Zoilo Almonte and chances for Young Players

You have no idea who this is

This season the Yankees set a team record by having 56 total players play for them over the course of the season, 12 of them were rookies and 9 made their debut this season. Some of these guys got decent looks because the Yankees needed them to fill holes, Zoilo Almonte, David Adams, Preston Claiborne and Austin Romine all got a good amount of playing time at some point this season. Inevitably problems rose up for each one of these players, Zoilo sprained his ankle in July and when he returned in September the Outfield situation had moved on without him. Austin Romine came up and really struggled after Cervelli's injury but after he started to pick it up in the second half the Yankees still played Chris Stewart over him and then Romine went down with a concussion that has still prevented him from playing. Preston Claiborne started off great for the Yankees out of the bullpen but struggled in August and September with an ERA over five in that time. Adams had a nice start to his Yankee career with two Home runs in his first seven games, but he struggled after that and hasn't really gotten much playing time in September.
Part of the reason for the lack of use of these guys is that they struggled so the Yankees went with other players because they felt that they gave them the better chance of winning. However this doesn't work for Romine or Almonte and is part of the issue that the Yankees have with developing players, the Yankees don't really like rookies and will almost always go with the veteran over a rookie every time. This season Ichiro has had a few nice stretch's but overall he looks like a declining player, because that's what he is and no two week period where he hits .280 will change that or the fact that the Yankees need to pay him $6.5 million next season. Ichiro needs to be benched but the Yankees have kept playing him despite the fact that he has hit around .200 over his last 22 games. Zoilo should be starting right now and he should be looking at making the team out of spring training next season and instead he hasn't gotten any playing time in September and will likely have to go back to Triple A because Vernon Wells and Ichiro are going to be ahead of him despite the fact that he may give the Yankees a better chance to win than either of them. Before the team didn't have a spot for him but after Gardner's injury there is really no excuse to not play him and now that the team is all but eliminated they should really be playing him but they wont. Adams, Romine and JR Murphey should also be playing, obviously Romine can't but he should have been before he got hurt, seriously the Yankees look pathetic right now and we all know that they needed to play their best to make the playoffs and instead they have laid stinker after stinker and look to have essentially given up on making the postseason so why not trot David Adams out there at third everyday and have Murphy start at catcher a few days in a row? Its not going to hurt anything at this point, are you really telling me that Dellin Betances doesn't deserve a shot over Joba, who has been awful all year? I'm not saying that the Yankees need to hand the keys over to the kids all next year but at this point there are only nine games left and the Yankees are 3.5 games out and would need to jump three teams, start Adams, Almonte and Murphy in at least some of those nine games. Giving the kids is something that the Yankees need to do if they want to develop some young talent.

September call ups

Its September and the rosters have expanded so the Yankees called up five players Infielder David Adams, RHP Dellin Betances, LHP Cesar Cabral, RHP Brett Marshall, and C J.R. Murphy. The Yankees will probably call up RHP Preston Claiborne tomorrow and we will have to see if  Zoilo Almonte, Kevin Youkillis or Travis Hafner can return before the end of the year. Betances, Adams and Marshall were already on the 40 man roster but Jayson Nix was moved to the 60 day DL and Melky Mesa was released to make room for Murphy and Cabral. Mesa could have been a call up as a Defensive replacement/pinch runner but he hurt his hamstring and it is apparently serious enough that he would not have been able to help the team in September. Mesa would have likely been Designated for assignment this winter anyways as he would have been out of options, Mesa had great tools but very poor contact ability.

Adams and Betances provide infield and bullpen depth respectively, while Marshall will be a long man which allows Huff to be used as a lefty specialist or for either Huff or Warren to start in case Hughes continues to struggle. None of these guys are going to see any high profile time as long as the Yankees remain in the playoff hunt. If you didn't realize all these guys have been with the big league team at some point this season, in fact Marshall and Adams actually debuted in the same game which I happened to be at.
Cesar Cabral was the Yankees rule 5 draft pick last season from the Red Sox and would have made the team out of spring training over Clay Rapada but he fractured his elbow. He stayed with the organization this season and had overall poor numbers but he has been decent against left handed batters so he gets to be the third lefty in the bullpen.
Murphy is a 22-year old catching prospect who hit very well between Double A and Triple A and has some good reviews about his defense as well. He was going to be added to the 40 man in the off season anyway and they wanted a third catcher for September so this move made a lot of sense. He's a good prospect but don't expect him to get much playing time behind Austin Romine and Chris Stewart.

David Adams & Dellin Betances called up

David Adams has been called up to the New York Yankees and Chris Nelson has been designated for assignment. This was first reported by Josh Norris and I am a little bit late because they did not officially make the move until after I had left to go to the game last night. Adams went 1-4 with a solid single for his first Major league hit and had some good plays at the hot corner and all on his 26th birthday too.  Dellin Betances was called up today and Brett Marshall was optioned after Marshall threw 108 pitches going 5.2 ugly mop up innings after Hughes gave up 7 runs in 2/3 of an inning. Marshall did not look very good, giving up 5 runs, walking 5 and striking out 1 but he did soak up a lot of innings for the Yankees and left the bullpen rested. Betances was part of the Killer B's just three years ago and then Brackman was terrible, Banuelos got hurt and Betances was wild, but Betances was moved to the bullpen recently and is getting the call up until Joba Chamberlain is back from his Oblique injury. This is Betances second stint with the big league club after making two appearances in September 2011, including starting the last game of the year. This is really Betances last chance to carve out a role in the majors with the Yankees as he is out of minor league option years after this year and could very well find himself in jeopardy of being DFA if he cannot pitch well out of the pen.

Yankees intend to call up David Adams

When Kevin Youkillis went down with a back injury the Yankees called up Corban Joseph before trading for Chris Nelson to get some infield help. The man playing third base for the AAA Railriders was David Adams was not called up because he had been released to free a 40 man spot and because it was in spring training he could not be called up for thirty days after he had resigned. For those of you asking why he was released it sounds like the Yankees basically had already set up with him that he would resign after his release to clear a 40 man spot and if they had DFA him he could have been picked up off waivers. Kind of a weird situation but Adams had missed most of spring training with a back injury and so he wasn't going to be useful early in the season and the Yankees must have assumed Youk could be healthy for a month and a half, way off on that one. A report out right now is that the Yankees will bring up Adams as soon as he is eligible, which will be this Wednesday  May 15th. Adams has been manning third base regularly but has gotten time at 1st and 2nd this year as well, as well as hitting .325/.411/.494 with two home runs and nine RBI in 23 games at Triple-A this season. The Yankees intend to play him regularly when they do call him up and it will be interesting to see where they play him, it would make sense if he played at 1st with Nelson/Nix at third, but if that was the case I expect that Adams would be playing 1st more in Scranton rather than the two starts he has there this season. We will just have to wait and see what happens, but if Adams gets the call then it probably is the end for Ben Francisco as a Yankee. Fun fact May 15th is also David Adam's Birthday, so getting a call up and start would be a good birthday present.