Right-handed pitcher Tyler Clippard agreed Monday to a two-year, $12.25 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The veteran reliever, who pitched for the New York Mets last year, has a 2.88 ERA in 562 innings spread over nine major-league seasons.

Clippard pitched in the Midwest League in 2004, for the now-defunct Battle Creek Yankees. He went 10-10 with a 3.44 ERA, 145 strikeouts and 32 walks in 149 innings (26 games/25 starts).

Battle Creek had a Midwest League team from 1995 to 2006. The team moved about two hours north to Midland to begin play as the Great Lakes Loons in 2007.

Battle Creek was affiliated with the Yankees in 2003 and 2004. Those are the only two seasons when the Yankees had a Midwest League affiliate, though the 1949 Belleville Stags also were a Bronx Bombers team. Belleville was part of the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League, the Midwest League’s predecessor whose statistics count in the MWL record book.

The league has had three different names: the Illinois State League (1947-48), the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League (1949-55), and the Midwest League (1956 to present).