"Oh my, I am certainly frustrated!" Courtesy AP
With news that Jesus Montero was officially demoted yesterday, Yankees officials insisted it was because they’d rather have him get regular at bats in AAA. Joel Sherman says BS:
“The Yankees can dress it up any way they want now, but they wanted him to be the backup catcher to Russell Martin. Period. There was never a plan – NEVER – to have Gustavo Molina beat him out, especially once Francisco Cervelli went down with a foot injury…. Again, utter balderdash. Early in spring, Girardi was one of many Yankee officials insisting there would be value in Montero being a part-time player this spring… Several Yankee officials talked, for example, of how much of a benefit that Montero would get just being part of the daily scouting meetings and how that would benefit him over the length of his career.
To act now like that was not the plan is just disingenuous. It was Montero’s job to lose and he lost it.”
I would love to pick apart this whole thing line by line, pull a Fire Joe Morgan, get worked into a hot mess over it, but honestly I think he’s right. It was pretty clear the Yankees wanted Montero to win the job after Cervelli’s injury. He didn’t do it.
Montero had an up and down spring, particularly while playing defense. As Sherman notes, he came into camp and many of the writers seemed to be caught up in the Yankee organizational hype that kept repeating Montero could be a starting catcher. Repeatedly though, scouts from outside the organization as well as Keith Law, Kevin Goldstein and John Manuel insisted he could not. I think despite the prognostications of the Yankees front office, it’s pretty clear he has some more work to do.
To me though, this is not a big deal. I know I was in the minority on this, but I still think it’s not such a bad thing for Montero, the 21 year old, to have some more consistent at bats in AAA. He has one full AAA season under his belt and really only hit well for half of it. Offensively though I couldn’t be less concerned- I don’t think anyone is worried about his ability to hit.
Does this change anything at all though? For us who have followed Montero for awhile now, absolutely not. He’s still just 21. He’s still a tremendous offensive talent. There is still a less than average chance he can catch every day at the major league level. Again, if you’ve been following for awhile, none of that is new information. It was just reaffirmed this spring.
The Yankees trying to spin Montero’s demotion is understandable. They’re not going to come out and take a dump on their best offensive prospect in years. Controlling the tone of the news is not exactly a preposterously new and devious scheme in any industry. Have you caught any of those Wilpon press conferences? This stuff happens all the time, everywhere.
I’m sure than in a month or two we’ll see Jesus in the Bronx. It was probably unrealistic of us to expect him to arrive without any hiccups at all. That rarely, if ever happens. We also know that catching prospects are among the latest to debut in terms of age. It’s not an easy position to play. Jesus turning up in the Bronx this year puts him roughly 3 years ahead of the average pace. Let’s not get too despondent just yet. He’ll be here soon enough.
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7 Responses to Jesus Montero’s Spring Training
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TIQ IQ
Totally agree. He had the lead spot for this job, and he blew it. That does not diminish his prospect status at all in my mind, as there is nothing that we saw during the spring that should really surprise us. He had a slump, big deal.
I think the idea that his prospect status took a hit during this is absurd. I’m not sure what Sherman is trying to get at in his article. Montero isn’t the first or last prospect to lose a job in Spring Training. That he struggled in such a small sample size really doesn’t mean much of anything when discussing his overall ability.
It is a bit concerning, though, that Montero’s offensive game seemed to suffer when he struggled on defense. I suppose it’s only natural for a young kid to try too hard when he’s trying to showcase his skills. In the future though I hope he understands that he is where he is primarily because of his bat. Not to suggest he shouldn’t worry about defense, but he should make an effort to not let it affect his game at the plate.
I think either ST is too small of a sample size or it’s not. If Hughes didn’t win the 5th starter last year based on his excellent ST, then Montero didn’t lose his based on his poor one.
I think (just like last year) greater credence was placed on ST numbers than probably should have been, but I don’t doubt that’s what happened, despite the denials.
I don’t like Montero being sent down for an absolute zero like Molina, and if (when?) Martin’s poor offense becomes an issue, having the only other option being Molina may end up costing us games. I think every single game is going to matter this year, and not having a better option than Molina with all of the assets available to them is an indictment of the Yankee’s FO.
“I think every single game is going to matter this year, and not having a better option than Molina with all of the assets available to them is an indictment of the Yankee’s FO.”
Uh, they have Russell Martin, who is a better option than Molina. And if Russell Martin goes down, and there’s an opening at the catching spot, and the Yankees feel like they can hand it to Montero, well, they have a top-5 prospect who will probably be ready to step in.
Hell, Francisco Cervelli would be the starter on the 2011 World Champion Red Sox.
Let’s not Lombardi ourselves, here.
Martin isn’t going to catch every game. There will be games that Molina starts.
I don’t think Cervelli would start for Boston.
Why couldn’t it be both: On the one hand, the Yankees and Girardi might have liked to have seen their top-hitting prospect make it to the majors this year (since it’s little more than speculation as the sourcing on the article is fairly vague) and might believed there would have been value in him playing even a part-time role with the team. However, on the other hand, based upon what they saw, whether with his offense or defense, decided that there was more value in the short-term in making sure that he (and Romine) got regular at-bats in the minors. In other words, they could still see the value in having him play in the majors, but there is, for now, more value in making sure that he gets at-bats than having him sit on the bench. And, it does not stop them from calling up Montero at any time if they think that this ratio has changed. It’s just planning for the long-term > panicking in the short-term.
Of course, this doesn’t result in the kind of hyperbole that sells newspapers, but I think leading your story with the declaration that a 21-yr old “failed” and that this failure somehow calls into question his status as a prospect, as Sherman does, is a bit much.
I don’t think it calls into question his status as a prospect, nor do I think thats what he’s implying. For a long time now though, a lot of these Yankee writers have kind of bought hook line and sinker into the idea Cashman keeps pushing that Montero can catch every day.
We’ve heard differently though.
The job opened wide for him to take. He didn’t take it. To say he failed, which he did, isn’t a huge deal. 70% of the time, the best baseball players fail. This whole thing wasn’t going to go off without a hitch.
I think in the long run everything will be just fine, I really do.