Who would like a Yankee catcher?

Romine, Murphy and Cervelli

 The Yankees have a plethora of young catchers with five catchers on the 40-man roster and only one backup spot considering that Brian McCann just signed a five year deal. Obviously Gary Sanchez still needs time to develop and he will probably spend the entire season in Double-A Trenton, but Austin Romine and John Ryan Murphy are both behind Francisco Cervelli at this point and the Yankees probably do not want to have both of them there. The possibility comes up then couldn't the Yankees trade one of these catchers to try and shore up the left side of their infield and who exactly is out there?
One team that has been known to be looking for a catcher is the White Sox whose Tyler Flowers had a very poor year and while he says he is going to bounce back he has not done anything in his career so far to make there be anything he will bounce back to as he has never hit better than .213 in the majors. The White Sox would like a backup and probbaly want someone who can push Flowers and really any of Cervelli, Romine and Murphy are capable of being that player for Chicago. The problem is that there really is no player that they do not match up very well as the the only player I see that the Yankees would likely be intrested in as an upgrade or at least a young player with potential is probbaly Marcus Semien who can play all three left infield positions. However I have no idea if the White Sox would be interested in moving Semien and I would bet that they probably want him to take over for a veteran and don't really want to move him, but I could be wrong.
Another pairing that has been suggested is the Arizona Diamondbacks who are looking for a backup to Miguel Montero and even that they would be willing to give up a shortstop to get one. The two names that being thrown out there are Chris Owings and Didi Gregorius as the D-Backs have a good amount of depth in terms of Shortstop prospects however it is believed that they want a very good return or else they would have dealt one of the two already. That means its unlikely that they will want to trade Owings/Gregorius for just Romine or Murphy and so I do not know if the Yankees would be willing to do that at this stage. One of these guys would be perfect though as they could move around the infield this year and then be an option to play any infield spot the Yankees would need filled next season which is likely to be every spot on the left side of the infield.
The other name that is out there is the Milwaukee Brewers who would like to move Rickie Weeks and at some point this year they will probably also try and move Aramis Ramirez and the brewers would like a catcher as they only have two on their 40 man roster and while Jonathon Lucroy has been a solid starter for the Brewers they really have no depth behind him as Martin Maldonado had a very poor year after a good 2012. But Ramirez and Weeks are both players who are making a good amount of money this season and despite a very good 2012 Ramirez was just about replacement level last season and only played 92 game and he is being payed $16 million this season with a mutual option for $14 million that requires a $4 million buyout, while Weeks is owed $11 million this season and has been below replacement level the last two years but he was a 3 WAR player the two years before and Weeks is only 28, that so there is some chance of a bounce back. The Brewers want to move him as they have Scooter Gennett waiting to take over 2nd but on top of this years salary Weeks also has an option for next season although it seems unlikely that he will get the 600 PA that he would to pick up the $11.5 million option.
After these teams any trade ideas are just pure speculation but I would expect the Yankees to keep shopping these catches in hopes of acquiring an infielder and preferably one that can contribute this season as Murphy, Romine and Cervelli are all capable of doing.

The time of Romine should be here already

Seriously play this guy

Romine time should be upon us right now. The Yankees have a young catching prospect who has heated up after a poor start and is playing very well and a veteran who seems to be struggling in every facet of his game.On a team that is looking to save money and build this would be a very good time to see if Romine can be the starting catcher or if they need to try and sign one this off season. Personally I think they should try and sign Brian McCann anyway but if the Yankees want to stick to the $189 million plan then seeing if Romine can grab the job would seem ideal. Instead the Yankees have given more majority of starts to Chris Stewart who has looked really gassed down the stretch for the Yankees, which makes sense since he has played in more games than he ever has in his career. Here are his stats for the first and second half:

As you can see his first half isn't bad, not good but not awful either and then he just nosedives after the all star break. Defense is another matter, the stats seem to indicate that he is a good defender but I just have trouble accepting that given that I actually watch him play. Stewart seems to get crossed up a lot and therefore allows a lot of passed balls and wild pitches and he does rank 5th in passed balls and Yankees pitchers have thrown 25 wild pitches with him catching. Remember in Toronto he turned a third strike right down the middle into two runs as he had to run back to the backstop and overthrew first base. Stewart does reportedly come with a very good framing ability which admittedly is very hard to track but I will accept it. Personally I want to absolutely destroy Chris Stewart and say that recently called up Catching prospect JR Murphy should be the backup over him but Chris Stewart really isn't the worst backup, he definitely isn't the best or really very good but he is passable. That still does not change the fact that Romine should be the starter over Stewart and right now they are sort of splitting the time with Stewart having fifteen starts in the last month to Romine's ten.

Have the Yankees forgotten that Romine was a top 10 prospect for the Yankees  and a top 100 overall prospect by Baseball America before last year when a back injury really limited him to only 17 games on the year. Scouts thought that Romine could be a .270 hitter with 10 HR's a year and good defense which while it isn't star level production is decent starter material. We all know that Romine started off the season dreadfully and really the Yankees should have taken a flier on one of the many catchers who were on waivers at some point this season but they didn't and now Romine has really turned it around:

BABIP would say that Romine has been getting lucky while Stewart has been unlucky in the second half, but honestly the Yankees should ride that momentum and go with Romine, Stewart will still get plenty of chances to play but Stewart isn't the catcher of the future while Romine very well might be. Romine just needs to be given the chance and this seems like it should be the perfect time for him to be given the reins but alas the Yankees are likely to keep giving the nod to Stewart more times than not.

Lamenting the loss of Russell Martin

 

Well the Yankees lost out on Russell Martin to the Pittsburgh Pirates. First off lets have that sink in, the Pittsburgh Pirates outbid the New York Yankees for the best free agent catcher on the market. The worst part is that Martin gave the Yankees the chance to match the offer of 2 years $17 million and they said that they did not have the money.
Without a doubt Catcher is the most difficult position to play in baseball and if the season started today they would need to rely on a combination of Austin Romine, Chris Stewart and Francisco Cervelli. Obviously Romine has potential but he has only had a limited time in AAA, after missing most of last year with a back injury. Also the Yankees pitching staff the last two years has been great, thanks in no small part to Martin being behind the plate. Martins defense is often undervalued by Yankees fans but his receiving skills and play calling are extremely important to making this pitching staff as good as it has been. Without Martin the Yankees will see a noticeable drop off from catcher defense, not to mention the loss of his offense, as the only current regular right handed bat in the lineup is A-Rod. Say what you want about his batting average but Martin hit 40 home runs in his two years as a Yankee and the balance he helped provide to the lineup cannot be undervalued. Last year the Yankees had four lineup regulars that could bat right handed in Swisher, Tex, Martin and ARod and now they will likely only have two. Those four guys hit 87 Home Runs last season and 45 of those are leaving with Swisher and Martin and its extremely unlikely that the Yankees will be able to make them up with whomever they have to replace those two. The fact that the Yankees refuses to pony up the extra $5-6 million is really going to cost them, especially with him poor the catching market is right now.

Yankees Catching dilemma

In Spring Training Russel Martin was going to be the starter and we were all wondering if Austin Romine would be able to get the backup job from Francisco Cervelli, but Romine injured his back almost immediately and it seemed certain that Cervelli would be the backup. Of course then the Yankees traded George Kontos for  Chris Stewart and Stewart became the backup Catcher because he was out of minor league options and Cervelli was sent to AAA. Stewart has had some timely hits but he was brought in for his defense and five passed balls is not the way to stick if Defense is your reason to be in the majors. Remember Montero was supposed to take over behind the plate but the Yankees did not trust him behind the plate last season and then traded him to Seattle because he did not fit in well unless he was a catcher. I think we would all prefer Cervelli to be with the big league club but until Austin Romine comes back then the Yankees are going to stick with Stewart and it looks like Romine will be out until July. If Romine had been able to have a full year in Triple A they could have potentially platooned Romine and Cervelli but now his injury means he is not guaranteed to start next year with the Yankees as they may want him to have a full year in Triple A. The Yankees are full of good catching prospects but right now with Romine injured the Yankees are lacking at high level catching depth. This is also an extremly odd time for us as Yankee fans as Jorge Posada has been a staple behind the plate for over a decade and replacing a player like Posada is nearly impossible. The other big downside with the loss of Romine for the first half of the season is that the Yankees are going to need to resign Russel Martin because they have nobody who could start next year behind the plate except for Martin. I also really do not want to risk letting Martin go either because Gary Sanchez is a long way away from the Majors and Romine has a grand total of 35 PA above Double A.

Who is the Yankees Future at Catcher?

Jesus Montero came into the year supposedly as the Starting Catcher and then the Yankees signed Russel Martin and that idea was scrapped. After Cervelli broke his leg in Spring Training it seemed that the backup catching job was Montero's to lose which he did. Montero's offense has never been the question as even with his slow start this year he is besting every and all AAA pitching. The biggest issue is and always has been his defense. If the Yankees had not signed Mark Teixeira then I almost guarantee that Montero would have been moved to 1st base, but since he is locked up until 2016 that's not an option for at least several years. The thing about Montero is that he is only 21 and even though he is probably too tall to be a catcher for the rest of his career the Yankees need an influx of young talent and Catcher is where they are stocked with the most talent.
The Yankees Top Catching prospects are:
Jesus Montero: As I said Montero is an offensive Catcher and is the most ready, the concern is whether or not he can be a competent starting catcher in the MLB in terms of game calling and defense. He has a great arm which is why many people feel he is best served as a Right Fielder. The Yankees apparently do think that he can catch in the MLB.


Austin Romine: Romine projects to be a goof overall catcher with good defense and a decent bat but not the raw power and potential for huge offense that Montero has. I saw catch Phil Hughes at Hughes rehab game in New Britain and I was really impressed with his defense especially his blocking of balls in the dirt. Romine is a good all around catching prospect and the only thing keeping him for AAA is Montero. He is also very young at 22 and he was great today at the Futures game.

Gary Sanchez: Sanchez has been called Montero with a better glove and many have said that he is the true future at catcher. His bat is impressive but probably not as good as Montero and he has had 24 Passed balls so far this year but has caught 35% of base stealers. That being said he has had some issues at low-A Charleston and was briefly demoted due to behavior issues. He is only 18 and is years away from MLB ready.

J.R Murphey: Most people assumed that the Yankees would move Murphey to a corner spot either this year or next as they liked his bat but his defense was considered to be suspect. Then Murphey decided to drastically improve behind the plate and offensively over last year. Muphey earned himself a promotion to the Tampa Yankees and they are still mixing him between Catcher and 3rd base. Murphey is the only one of the 4 who has no real chance of being the starting Catcher but the Yankees could keep mixing him between catcher and corners spots and try to make him into a sort of super utility role. If he sticks at catcher he will be a backup at best.

Going into this season it seemed obvious that Montero was the future at catcher but at this point I don't even know if he will be traded or make his Yankees debut in 2012. The Yankees are obviously unhappy about his defense and probably unhappy about his lack of power. Cashman has said that he wants Montero to play everyday but honestly I think that is just an excuse to keep him in AAA because they were willing to bring him up at the beginning of the year as the backup and if he was doing better he would probably be platooning with Martin at Catcher. At this point I don't know what to expect because I don't see any front end starter that the Yankees can trade for but every sign seems to suggest that they want to trade him. I just feel that if they thought that Montero was the catcher of the Future then he would be with the team right now. If he is not traded by the deadline then I expect that he will start the year splitting time with Martin, but he could traded over the winter. Ideally I think the Yankees would like Montero to be the starting catcher until Sanchez develops and then they can move Montero to Right Field or 1st Base but projecting something like that is impossible.