As the Yanks kicked off their annual Spring Training camp earlier this week, Joe Girardi ran through a whole list of issues. Atop that list was the status of Jorge Posada. Tyler Kepner reports:
Don’t expect Jorge Posada to catch before mid-March. He will play designated hitter before then, but as he recovers from shoulder surgery, Girardi expects Posada to start only 100 to 110 games behind the plate this season. From 2000 through 2007, Posada started 134 to 142 games at catcher each year.
Now, I know the Yanks shouldn’t be banking on Posada to reach those 2007 levels in terms of games played. He’s coming off a very serious shoulder injury and needs to be healthy for the remaining years on his contract.
However, if he catches just 100-110 games this year, the Yanks still need to find someone else to catch the other 52-62 games. Do they turn to Jose Molina? Do they turn to Kevin Cash? Neither of those two are very appealing options offensively. Molina played in 100 games and put up a line of .216/.263/.313 last year. Kevin Cash played in 61 games for Boston and managed a .225/.309/.338. Can you imagine one third of the season with those two guys in the lineup?
The Yanks have a strong farm system with some appealing trading chips. They shouldn’t use them, however, to acquire a catcher simply because they have depth behind the dish in the low levels of the minors. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Francisco Cervelli up in the bigs if he can hit. Someone after all is going to have to spell Posada more often than we would like.
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