The 2012 Opening Day Roster

April 4, 2012 by Michael Axisa 45 Comments

Spring Training is officially over, and the Yankees had until 5pm ET today to set their Opening Day roster. Boone Logan‘s back gave us a minor scare this morning, but it’s just spasms. He’ll be fine it seems. Frankie Cervelli was expected to be the backup catcher basically forever, but he’s headed to Triple-A after George Kontos was traded for Chris Stewart. Justin Maxwell was also designated for assignment, which isn’t all that surprising. He had no spot on the roster and was out of options. That’s life.

Barring any late and unforeseen announcements, here are your 2012 Yankees…

Catchers
Russell Martin
Chris Stewart

Infielders
Robinson Cano
Eric Chavez
Derek Jeter
Eduardo Nunez
Alex Rodriguez
Mark Teixeira

Outfielders
Brett Gardner
Curtis Granderson
Raul Ibanez
Andruw Jones
Nick Swisher

Starting Pitchers
Freddy Garcia
Phil Hughes
Hiroki Kuroda
Ivan Nova
CC Sabathia

Relievers
Boone Logan
David Phelps
Clay Rapada
Mariano Rivera
David Robertson
Rafael Soriano
Cory Wade

Congrats to Mr. Phelps. Dude became a father a week or two ago, and now he’s a big leaguer. Must be a pretty exciting time for him and his family.

Players on the big league DL will include David Aardsma (elbow), Cesar Cabral (elbow), Joba Chamberlain (elbow, ankle), Pedro Feliciano (shoulder), Brad Meyers (shoulder), Michael Pineda (shoulder), and Austin Romine (back). Aardsma and Feliciano are already on the 60-day DL while everyone else figures to land on the 15-day. The Yankees currently have one open 40-man spot even after adding Rapada, so they’ll surely slide Joba over to the 60-day whenever they need another spot.

Justin Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (formerly Rainbow Connection)

So much for my new screen name.
- Robinson Tilapia
  
  Ha-ha!
Tom Zig

is there a limit to how many guys you can have on the 60-day DL?
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa
  
  No, but at some point you have to activate them all.
Slugger27

hell of a team
MWA ASSTTASTIC

Who backs up Tex at 1B?
- Jake
  
  Chavez
- vin
  
  Chavez and Swisher. That position is well covered.
- Mike
  
  Chavez, Ibanez,
- Justin Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (formerly Rainbow Connection)
  
  Posada
- RetroRob
  
  The new catcher Stewart also plays first.
- Ro
  
  Me
- Jesse
  
  Chavez, if he doesn’t break himself taking his position.
Ac

To stash Phelps as the long man do they not value him as high as Warren n Mitchell ? Since those guys will get to stay starters in AAA and work and get ready for a call up if need be. I’m just curious and how you guys look at phelps just sitting in pen and getting no game action unless blowout.
- RetroRob
  
  Just the opposite. Noesi last year was considered the top AAA prospect and he served the longman role, and this year it’s Phelps.
  - Havok9120
    
    I see it that way as well. I’d be surprised if he sits in the ‘pen the whole year too after Cashman admitted he didn’t like the way he handled Noesi.
DM

Yanks signed Ramon Ortiz — replaces Phelps in AAA
DM

Cashman talked up Stewart — says he’s “Jose Molina-like” shuts down the running game and is a great receiver but “has no bat”.
- Justin Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (formerly Rainbow Connection)
  
  But does he pump his fist a lot?
  
  Yankee Fan/Bill Simmons
DM

Cashman speaking critically about Romine — says he had the back issue over the winter but didn’t bring it up until he came to camp.
Plank

How is Romine not on the major league DL? He is on the 40 and got hurt in camp. Or was he already optioned to AAA?
Tomm

Smart moves here by the manager. Phelps is a good looking young pitcher (not thrower) who could be a find. Garcia is deserving, to give him a slot over Pineda (and soon, Nova) gives the manager credibility and a professional pitcher to boot. Dumping Cervelli took guts, but personality alone doth not a catcher make. Pineda was/is not ready, no matter how big the Montero trade was. Wade was excellent last year, he deserves another go. EGirardi may not be entertaining, but he is always focused on giving opportunities to the most deserving.
- Red “The Strawman” Herring
  
  Tomm, you do realize that the only reason Garcia is in the rotation is because Pineda is injured, right? If Pineda was healthy, Garcia would be sitting in the bullpen. Not ready? Good lord, man. He threw 171 inning last year (as a rookie, mind you) to the tune of a 3.74 ERA with 173 K’s and only 55 BB’s.
  - Ro
    
    Disagree. I think Garcia was part of the rotation regardless of Pineda’s spring. Only other option was a trade, but I don’t think for a moment that the Yanks seriously considered making him a long man or 6th starter, just hanging around in the bullpen. If anything, Nova may have been the temporary odd man out had Pineda taken the #4 spot. Part of me believes that Pineda was destined for a stint in the minors within the first few months of the season regardless. Obviously its easy for us fans to go back and say that now, months after the trade, but I did believe this when the deal was made. All the talk of #2 and so on. Sure, maybe next season and beyond, but I didn’t think for a minute that Cashman made this deal thinking of the short term. And as always, it will all work itself out. We have good problems. Red Sox have very very horrifically bad problems at the moment, so let’s consider ourselves lucky. The only thing that I’m bent on over the last few months is the Romine injury. I really like him as a catcher and I do believe he will be good as a full time, long term back stop, but a 2nd back injury is bad shit.
    - jjyank
      
      Are you kidding? If Pineda was throwing 97 in camp and striking everyone out, you would have sent him to AAA and had Garcia in the rotation??
      
      I’m sorry, but that’s insane. I like Garcia, but I seriously doubt his ability to post a sub-4 ERA with his “kitchen sink” approach in the AL East. Pineda is the superior pitcher, and if he was healthy, he would make the rotation over Garcia. Period.
  - Tomm
    
    He is healthy. Nothing so wrong with him, all pitchers have soreness.
    
    Except that he’s a different pitcher than he was first part of last year, as everyone knows. Throwing 90 mph in Yankee Stadium against the AL East? Without dominating breaking stuff? He’d be putting up 4.50-5.50 or so ERA. Lefties like Adrian Gonzalez, David Ortiz, Josh Hamilton, Jacoby Ellbury will munch on this guy in the Bronx unless he picks up his velocity or learns how to pitch better. Hopefully he will.
    
    In the meantime, Freddy is here, he’s an artist, and we should appreciate it.
    - jjyank
      
      Except that Pineda has great control and good secondary offerings. I like Garcia but Pineda is far more talented. Can we at least wait for the guy to get healthy and pitch for the Yankees before we write the story of how he will pitch to an ERA above 5?
      
      And no, he’s NOT healthy. He’s on the DL for a reason, you know. I don’t get it, its like people WANT to hate Pineda.
    - Jake
      
      I think what some people are not grasping is the long-term effects of this. Okay so Pineda is on the DL with apparant shoulder pain but even if he was healthy he wasn’t gonna start in the majors this year. By starting him in the minors the Yanks will gain another year of arbitration over him rather than a free-agent year. Sure it’s 5 years down the road but GM’s have to think of this stuff. Start Garcia and see if he can build any trade value before Pettitte/Pineda are ready to join the roster. We’ll see if Hughes or Nova is pitching better as one of them will most likely have to sacrifice their rotation spot.
- Havok9120
  
  I couldn’t disagree more about Pineda, but oh, well. I will be interested to see what happens to all our catchers when Romine comes back.
Manny’s BanWagon

Don’t understand why the Yankees would give away a potentially useful reliever in Kontos for a piece of crap catcher like Stewart who is no better than Cervelli, Gustavo Molina or any other catcher who can actually walk erect.
- mustang
  
  Boy are you in the wrong thread here let me help:
  
  http://riveraveblues.com/2012/.....aaa-66373/
- hogsmog
  
  The guy picked up .6 defensive bWAR last year in like 70 games. With a 40% cs rate, that’s a pretty good backstop.
  - Plank
    
    The error bar for WAR over 70 games is less than 0.6. The error bars for catcher defense WAR over 70 games is so high that it makes looking at that number meaningless.
    
    He could be that valuable on D, but it’s not represented in that number.
    - Plank
      
      The error bar for WAR over 70 games is ~~less~~ more than 0.6
Tyrone Sharpton

screw wat the critics say, but this team will be loaded next year. they are clear favorites for next year, over boston, laa, texas, tb philly or whoever. but everyone wants to criticize em…
thenamestsam

Really an extremely strong roster top to bottom. Cash was criticized in his earlier years for not focusing enough on the fringes of the roster but I think he has become excellent in that area, using a combination of young players and veterans to build very deep and talented bullpens and benches. All the pieces are set, now we just have to wait for opening day #4 and we’ll finally have some real baseball.
- jjyank
  
  +1
  
  That’s Cashman’s strongest area, I believe. Dude has been able to convince Vets to accept part-time roles, and combine them with young talent to create the best benches and bullpens we’ve seen in a long time.
Havok9120

Opening Day #4 with 1-3 being Pitchers and C’s, position players, and ST games?
- Havok9120
  
  Reply fail to thenamestsam.
- thenamestsam
  
  No I meant the Japan one, today, tomorrow and Friday. Really not a fan of this outrageously drawn out opening day process. Once other teams get to play real games I want in on the fun.
  - Havok9120
    
    I agree with that completely. I was fine with the 2 day OD in the name of tradition, but this is just silly.
    
    However, if they’re determined to play some games in Japan (they are), this is the best way to do it. When’s the second series there?
Yankees

I just went threw all those comments about pineda garcia and nova, and oh yes offcourse our back up catcher, the yankees pretty much have a solid 6 starters, cc nova pineda kuroda garcia and come on yankee fans the clutch andy pettite is back. No reason for him to come out of retirement and not go for another ring to his collection. Ro you said u could see nova being the odd man out which is completely wrong after how great/reliable he has pitched as a young pitcher. Now are we really talking about stewart and cervelli? This is gonna be martins 3rd season as a yankee if im not mistaken, lets not forget the seasons he put together with the dodgers. He’ll put up numbers along with very good catching. So no need to talk about a back up catcher. How bout we find a back up third baseman since arod will hit the dl atleast twice, still wont accept him as a yankee, let chavez start
Yazman

Here’s hoping Martin can catch 162 games :0
- http://www.twitter.com/WashngtonYankee Alex C.
  
  NO!
- Michaels’ Pineda
  
  Are you being cereal?

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