Ladies and gentleman, good morning first and foremost, we
are now just six days away from Opening Day including today which means the
spring training competitions will soon be coming to an end. Who will man right
field and who will be on the bench to start the season? Who will fill in for
the injured DIdi Gregorius and who will fill out the remainder of the Yankees
bench? Who wins the 4th and 5th spots in the rotation and
who ends up in the bullpen or the minor leagues? Well unfortunately I don’t
know but I have an idea and a set of predictions that I will bring to you this
morning for better or worse. We all know, if you’ve been reading for a while
anyway, how my predictions usually go though so keep that in mind while
reading. Thanks.
The biggest elephant in the room I think is the Yankees
starting rotation so let’s start there. Now what I think the Yankees should do
and what the Yankees will do are likely two different things unfortunately.
What I think the Yankees will do is they will have Luis Severino act as the
team’s 4th starter while Bryan Mitchell heads down to the bullpen
until the Yankees need a 5th starter around the mid-April timeframe.
What I think the Yankees should do though is reward Jordan Montgomery for an
amazing spring and a great 2016 season and give the job to him. He has been
working as a reliever all spring anyway so the transition to the bullpen to
start the season would be a relatively easy one and it would also limit his
innings a bit which could help in August and September of this season. The
thing is though the Yankees don’t tend to burn minor league options until they
have to or unless they have to and as long as a combination of Mitchell,
Severino, Chas Green and Luis Cessa are healthy they just don’t have to yet,
and they won’t. Even if it is for the betterment of the team.
The future is now but the future also involves the New York
Yankees at least fighting it out in the AL Wild Card race this fall, at least
that’s the plan anyway, so those who say Aaron Judge has the right field job on
lockdown may be in for a surprise here in a few days. Honestly I personally
think Judge will be in right field to start the season on Sunday against the
Tampa Bay Rays but this competition is going to go down to the wire for no
other reason other than Joe Girardi’s seemingly infatuation with having Hicks
in his every day lineup. Hicks is a switch-hitter and he does bring more
experience and leadership to the role, a role that Judge seemingly struggled with
in his first taste of MLB pitching, but the future is now in the Bronx and
Judge is the future in right field, not Hicks. Hicks had a full campaign last
season to showcase his abilities and skills and he didn’t by any stretch of the
imagination. Judge had a few weeks before going down with an oblique injury and
should be given a much longer leash than that in my opinion, and he will I
think starting on Opening Day, April 2nd.
The final and one of the biggest decisions the Yankees have
to make before they break camp this spring is which one of their many options
will be manning the recently vacated shortstop position in the Bronx while Didi
Gregorius heals from his right shoulder strain. New York has basically already
said that Gleyber Torres and Tyler Wade will not win the job, and they
shouldn’t based on New York’s 40 man roster crunch and the need for minor
league options and such, but who should “win” the job is Robert Refsnyder. What
the Yankees can do is have Starlin Castro take the bulk of the responsibility
at shortstop with Ronald Torreyes also filling in while either Torreyes or
Refsnyder take turns at second base in some sort of revolving door. Obviously
some days Torreyes could simply play shortstop while Castro plays second base
while the next day Castro plays shortstop and Refsnyder plays second base and
so on and so forth. The Yankees have some versatility though with these three
and they should use it to their advantage as much as possible.
The idea of having Pete Kozma on the roster only to be
designated for assignment in a month has also been floated around but I’m not
sure how much I like the idea. It seems like making a move or three (adding him
to the 40 man roster only to DFA him in a month and hope he passes through
waivers) but it seems like the ultimate Yankees move so I wouldn’t be surprised
if it happens. Whatever screws over the development of Refsnyder and gets him
back in Triple-A I guess. That’s the way it seems anyway but I digress.
So there are my predictions, what are yours? Leave them
below in the comments section. Thanks again!
I so agree with you about Refsnyder.That guy can play and I pray it's for the Yankees.They have their opportunity to keep him now that Didi is hurt.I hope they see the door of opportunity for the team
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