Manny Bañuelos

Manuel Bañuelos

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 10", Weight 205 lb.

• Debut July 2, 2015

• Born March 13, 1991 in Gomez Palacio, Durango MEX

BR page

Biographical Information

Manny Bañuelos was signed by scout Lee Sigman for the New York Yankees in 2008. He debuted the same year, going 4-1 with a 2.57 ERA for the GCL Yankees. After a strong start with the 2009 Charleston Riverdogs, the Mexican southpaw was chosen for the 2009 Futures Game.

In 2011, Bañuelos attended Yankees spring training for the first time and impressed with his poise and polish after pitching a perfect inning against the Detroit Tigers and two scoreless frames against the Boston Red Sox in his first taste of Grapefruit League action. His career hit a snag, as he made only 7 starts for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in 2011, going 2-2, 4.19, and was limited to 6 starts for the same team the next year. He missed the entire 2013 season and had to re-establish himself from scratch in 2014. He began that season with the Class A Tampa Yankees, making five starts but pitching only 12 1/3 innings, then moved up to the Double A Trenton Thunder. In 17 games, including 16 starts, he was kept on a short leash, pitching 49 innings, but he began to show results with only 40 hits allowed and 44 strikeouts. He was back at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to end the season, making another 4 starts and pitching 15 innings. Altogether, he was 2-3, 4.11, with 76 2/3 innings of work in 26 games, 25 starts. Having now shown that he was healthy, he was traded to the Atlanta Braves on January 1, 2015, in return for two relievers with major league experience, David Carpenter and Chasen Shreve.

Bañuelos made his long-awaited big league debut in July with the Bravos, pitching 5 2/3 innings with no earned runs and 7 strikeouts against the Washington Nationals. His night came to an end after back to back hit by pitches of Denard Span and Danny Espinosa. At the end of July, it was discovered he had a bone spur in his elbow. He was back briefly in September before going under the knife to end his season. Bañuelos experienced elbow discomfort in spring training the next season, making his season's debut with the Low A Rome Braves on a rehab assignment. He ended up all the way down to Double A Mississippi before being designated for assignment on August 12. Manny spent the 2017 season in the Los Angeles Angels organization and was a Triple A All-Star with the Oklahoma City Dodgers in 2018. On November 1, 2018, he was acquired by the Chicago White Sox in exchange for minor leaguer Justin Yurchak. He made the team as a swingman, enduring a 3-4, 6.93 campaign in 16 games (8 starts) and 50 2/3 innings. Against the Boston Red Sox on May 4, 2019, he surrendered nine earned runs in a single inning. Following the season's conclusion, he was outrighted off the 40-man roster and signed with the Seattle Mariners for 2020. However, he did not appear in the majors that season, being released in late May when teams began to trim their minor league roster during the COVID-19 pandemic by releasing marginal players. He then headed to the Chinese Professional Baseball League, going 6-3, 26.0 with the Fubon Guardians. He was back with Fubon at the start of 2021 and went 1-2, 2.94, then finished the season in the Mexican League with the Sultanes de Monterrey. after pitching for Mexico in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the games having been pushed back by a year by the pandemic.

He finally got to pitch with the Yankees on June 3, 2022, 14 years after first signing with them, when he recorded the final six outs of a 13-0 win over the Detroit Tigers, taking over after Gerrit Cole had given up only one hit in the first 7 innings. He had signed with the Yankees as a free agent on March 13th and had begun the season as a starting pitcher with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. He was 0-2, 2.35 in 7 games when he got the call to the Big Apple. He pitched 4 times for the Yankees, giving up 2 runs in 8 1/3 innings then was purchased by the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 3rd. In his first game for his new team on July 6th, he gave up a grand slam to former teammate Aaron Judge on his way to coughing 5 runs in a third of an inning in a 16-0 loss.

Further Reading

• Justice delos Santos: "Persistence paying off for Bañuelos in Pittsburgh: One-time uber pitching prospect weathers injuries, nomadic baseball journey to bolster Bucs bullpen", mlb.com, October 1, 2022. [1]
• Bryan Hoch: "14 years after signing, Bañuelos makes Yankees debut", mlb.com, June 4, 2022. [2]

Related Sites

• Manny Banuelos on mlb.com
• BR Minors page
• Article from mlb.com