With a little more than three weeks left in the regular season, a tight playoff race, like the one the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays are engaged in, could turn on the most trifling plays, ones that might easily be overlooked on a weeknight in May: a groundout that advances a runner, a bobble that kills the chance to turn a double play or an outfielder hitting (or missing) the cutoff man.
It was with this in mind that the Yankees, on July 2, signed a minor league outfielder named Rico Noel after he asked for his release from the San Diego Padres.