Last week former Yankees reliever Jonathan Albaladejo signed a contract with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan. Another player, third baseman Marcos Vechionacci, will join him.
Vechionacci, 23, was once a pretty big prospect for the Yankees. In 2004 he had an .844 OPS while playing in Rookie-Ball and Short Season-A-Ball. He was very young then and at 18 he was promoted to Low-A Charleston. Then despite struggling there the Yankees continued to promote him and he never fulfilled his early promise.
Vech was a minor league free agent so the Yankees got no monetary return like they did with Albaladejo. Albie was still under Yankees control and they were given $1.2 million to release him. He later signed for $900,000, probably at least half a million more than he would have received with the Yankees.
No word on how much Vechionacci signed for, but he received the equivalent of a minor league contract.
