Greene gets big league call from Triple-A

NEW YORK -- When right-hander Shane Greene got the call to the big leagues, he was already on the phone. Even though he didn't recognize the number, he put his parents on hold and accepted the second call. Good thing, too, as the voice on the other line belonged to the Yankees' senior vice president of baseball operations, Mark Newman, who told Greene he'd be joining the Major League club from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday.

"When I clicked back over, I told [my parents] the news," Greene said.

Even though it was a "dream come true," he said, his parents "were a little bit more emotional than I was."

Greene was the Yankees' Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2013 after going 12-10 with a 3.38 ERA and performed well in Spring Training, but even he was surprised by the timing of this call.

"I thought it was going to happen at some point [this year]," he said. "I didn't really think it was going to be this early, though."

Greene might not have been quite as surprised had he been tracking the news in the big leagues a little more closely and learned that closer David Robertson had been placed on the disabled list earlier this week.

Though Greene was a starter in the Minor Leagues, he will join New York's bullpen. In his breakout 2013 season, which was split between high Class A Tampa and Double-A Trenton, he said that a new mentality helped, which he described as an effort to "attack guys, throw strikes. Make them earn their way on base. Play the odds, really."

He set a personal goal of walking no more than two batters per game and succeeded, walking just 1.7 every nine innings.

With backup catcher Austin Romine optioned to Triple-A on Tuesday, there was room on the 25-man roster for Greene.