Written by Greg Fertel | 04 February 2009

Chase Wright, recently removed from the Yankees' 40-man roster and designated for assignment to make room for Andy Pettitte, has been traded to the Brewers for C/LF Eric Fryer.  Fryer was a 10th-round pick of Ohio State in 2007.  Fryer put up some nice numbers in the SAL last season, hitting .335 with 10 homers and a .914 OPS.  However, he was 23 at the time, so he was old for the league.

From his stats, he seems like he is a good contact hitter with some decent pop and pretty good speed (15 steals against 3 caught).  I have no idea how good his defense is and if he is projected to stay at catcher, but he did split time between catching and leftfield this past season.  He is unlikely to make the majors as a Yankee, but the benefit that he does offer over Wright is that he does not take up a spot on the 40-man roster.  Fryer will probably start the season in Tampa if they move him to the outfield, since I think both Romine and Montero are ticketed to catch.  If he stays at catcher, he may go back to the SAL or could possibly get pushed to Trenton if they think he is ready.  Wright was unlikely to make it back to the bigs as a Yankee due to their pitching logjam, but hopefully he'll do better with a change of scenery.

I'm getting ready to post my top 30 writeups, so stay tuned.

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