Thursday, January 3, 2013
Yahoo! Austin Romine Apparently Not the Catcher of Present for New York Yankees
Cashman told the New York Daily News on Wednesday, Jan. 2, that he thinks Romine is more likely to begin next season in the minors while Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart battle for the No. 1 job with the big club.
“I expect Romine to go to Triple-A,” Cashman said. “He missed all of last year, almost. … I don’t expect him to be our everyday catcher out of the gate. He always has the possibility of taking it, but realistically, if I were in prediction mode, I’d say Triple-A. But he has a chance to alter that.”
Considering the fact that Romine has hit .197/.267/.342 in 86 AAA PA and missed most of last year with a back injury this makes sense. Hopefully he can stay healthy and hit enough to force himself into the picture at some point in 2013, but I’d bet against it happening before midseason at the earliest and I’d probably be more willing to bet it won’t happen at all.
If Francisco Cervelli could improve his defense he’s not a horrible option at starting catcher. Baseball Reference has him at -8 over 1300 MLB innings although Fangraphs has him at average. CAIRO projects him at around 11 runs better than a replacement level catcher offensively over 450 PA or so so his defense is really the key to whether or not he’s an asset or a problem.
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