Another one bites the dust. Frankie Cervelli will miss a minimum of six weeks after suffering a fractured right hand on a foul tip in the very first inning of tonight’s game, the Yankees announced. He will have surgery tomorrow and Austin Romine has already been pulled from the Triple-A Scranton game according to Donnie Collins, so it’s very safe to assume he will join the team tomorrow. No 40-man roster move will be required.
Cervelli, 27, was hitting .269/.377/.500 (144 wRC+) with three homers in 61 plate appearances on the young season. He also threw out two of four attempted base-stealers and had played reasonably well defensively. Cervelli pushed himself ahead of Chris Stewart on the depth chart and had unofficially taken over as the everyday catcher about two weeks ago. Even though he spent basically all of last season in the minors, this is a pretty significant loss for a team that didn’t have much offensive wiggle room to start with.
It goes without saying that I hope Stewart doesn’t take over as the starting catcher by default. Romine should play regularly and get a chance to play everyday if he shows up and hits. He came into today with a .341/.400/.415 (134 wRC+) batting line in 45 plate appearances for Triple-A Scranton. Considering that hand injuries can linger, the Yankees should be scouring the waiver and trade markets for catching help as well. The problem is that quality backstops are hard to find, so I wouldn’t expect any luck there.
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