Yankees sign reliever Heath Bell to minor league deal

No official announcement has been made, but the Yankees have apparently signed former All-Star closer Heath Bell, and as Mark Feinsand points out, assigned him to the Triple-A squad in Scranton. John Harvey was the first to report the news, and he said that RHP Mark Montgomery was sent down to Double-A Trenton to make room for Bell in Scranton.

Bell, once one of the best closers in baseball while with the San Diego Padres, has been awful the past couple of seasons since he was traded to the Miami Marlins in 2012. He started this season with the Tampa Bay Rays, and was far beyond terrible, giving up 14 runs in 17.1 innings.

He was let go by the Rays back in May, then found his way to the Baltimore Orioles' minor league system, but opted out of his contract last recently.

So this is the third AL East team that Heath has joined this season. The first two didn't work out, but who's to say that he can't turn things around and eventually work his way up to the big league bullpen in the Bronx?

I'll have some more on this shortly.

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