With Spring Training rapidly approaching, the Yankees have officially announced this year’s non-roster invitees. 14 prospects made the cut, with Banuelos headlining the group, and attending for his second year in a row. Along with the prospects, 13 players signed to minor league contracts will try out for the 2012 club. With 27 invitations to spring training, 67 players will head for their Tampa facility.
Amongst the right-handed pitchers, recently signed Manny Delcarmen, Matt Daley, and Adam Miller will try out for a bullpen position. Prospects Daniel Burawa, Ryan Pope, Graham Stoneburner, Adam Warren, Kevin Whelan, and Chase Whitley will also attempt to stand out amongst a total of 25 right-handed pitchers this year. Three more pitchers signed to minor league deals will join the club this offseason, left-handed pitchers Hideki Okajima, Juan Cedeno, and Mike O’Connor. Manny Banuelos will be the only non-roster prospect making the trip, though newbie Cesar Cabral, who is on the 40-man roster, should catch some eyes.
With so much catching depth in their farm system, five catchers made the cut. Leading the list, positional top prospect Gary Sanchez should capture attention, followed by Jose Gil, Kyle Higashioka, and J.R. Murphy. Only Gustavo Molina will join the catching platoon on a minor league contract. On the infield, Jayson Nix, Doug Bernier, and Bill Hall will attend via minor league deals, while first base prospect Jorge Vasquez will compete for a DH position. In the outfield, Dewayne Wise and former Colorado Rocky, Cole Garner, will team up with prospects Colin Curtis and Brett Marshall.
I look forward to watching Banuelos, Sanchez, and Murphy the most. Along with Dellin Betances, Austin Romine, David Adams, and Zoilo Almonte, I expect to hear and see a lot from the minor leaguers this year. Cole Garner, Matt Daley, Adam Miller, Cesar Cabral, and Brad Meyers are probably the most likely players to have break out preseasons and make the club; they’re in a must watch category. For more information on what bullpen arms to watch, take a look at my article, Getting To Know Your Bullpen Candidates.
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16 Responses to Yankees Announce 27 Non-Roster Invitations
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TIQ IQ
No matter who wins the battle for the 5th spot, do the Yankees plan on carrying the two losers in the bullpen for the season? Seems kind of pointless to have 2 long men in the pen.
I expect a lot to happen between now and opening day. The plan right now is to trade one of their starting pitchers, but if there is an injury or someone looks terrible, things can change quickly.
It wasn’t pointless last year to carry Colon into the season in the pen when he lost to Garcia. Without him we would’ve had to turn to Noesi when Hughes went down.
It also depends on who goes to the pen. If Hughes loses out in ST and Burnett or Garcia end up in the rotation you don’t have two long men. In that scenario Hughes probably takes over the role Robertson started out with last year, or the role Joba would eventually slide into this year.
Having both Burnett and Garcia in the pen makes less sense, though to me having Burnett in the pen at all makes no sense. I don’t see him mentally being able to bounce back from that kind of demotion. He would probably just become a mop up guy for games out of reach, and at that point just cut ties because it’s over.
Colon in the pen did work out last year, but Garcia is a different pitcher. He apparently takes a long time to warm up, not something you want in a relief pitcher.
I agree that Burnett in the pen is the worst thing that could happen for the Yankees. He is either in the rotation and they try their hardest to trade him, or he should be cut.
All starters take a while to warm up, they haven’t had to warm up quickly in their careers. That however isn’t a real problem with a long man. Garcia would never be asked to come into the game in the middle of an inning, he would get clean starts to an inning with plans on going 3-5 innings for a starter yanked early. In that sense it would be fine to carry him into the season as a long man. He’d mostly be insurance anyway in case Hughes or Burnett bombed out or got injured.
BTW if you are interested in joining fantasy this year shoot me an email Michael.
Yeah I am pretty confident he can adjust. I wonder if Hughes success in the pen will work against him in this battle. However if Burnett is still on the roster come opening day he has to be the number 5 starter. I don’t really have much faith in Hughes developing into a good starter anyway so I wouldn’t be too heartbroken over seeing him return to the bullpen role he did so well at in 09.
As for the fantasy league I saw the post. I would end up being one of those nonparticipants that make the league lame. I appreciate the invite though mann. School monopolizes a majority of my time unfortunately so I will just stick to commenting.
I think Hughes has a leg up just because of how much Cashman loves him. I believe he still sees him as that hope of developing an ace. I believe in a perfect scenario the Yankees would love to dump AJ, have Hughes start, and have Garcia as insurance in the pen.
I’ve historically down on Hughes, much more so than most Yankee fans, but I won’t complain if he gets the spot. My gripe was pretty much always that I didn’t believe the hype of him being an ace, as a number 4 or 5 starter I think he can do fine if he is in shape. He’s not special, but he has good enough stuff to win games in this league, especially with a good offense behind him.
It’s all good, I understand, just making sure to extend the invite. Hopefully you’ll be around for game threads this year.
Hughes is almost at where Burnett is now. Fastball curve pitcher who doesn’t have great control or a 3rd pitch. Hughes doesn’t have the fastball Burnett had, and especially not the curve. I would rather him starting instead of Burnett or Garcia because he is still young enough to prove me wrong, but I would rather have him as a dominant relief pitcher than mediocre to bad starter.
Hey, Chris, Michael. I appreciate the opportunity, too, but I may have too much to do soon, to handle learning fantasy. Thanks for theoffer.
You guys are all wet @ Phil!
He’s certainly not a dominant starter, but Hughes right now at best is the 6th inning guy. If/when Joba comes back he’s competing even for that role. Even if he was the only setup man to Rivera he’s still more valuable as a medicore starter than in the pen. 180-200 innings is always going to be more valuable than 60-70 innings, even most closers aren’t more valuable than a 4th starter quality starter.
It’s all good smurf. If you change your mind shoot me an email.
See thats the thing, I don’t think Hughes is capable of giving 180-200 quality innings year in year out. I might be even lower on him than you are lol. Like I said in a previous thread, if Hughes can’t match Nova, then he shouldn’t be in the rotation.
I don’t think his 2010 season was some huge feat, as many do. Certainly not as impressive as the 18 wins make it seem. But honestly if he can put up 170 innings like he did then, 4.19 ERA, 4.25 FIP, 4.13 xFIP, 2.5 WAR then he more than qualifies as our 5th starter.
Ivan Nova likely isn’t going to repeat what he did last year, so that standard is a little lofty for what is no more than a 5th starter at this point. NO 5th starter in baseball posts ERA’s under 4.
If Nova can show command of his fastball, curve, slider, and very occasional change I would be very happy even if the results aren’t as good as last year. Then again, in the first half of last year he didn’t throw his slider, so there is reason to believe he can do what he did in the second half for a full season.
When it
Small sample size beware. 4.33 ERA in the first half in 85.1 IP, 3.10 ERA in 78.2 IP in the second half. He still only struck out 5.67 per 9 in the second half, so I’d beware of calling him a low 3 ERA pitcher based on 78 innings and a slider. He’s still likely to be a high 3/low 4 ERA pitcher next season. He could surprise me but his upside still seems more like that of a number 3 starter, with his current skill level that of a 4.
Oh yeah, no. Not a low 3s guy hes not that guy. I am hoping for similar strike out and walk rates, close to 200 innings, very high GB rate, stingy with the home run, and around a 3.86 ERA. A very nice 3
That’s probably a little too optimistic for next season. If I had to lay out a guess right now I’d say he’s in the middle 5′s in K/9, low to mid 3′s for BB/9, over under on innings at 190, WHIP in the mid to high 1.3′s, and an ERA slightly over 4. Rock solid 4 but down some from last year.