The Yankees announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander . They signed the lefty to a minor league deal after he was released by the Blue Jays last month. They optioned after Wednesdays game and designated Grayson Greiner Jersey earlier this week, meaning they already had a vacancy on both the active and 40-man rosters. Its been a strange year for Mayza, who had a strong run for the Jays before everything seemed to come off the rails this year. From 2017 to 2023, he made 317 appearances for the Jays, despite mi sing the 2020 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. In that stretch, he allowed 3.47 earned runs per nine innings. He struck out 25.7% of batters faced, walked just 7.8% of opponents and got ground balls on 54.4% of balls in play. He racked up four saves and 77 holds in that period. But here in 2024, his 35 appearances for the Jays were disastrous, leading to an 8.04 ERA. He surely wasnt helped by a .367 batting average on balls in play or his 54.8% strand rate, but he also only struck out 13.2% of batters faced. He was designated for a signment by the Jays at the end of June. Since he had pa sed five years of service time this year, he earned the right to reject an outright a signment while retaining his $3.59MM salary. The Jays skipped that formality and released him, leaving them on the hook for the rest of that money. The Yankees signed him to a minor league deal and sent him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He has since made nine appearances for the RailRiders, allowing two earned runs in 8 1/3 innings. He has struck out eight opponents against three walks. That will get him another shot in the big leagues, giving manager a second left-handed option alongside . Now that Mayza has more than five years of service, he cant be optioned to the minors without his consent. But if he manages to stick around, he can be retained via arbitration for the 2025 season. For now, its a fairly low-risk move, as the Yankees will only have to pay Mayza the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That amount will be subtracted from what the Jays pay, which will make a small dent in their competitive balance tax calculation. Last week, Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro the Jays were just under the tax line but that the situation was fluid. Johnny Pesky Jersey