The theme of the New York Yankees’ Tuesday was the number two:

With a waiver pickup, they officially have an infielder named Jeter (Downs) for the second time. He can’t wear No. 2, though, as the Yankees retired it for his namesake.

And since they acquired Alex Verdugo from the Red Sox earlier this month, they now have two of the three players sent to Boston in the 2020 Mookie Betts trade. Only Connor Wong remains.

The four-year anniversary of that trade – arguably the most significant since the sale of Babe Ruth – is almost exactly two months away. Since that fateful day, Downs has gone from the top prospect in the transaction to a twice-designated-for-assignment infielder. The Red Sox cut him loose last offseason, and the Washington Nationals did the same last week, enabling the Yankees to claim him.

Downs has only played 20 career games in the Majors – 14 with the ’22 Red Sox, six with the ’23 Nats – but his new organization got more of a look at him than almost any other team. Downs’ first career hit, runs scored, and RBI came against the Yankees at Fenway Park on July 9, 2022, his second Major League game. It was none other than Verdugo who brought him home for the winning run.

Less than two weeks later, Downs collected his first big-league double and home run against the Yankees in the Bronx. The whole situation was so surreal that Derek Jeter offered congratulations on X (then Twitter).

“Had the chance to meet @jeter2downs a few years ago (he wasn’t with the Red Sox then),” his namesake wrote. “Congratulations and good luck… unless you are playing the Yankees.”

Hitting back

Not to be outdone by their rivals, the Red Sox hired Dillon Lawson for a hitting coordinator position in the upper level of their minor league system.

It’s an interesting hire because of how Lawson’s time in the Bronx ended. The Yankees brought him into the fold in ’18, and promoted him to Major League hitting coach before the ’22 season. This past July, he became the first mid-season firing of Brian Cashman’s general manager tenure, which dates back to ’98.

In other news

Andrew McCutchen is returning to Pittsburgh once again. The veteran outfielder has a one-year, $5 million deal with the Pirates, who selected him 11th overall in the first round of the ’05 draft. He debuted with the club in ’09 and played nine seasons in black and yellow. Between ’11-’15, he was an All-Star each year, and won four consecutive Silver Sluggers and a Gold Glove in ’12. He earned National League MVP honors in ’13, and finished in the top-five in voting the year before and for two season after.

After splitting the ’18 season between the Giants and Yankees, McCutchen spent three seasons with the Phillies and one with the Brewers before returning to Pittsburgh last year.