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 :)