In what has become par for the course this season, the Yankees have once again filled out their major league roster with a reject from another organization.
They have done this so many times this year that you become numb to it. They will use Travis Ishikawa until they feel he no longer fits their needs, then dump him. The Yankees are pretty much operating like a temp agency right now - players come to them looking for a job, and they give them temporary employment until they find someone who better fits their needs.
Ishikawa is an interesting case, because he doesn't appear (on the surface) to offer very much. He doesn't offer much versatility, as he is a first baseman with three games of right field experience on his resume. He bats left-handed, so he isn't a platoon candidate alongside Lyle Overbay. He isn't good enough to steal at-bats from Travis Hafner, either.
The question then becomes: Why did they sign him in the first place? I believe the answer can be derived just looking at the 9th inning today. Down one run, the Yankees were forced to allow Luis Cruz to hit. At the very least, Ishikawa would have provided them a Hail Mary pass to jerk one into the right field seats in that situation. That essentially was Brennan Boesch's role at the start of the season, before it was determined he was better off playing every day in the minors. Boesch is now injured, so he obviously was not available.
Ishikawa owns a pedestrian career slash of .260/.324/.399 in 857 career PA with 19 home runs. Many of those plate appearances did come in San Francisco, which is not a great home run park for left-handed bats (ignore Barry Bonds' career there, for a second). He does now a .739 OPS in his career vs. RHP, which is decent but not spectacular enough for you to think he is going to be a difference maker.
Even without Boesch, the Yankees did have other options. Dan Johnson is a career .237/.338/.412 hitter in 1,550 plate appearances, offering them more plate discipline and power. His career OPS vs. RHP is .750, and he actually can also handle left-handed pitching (.751). As with Ishikawa, those numbers aren't overwhelming - but they are better than what Ishikawa can provide.
If you, like many, think the Yankees should be looking to add right-handed punch instead, they do have veteran Randy Ruiz sitting in Scranton. Signed as a free agent out of the Mexican League earlier this year, Ruiz has gone on a power binge for Scranton, with eight home runs in 23 games. He is old (35) with very limited major league experience (238 PA), but he does have power and would fit in nicely as a right-handed hitter off of the bench. Of course, with the emergence of Zoilo Almonte, Vernon Wells has found himself on the bench more often as the primary right-handed bat.
Although I have written a long post about this, in the end, this really isn't a major deal. The Yankees have a 7-game week this week heading into the All-Star Break, and Overbay has been playing a lot lately. Ishikawa will probably be used to spare him and as a pinch-hitting option late in games. If his role becomes any more than that, the Yankees are in more trouble than we already thought they were.
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