected in the first round (32nd pick) of the 2010 MLB June Amateur Draft from Irondequoit High School and has played a total of 736 games in each level of the farm system.
The career .232 minor league hitter played in 32 games at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre over the last two seasons and slashed .276/.333/.333 with a .667 OPS.
The 24-year old has hit 27 career home runs and a .956 fielding percentage as a shortstop over the past seven seasons.
Culver played a bulk of his games at shortstop but did see some time at third (15 games) and second (39) between Double-A and Triple-A last season.
Michael, or Paul O’Neill’s nephew, was taken in the third round of the 2013 MLB June Amateur Draft from the University of Michigan by the Yankees and unfortunately hasn’t had the same success of his uncle.
In 60 games at Double-A Trenton in 2016, the 24-year old outfielder slashed .233/.289/.318 while striking out in 49 of his 176 at-bats (28%).
Before reaching the Electric City, however, he hit .276 and stole seven out of eight attempts in 35 games in Tampa. Over his four-year career, O’Neill’s OPS was a mere .640 but he did manage to pack a gold glove (.995 fielding percentage in RF).