The New York Yankees have three players that are out of
options entering Spring Training camp 2015 and two of them are all but
guaranteed roster spots. Esmil Rogers and Ivan Nova are out of options while
Austin Romine is in a battle with John Ryan Murphy for the backup catcher spot
with the big league club. What should the Yankees do with Romine who is
expected to lose the competition to Murphy? That’s a tough question to answer
right now unfortunately.
The Yankees obviously have a couple of options, the first
being to let him have the backup catcher job while sending Murphy to Triple-A
to start the season. This is of course the unlikeliest of the options and the
most foolish of the options as the team should bring the best team north to
start the season in April. The second option is to attempt to pass Romine
through waivers at the very end of spring in hopes that everyone has their
rosters set and aren’t willing to guarantee him a 25 man roster spot. The
problem with this is starting catching is becoming more and more harder to find
and there isn’t the plethora of suitable backups that we used to see some five
to ten years ago so Romine would likely be picked off the waiver wire and had
for little to nothing.
The third option is to trade the young catcher and the
Philadelphia Phillies have already reportedly shown interest. Carlos Ruiz is
the starting catcher in Philadelphia for sure but the backup catcher picture
with the Phillies is not as set in stone. Do the Phillies have anything the
Yankees would be interested in though is the question. I won’t pretend to be an
expert in the Philadelphia farm system just because I googled it on the
internet but I do know a thing or two about their major league roster. The team
is in total rebuild and while I want no part of Ryan Howard or Chase Utley the
team has more than a few players out of options as well that put them in the
same boat the Yankees are in right now with Romine. Yours for mine?
Looking at the quick list of players the only one I see that
is worth acquiring and realistically available to acquire is Phillippe Aumont.
Aumont is 26 years old and may be clicking in your head because he was a part
of the Cliff Lee trade a few years back. Aumont struggles with command like
many pitchers who are 6’ 7” and 240 lbs. but strikes out more than 11 batters
per nine innings (in the minor leagues) and can hit 99 or 100 MPH on his
fastball. He is the type of bullpen piece the Yankees love and a trade may
already be in the works. A relief pitcher for a catcher seems familiar, see
Justin Wilson for Francisco Cervelli, but at this point it may be the best the
Yankees can get for Romine
I would send Murphy down and use Romine as a back-up and build up his trade value and if Murphy tears up the minors make a deal. You need to get something for this guy. He is a very good receiver, weak bat.
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily agree with that, shocker right? The only way Romine builds his value is if he hits, he doesn't hit. He's not even hitting in Spring Training. He's our lesser version of Jose Molina at this point of his career.
DeleteBurch, I'm surprised at you. Not that Romine is anything like a decent hitter, but pitchers are always ahead of hitters at this point of spring training. Look at your boy Eovaldi. He had I believe 5 K's the other day. That's not going to happen during the year.
ReplyDeleteGuys like Refsnyder doesn't seem to be have issues but I do agree that pitchers are ahead of hitters right now. Romine is hitting like Stephen Drew did in 2014 though and I don't think that's because of where we are in the spring. That's a gut feeling though mixed with what the last few seasons have shown us. Could be wrong.
DeleteI think Romine can hit enough. Two years ago, Girardi had a choice between Stewart and Romine. Like the idiot Girardi is, he primarily chose Stewart. By mid June, Stewart was junk, because he was a backup forced to play everyday. Moron was forced to put a promising rookie in the lineup and he hit above .300 until the all star break. After the break, backup Stewart had a month's rest and moron put him back in the starting lineup. That ends the short and sad story of a Yankee prospect written by a moron named Girardi.
ReplyDelete