Tim Norton trying to “make the transition into being a pitching coach”

Despite earlier reports that Tim Norton was throwing bullpens and feeling fine, Brendan McGair reports that Norton is currently serving as an interim pitching coach in Extended Spring Training, and there’s a chance he’ll work in a similar capacity for the Rookie Level Gulf Coast League team once the season starts in June.
“He wants to stay in the game, but I don’t think his arm was responding like he wanted it to,” said Pat Roessler, the Yanks’ director of player development. “He just didn’t come around like we had hoped … Right now Tim is trying to make the transition into being a pitching coach for us.”

You should definitely read the whole story here.

Norton, 28, was the an eighth round Yankees pick out of UConn in 2006. He's a New England guy and grew up in Rhode Island and obviously went to school at Uconn and obviously this blog loves guys with Connecticut ties. He’s battled significant shoulder problems as a pro, though last season he was so close to getting called up to the Bronx after striking out 46 and walking just eight in 30 IP for Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton. The shoulder acted up again and while it was initially reported as a minor issue, he was lost for the year and now maybe lost forever as a pitcher. Norton’s injury is part of the reason why the Yankees had to pick up Cory Wade. Norton's story is sad because he definitely had big league ability out of the bullpen and could have really contributed. The door to return is still open as Norton has not ruled it out, but his arm issues are out of his control.

Yankees official 25-man

Well its here Opening day is upon us and as a result the Yankees have submitted their 25 man roster to begin the season. The starters were already known as was most of the bench but because of the recent injuries their were a few spots up in the air. The final bullpen spot and the rotation had a competition going through most of the spring, but injuries solved both of them and opened up the long man spot.

Starting pitchers:
Sabathia
Kuroda
Hughes
Nova
Garcia

Bullpen Pitchers:
Rivera
Robertson
Soriano
Logan
Wade
Clay Rapada
David Phelps

Starting Position Players
Jeter
A-Rod
Cano
Teixeira
Granderson
Swisher
Gardner
Ibanez
Martin

Bench
Chris Stewart
Eduardo Nunez
Eric Chavez
Andruw Jones
So as you can see there are really only three names that won a spot out of Spring training and two of those guys came as a suprise. It looked like Cesar Cabral would win the final bullpen spot but then he broke his elbow and so it was clear that Rapada would get the spot. Before Pineda got injured Garcia was either going to be the long man or get traded but when he was put in the rotation the long man spot opened up and it was a competition between Phelps, Mitchell and Warren. It seemed like Mitchell would win but today Girardi said that Phelps will be the last man in the bullpen. For Stewart he came as a complete surprise to be the backup catcher, but he will be until Romine is healthy.

Yankees trade Kontos to Giants for Stewart. Demote Cervelli to AAA

In a move that absolutely nobody saw coming the Yankees traded George Kontos to the San Francisco Giants for Chris Stewart and he will be the backup behind Russel Martin. Francisco Cervelli has been demoted to AAA and it looks like Austin Romine will be out longer than we originally anticipated. What especially sucks for Cervelli is that he hit a Home Run and threw out a runner in today's exhibition against the Mets.

The biggest surprise for me is that the Yankees would trade Kontos, a useful bullpen arm for a guy that the Yankees could have found in free agency. The Yankees are loaded with bullpen depth and so the move isnt a significant blow to them it just seems like a bad move.