Thursday, March 3, 2016

Yankees Spring Training Locker Assignments


The New York Yankees are in full-fledged Spring Training mode now as many of the teams around Major League Baseball are and it’s a beautiful thing. Pitchers and catchers have reported to camp and so have the position players. The first workouts and photo days are done. Teams are done playing scrimmage games and exhibition games against local colleges and such and the Cactus League and Grapefruit League are now under way as well leaving us, the bloggers and fans, plenty to talk about. There will always be the discussion of spring competitions and who is going to make the team, injuries and such but today I wanted to focus on something a little bit different, locker assignments. I bring up locker assignments after the news was released that Carlos Beltran requested a locker next to Yankees outfield prospect Aaron Judge and it got me thinking whether or not there were any other notable locker assignments this spring camp.

To understand what locker assignments mean you have to understand what their locations mean as well for the New York Yankees. The north wall is designated for the most established pitchers in the organization while players like Mariano Rivera got corner lockers for more room. Catchers usually get lockers at the back with free lockers next to them for extra storage while prospects are scattered across the west wall and elsewhere.

James Kaprielian is on the north wall thrown in the mix with the likes of CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka, Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi, Ivan Nova, Andrew Miller and others. Joining Kaprielian this season are Nick Rumbelow, Bryan Mitchell, Chasen Shreve, Luis Severino and Branden Pinder who all have legitimate shots at making the big league club either out of spring camp or sometime during the season. It looks like the Yankees are using their veterans and established players to mold their younger players here in spring camp, at least in the pitching department.


Kaprielian, Rumbelow, Mitchell, Shreve, Severino, Pinder and Judge are being groomed for the future. The next Yankees core. This is exciting if the locker assignments mean anything to the organization, and I believe that they do. 

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)