Yankees Still Yet to Finalize non-roster Invitations to Spring Training

Some teams including the Los Angeles Dodgers have already finalized and announced their non-roster invitees to spring training camp this year but the Yankees have not. Who the Yankees will invite is anyone’s guess but there seem to be more than a few obvious choices for New York.

Nick Noonan, Cole Figueroa, Robert Hernandez, and Slade Heathcott have all signed minor league deals with invites to spring training so we shouldn’t be surprised to see these three names. Joining them, besides the 40 men that currently occupy the 40 man roster, will likely be Aaron Judge, Greg Bird, Luis Severino, Robert Refsnyder and Taylor Dugas. We may see a Jake Cave, Cito Culver or Kyle Roller signing as well but that’s merely speculation on my part.

I expect New York to invite a ton of pitching this spring as many men battle it out for the last remaining bullpen slots and maybe a rotation spot if Chris Capuano is not up to snuff. It’s going to be an interesting spring with tons of competition, just the way Brian Cashman envisioned it and Joe Girardi wanted it. 

Yankees Sign Outfielder Robert Hernandez

According to Baseball America's minor league transaction log the New York Yankees have signed outfielder Robert Hernandez. I won't pretend like I know who he is because he has been out of the game since the 2009 season and never reach above A Ball so I'll let Matt Eddy tell you about him below:

The Yankees signed 26-year-old Robert Hernandez as an outfielder after he hit .264/.350/.358 in 20 games for Zulia in his native Venezuela this winter. The outfielder bit is key because he worked as a pitcher in the Cubs system from 2006 through 2009, making it as far as low Class A Peoria as a starter, but he hasn’t played affiliated ball in any of the past five seasons. The obvious parallel for Hernandez is Diamondbacks outfielder David Peralta, who flamed out as a Cardinals pitcher, took three years off, toiled as an outfielder for two and half years in independent ball, then got noticed by Arizona scouts in 2013. Now he’s a big leaguer coming off a successful rookie campaign in 2014.