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.

Tim Norton reportedly Healthy

Tim Norton

Tim Norton is a New England guy who was born in Massachusetts, grew up in Rhode Island and went to college at the University of Connecticut. He was drafted by the Yankees in the seventh round in 2006 as a starter and pitched to a 2.60 ERA in 72 innings with a K/9 rate of 10.3 for the Staten Island Yankees. At the time his scouting report said 23, RHP (SP): mid-90s FB, sharp slider and a devastating splitter, he says that he does not throw a splitter anymore because of the injury, but apparently his slider and fastball have picked up the slack. Then he had shoulder surgery in 2007 and was moved to the bullpen after missing all of 2008, but ha another shoulder surgery in 2009 and was shut down during his 2010 campaign due to a lat injury that didn’t require surgery. Since then Norton has been lights out in the minors with an excellent ERA and a K/9 rate over 13 in 2010 and 2011. It looked like Norton had put the injuries behind him, was throwing with that same mid-90s velocity and was on the fast track to the majors last year after Soriano and Joba went down, but alas Norton got hurt again and nobody could not find any information about where he was in his recovery. 
Now we have a report from Donnie Collins, a AAA Yankees writer, that according to Yankees VP Mark Newman; Norton is “He is throwing bullpens and feeling fine,”. This is great to hear as many had thought that Nortons career was over after his injury that ended his season. Norton has blown away all the competition in AA and if he is healthy then the Yankees will probably put him in AAA with a strong possibility of he or George Kontos being the first bullpen callups when somebody gets hurt.