As Ben at RAB summarized so well, the Yankees are not using their full roster right now. Angel Berroa was virtually unused in the month of May. Jose Veras has allowed runs in the few appearances that Joe Girardi has bothered to give him. Brett Tomko hasn’t been much bet nor frequently used.
The result? The Yankees are essentially playing short handed. We’ve talked at length here about calling up Shelley Duncan or Todd Linden, Mark Melancon, or others. I think that the more interesting question is why the Yankees seem to be going with inferior options.
Angel Berroa?
The Yankees haven’t even made an attempt to keep Berroa fresh. He has just 12 at bats on the year. For some reason, the Yankees don’t want to DFA him and send him to the minor leagues. Why? I can think of three reasons:
- They are holding Cody Ransom’s spot on the 40-man roster.
- They are afraid of Alex Rodriguez’s hip breaking on them.
- They are waiting for a trade.
None are particularly good reasons to hold on to Berroa instead of replacing him with someone useful. The Yankees saw during Ransom’s failures that Ramiro Pena could do anything better than Berroa, and that Brett Gardner was a better pinch hitter. Alex Rodriguez seems to be healthy, so being overly cautious by keeping a back-up for the backp-up is foolish. Cody Ransom’s 60-day DL stint will last at least another two weeks. I have trouble believing that the Yankees held on to Berroa for almost two extra months because they were waiting for Cody Ransom.
But what about a trade? Could the Yankees plan on adding a bench player to the 40-man roster without subtracting one? Mark DeRosa was one rumor, but there are a dozen or more players that the Yankees could attain that could add something to the team.
With Nady returning, the hitting roster could look like this:
9 starters.
Cervelli/Molina
Nady/Swisher
Ramiro Pena
Melky/Gardner
Looking at this roster, it doesn’t make much sense to add Shelley Duncan or Todd Linden. Once Nady returns, the OF/1st base crowd will be crowded without any additions. The veteran who sits will serve as the primary pinch hitter, and Shelley and Linden would see very little time. On the other hand, the 4-man bench looks fairly well balanced with Xavier Nady returning. Mark DeRosa seems superflous except as a poor defensive option at center.
I’m guessing that, barring a trade of an OFer, Berroa comes off the 40-man roster for a relief pitcher. My bet is on George Kontos.
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8 Responses to Why Is Berroa Still Here?
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TIQ IQ
I’ve been advocating Kontos to the ‘pen for a while, but I imagine they will bring Melancon back before Kontos. The Yankees would probably give Kontos some time in the minors as a reliever before calling him up.
Would love to see Shelly Duncan in the majors.He’s earned it.Deserves to play as much as Matsui does at this point.
As much as Matsui? How so? He can OPS over .830 in the majors?
Could Kevin Russo injury be a factor in them still having Berroa here? He’s a guy the org really likes and another utility INF that can play various positions. So IF something does happen to Arod and they had already DFA Berroa, they have a quality utility player in AAA.
But he’s hurt maybe if he wasn’t Berroa would not be here. Just a thought.
I think that Russo is probably the 2010 utility infielder. He was playing all over the place in Trenton last year. However, he’s been injured for almost a month now, and missed the beginning of the season too. I’m not sure if they are thinking about him as an MLB option until he puts up some time at Triple-A.
I agree here.
A friend of mine won’t shut up about Cashman needing to make a trade for a trustworthy setup guy. He thinks they should have done it in the off-season, like they nabbed Nelson and Stanton back in ’96 or ’97.
I keep telling him that (1) they need to fully evaluate several possibly excellent internal options first, including giving Melancon a shot (starting him in low pressure situations this time and making him earn higher-pressure spots like they did with Joba in 2007), and seeing what they have in Robertson and perhaps Kontos (who I’d definitely expect in Sept); (2) they need to see what happens with Bruney (and perhaps Marte — after all, he did have a very good career before coming to NY), and (3) the best guys likely won’t be available for probably another month and a half at least.
On the bench it will be interesting to see how this flushes out, but Berroa’s remaining on the roster is kind of up there with Sasquatch for me in the mysteries category…
Melancon sounds good to me, I like the idea of starting him out in less pressure positions (as stated by Jon G). Also agree Geo. K should see a bit more time as a BP hot shot…the guy has very good stuff and knows how to pitch, rather then throw.
As for Berroa, need I say more…you guys have already stated the obvious.
Veras is absoultely terrible. Melancon needs to fill Veras’s spot, and when Bruney and Marte come back, I can assume that Tomko will be gone, and if Wang is in the rotation by that time, then Hughes will be sent down.