Russell Martin sat with a back injury last night. If Martin cannot catch back-to-back days and his back hasn’t responded overwhelmingly well to treatments, then he needs to be laced on the 15-day disabled list. If he goes on the 15-day disabled list, the Yankees have to call up Jesus Montero.
The whole picture of 2011 for Jesus Montero has not looked as rosy as we’d've liked it, but I think most of us would agree that the bat has enough potential that he’s worth the call up at this point (it helps that he hit a homer last night). There is not much left for him to accomplish at AAA and he could benefit from some major league coaching. Besides, it just makes sense at this point and goes to the theoretical plan we had laid out at the beginning of the year.
We all seemed to think that his is how it would go: Russell Martin would play for the first few months and at some point, be ineffective or injured and it would be a logical time for Jesus Montero to come up and get the bulk of the catcher plate appearances. Well, I think that time has most definitely come. I don’t expect Martin to be hurt or ineffective for the rest of the season, but if he’s not well enough to catch, he should be on the DL. Montero could then be added to the 40-man, called up, and get his first taste of the Major Leagues. He would definitely be a better option than Francisco Cervelli or Gustavo Molina, even if his defense probably won’t be all that great. If he plays well, great. That will likely mean more time to rest Russell Martin when he does come back from his (hypothetical) DL trip and it would also (likely) mean the end of Cervelli on the big league team for the time being, and I think most people can get behind that.
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5 Responses to Martin and Montero
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TIQ IQ
I definitely agree with the theoretical plan we all layed out prior to the season, somehow I get the feeling the Yankess haven’t bought into it just yet. While I can’t believe Montero would be worse than what we’ve seen defensively from Cerveli and should be a significant increase offensively, something tells me we’re gonna see Gus again.
Can’t wait to see Montero and hope I’m wrong, but it wouldnt’ surprise me at all to find out that Molina is brought up if Martin is DL’d.
I agree. I think you always promote hitters as soon as possible, but promote pitchers only after they’ve spent a lot of time in the minors.
The NYY brass seems to think Montero should spend the whole year at AAA.
I think this is the telling part. Everyone keeps griping about how he is “rotting” in the minors, when it’s pretty clear he is no where close to ready behind the plate. I’ve actually read reports that he is showing himself to be worse than Cervelli right now.
the reason Montero will not be brought up yet is that Cashman needs to keep his trade value at its peak pending possible major trade opps as the deadline approaches. Bring Montero to the show, and if he hits .180 with 10 passed balls in his first month, his value as a key chip to get a star player at the deadline (unlikely but possible) pluummets. He needs to stay where he is for the moment to avoid the risk of exposing his defensive inadequacies that will put off trading partners, especially NL teams with no DH option for him.
[...] wrote about this a week ago when discussing putting Russell Martin on the disabled list. Now it seems that everyone’s [...]