The return of Andy Pettitte and the Yankees rotation

The Yankee rotation was originally supposed to be Sabathia, Nova, Hughes, Garcia and Burnett and we all were hoping that the rotation would be better than the mediocre rotation that it appeared to be. Then the Yankees shocked everybody and traded Jesus Montero for Michael Pineda and signed Hiroki Kuroda and now that rotation had too much depth as there were seven arms for five rotation spots. Then Burnett was traded to the Pirates and it seemed that the rotation was set. Then Andy Pettitte blew everyone's mind and decided that he would come back to the Yankees. Once we all got over the collective shock we were in, some people started criticizing the move and thought that bringing back Pettitte would be bad for the Yankees young pitchers. Then of course Pineda got hurt in Spring training and the rotation issue solved itself as Garcia proved to be ineffective in his starts in April and May. Andy Pettitte went from being a nice story to a necessity for the Yankees and now the Yankees are bringing him back before he is really ready. I'm not saying that Pettitte will be bad, but I think he needed one or two more starts in the minors and now he will struggle more than he needs to as he shakes rust off that could have come off in the minors. With the addition of Pettitte we will probably see little chnage in the Yankees rotation barring any injuries as it looks like most of the rotation has started to settle in. One of the great things about the Yankees right now is that they have insane pitching depth and even if Pettitte bombs, which is a possibility that fans need to accept, they have three immediate and decent rotation options in Mitchell, Phelps and Garcia. You wanna see how no depth pitching depth can screw you, look at the Red Sox.
On the note of the depth, I do hope that the Yankees send Phelps to the minors because if they wanna keep their payroll down then they will try and fill a spot internally and that's with the hope that Pineda is back at the beginning of the season. I'm excited about Pettitte coming back but I seriously doubt that he is coming back next season and the Yankees have five guys in AAA who could be in the majors and Phelps, Warren and Mitchell need to have something happen for them soon as they are repeating AAA this year.

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.

Jorge Vazquez is Unhappy

El Chato cleverly disguised as New York Yankee

If you haven't heard of Jorge Vazquez he is a 30 year old "prospect" who the Yankees signed out of Mexico and has spent the last three seasons in the minors. El Chato as he has been nicknamed has a ton of power as his 32 Home runs are not just Home runs they are absolute bombs, but he is the very definition of a hacker as he struck out 166 times last season in 455 AB and only walked 30 times unintentionally. There was a lot of call to bring him up to DH when Posada was struggling last season but ultimately he stayed with the AAA Yankees and in fact is not even on the 40 man roster. The problem for Vazquez is that he seems like a classic Quad-A type player due to his strikeouts and he likely would not excel as a hitter in the big leagues; on top of that he is technically a 1st/3rd player but his fielding is poor at both positions. For these reasons the Yankees have shown no real interest in promoting El Chato and it does not look likely that their interest will change. 
Jorge Vazquezs best option would be to go to Japan and this winter there was a report that he was close to signing a deal to play in Japan for the Rakuten Eagles, but that was apparently untrue as the deal never came and Brian Cashman shot down any idea that he would be playing in Japan. This as well as the outlook that he will remain in the minors has caused caused Jorge Vazquez to voice his displeasure with being stuck in the minors. According to the president of Jorge Vazquez's old Mexican League club Cuauhtémoc "Chito" Rodríguez , Vazquez is growing impatient with being stuck in the minors saying "If they don't give him an opportunity this year, he wants them to trade him, or to go to [play] baseball in the east. He doesn't want to continue on in Triple A anymore, not just with the Yankees, but with any other organization as well." MLB Trade rumors reported this as coming from Spanish baseball blog Puro Beisbol. The Yankees are not likely to respond well to this, but they also probably already knew that he was unhappy. This doesn't change his chances of contributing for the New York Yankees as Juan Miranda had better numbers and defense in the minors at 1st base and he was given very few plate appearances and he struggled mightily when given more playing time in 2010 with the Yankees and 2011 with the Diamondbacks. The Yankees could trade him but they are not likely to get anything of value in that trade and so their is really no reason for them to do that.
Vazquez's only real chance of making a contribution would be if the Yankees turned to him if Ibanez gets hurt or struggles because he is not even the Yankees backup first baseman if Mark Teixeria gets hurt, as they would probably move Swisher to first and call up an outfielder. Some could say that he may develop an ability to walk but Vazquez has been around for 11 seasons and has been using this same approach the whole time so that's not happening. Vazquez is a quad-A player, but quad-A players want a shot in the big leagues and if he doesn't get it I expect that he will head to Japan as he will make a lot more money there then he will sitting in the minors.

Andy Pettitte is back

Yeah those are words that I never thought anybody would write in anything ever. I saw it when I was teaching and I thought it was a prank, but I decided to double check before the kids came back from lunch and when I saw that it was real I practically leaped out of my chair. I unfortunately had to wait the rest of the day before I could talk to anybody about it and I was met with several unbelivably supised responses. I mean honestly who saw this coming? From what I heard from Brian Cashman not even the Yankees players knew about this. Cashman apparently offered Pettitte a $10-12 million contract over the winter after Andy let him know he was thinking about returning. After Cashman added Kuroda and Pineda he told Andy that he did not have room for him, but Pettitte kept working out and the Yankees offered him a $2.5 million minor league deal which he accepted.The Pettitte signing is very exciting but Pettitte will not be ready for opening day and it looks like the Yankees will looking for him to contribute around mid-May to early-June, if he will be able to contribute at all. If Pettitte can be as good as he was in 2010 then his contribution will be huge, but the Yankees did have 6 starters for 5 spots already and a 7th will make that rotation hard to figure out if everyone is healthy. Rotations and situations change all the time and if Andy Pettitte is able to make his succesful comeback then there is a chance a spot won't need to open for him because one will have been created already. You can hear Andy Pettitte do a phone interview with the YES Network guys here if you haven't heard it, he called in during the game against Washington and he said he feels good but he needs to get his legs ready. I really hope that we can see Andy in one way or another, even if it is just a handful of starts but at the very least as of right now Pettitte is BACK!

He's back!

Swisher vs. Martin

One of the biggest storyline's this spring training has been Hal Steinbrenner reasserting that the Yankees will try and be under the luxury tax when it rises to $189 million in 2014. This has been met with some skepticism since the Yankees have Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez all making $20 million a year until at least 2016 and Robinson Cano may soon join them. This has led to some speculation about this seasons soon to be free agents of Nick Swisher and Russel Martin. The problem for the Yankees is that these guys are going to be looking for long term deals as well as their first and likely only large free agent payday.
Swisher is going to be the best power hitting outfielder available on the market with the possible exception of B.J Upton. Swisher has been a good supporting piece for the Yankees since they got him from the White Sox and his personality has been loved in New York, but he has been criticized for struggling in the postseason and some fans wanted to see the Yankees dump him and sign Carlos Beltran. Swisher is making $10.5 million this season and will be looking at making more money with this new deal. The problem facing the Yankees is that they really have no good internal options for the Outfield options that will be ready by next season and a platoon would be most likely.
Russel Martin is a more recent example and both he and the Yankees expressed interest in signing a long term deal but a deal was never completed. Martin had a good season offensively and defensively last year and good catchers are a luxury that Yadier Molinas $75 Million deal shows. However the Yankees do have a plethora of Young cathcing and unlike Swisher, Martin could be replaced by Austin Romine. The question though is whether or not Romine could be a productive player in the majors and that's a big risk to take.
The Yankees could retain both of these players but more likely they will have to pick one and its hard to gauge who the Yankees will try and retain, but both players will be looking at 3-4 year deals with a definite possibility that Swisher could try for a fifth year on the free agent market. Both Martin and Swisher are nice complimentary pieces who have hit in the bottom third of the lineup and while I think the Yankess may wish to retain Swisher more than Martin, the market may end up pricing Swisher out of the Yankees range. Do not forget Jayson Werth received a huge deal last offseason and Swisher could get a team to overpay him like the Nationals did with Werth. There also exists the possibility that the Yankees will retain neither player and opt to trade or sign a cheaper Swisher and Martin solution or simply go with their current internal options. If I had to pick a player for them to retain it would be Swisher, but I think it is more likely that they will retain Russel Martin as I expect that Swisher will become too expensive for the Yankees to put in their new plans and a team like the Dodgers, who will have new ownership, may look to add one one of the biggest bats on the market.