The Yankees will have a former fan favorite — and their starting shortstop from the 2021 wild-card game — back in Tampa next month.
Andrew Velazquez, a Fordham Prep alum, signed a minor-league deal with the Yankees that included an invite to spring training after two seasons with the Angels and one with Gwinnett — the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate — in 2024, according to YES Network.
Near the end of the 2021 season, Velazquez blossomed into the feel-good story on a surging Yankees team after making his team debut in August as the replacement for an injured Gleyber Torres, playing 28 games the rest of the campaign and then starting their season-ending loss to the Red Sox in October.
He hit his first home run with his parents watching at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 21.
He collected two hits and drove in a pair of runs during his first start in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry.
And Velazquez, who goes by the nickname “Squid,” impressed with his glove on defense while filling in for Torres.
They lost him on waivers in the offseason, though, with the Angels snatching him and giving him a role in 125 games — where he hit .196 with a .540 OPS — during the 2022 campaign.
“The opportunity to play in New York, my hometown, was amazing,” Velazquez told The Post in Jan. 2022. “A once-in-a-lifetime experience. And the way the game works, you never know.”
When Velazquez returned to The Bronx six months later with Los Angeles, then-manager Joe Maddon called him the “best shortstop in the American League [right now] and Velazquez added that there was “no animosity or nothing” despite losing his Yankees spot in a roster crunch in the offseason.
But barring an injury, Velazquez, now 30, doesn’t necessarily have a clear path back to shortstop or the Yankees’ MLB roster this time.
Anthony Volpe, still in the minors when Velazquez cracked the Yankees’ roster, appeared in 159 and 160 games during his first two MLB seasons.
Still, if nothing else, Velazquez will get another chance to impress his hometown team again during spring training.
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