With all the pomp and circumstance surrounding pitchers and catchers reporting now in the rear-view mirror, the Yankees held their first official workout today. Here is a recap of the day’s news from Tampa:
- Chad Jennings has the day’s bullpen and and batting practice groups. CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Masahiro Tanaka, and Ivan Nova were among those to throw off a mound with various coaches and front office staff watching. Tanaka and Kuroda are catch partners and appear to have struck up a friendship already. Neato. [Meredith Marakovits, Dan Barbarisi]
- Joe Girardi and the rest of the staff are very pleased with how Tanaka how adjusted so far and were impressed with his bullpen session. Tanaka said he was surprised by how much running they do, however. “The four laps we did at the end were pretty hard,” he joked. [Bob Nightengale, Marakovits, Bryan Hoch]
- Manny Banuelos’ elbow feels great and he expects to make his MLB debut at some point this year. He was touching 94 mph during simulated games late last year. “It’s been a long time and I’m happy to be back,” he said. Banuelos will throw live batting practice on Wednesday. [Hoch, Marakovits, Jennings]
- Nova said he views Sabathia, Kuroda, and Tanaka as the only rotation locks and will treat this spring as if he’s competing for a job. “I’m still in a competition. Nothing is sure … I’m one of the young guys. I’ve got to be doing the best out there in the competition,” he said. [Hoch, Jennings]
- Mark Teixeira went through some infield drills with first base coach Mick Kelleher and then did some work in the batting cage with hitting coach Kevin Long. He’s working his way back from season-ending wrist surgery. [Wally Matthews]
- J.R. Murphy is going by John Ryan Murphy now. Apparently he had always gone by John Ryan, but people started calling him J.R. after he was drafted and he never bothered to correct anyone. [Sweeny Murti]
- Right-hander Yoshinori Tateyama is not yet in camp because of a visa issue. He is a long shot to make the bullpen anyway. [Jennings]
- And finally, there have been a number of upgrades made at George M. Steinbrenner Field. A new high-definition video board has been installed in left field and there’s a new scoreboard as well. [Hoch]
Here is tonight’s open thread. The NBA All-Star Skills Competition is on, as are the Olympics. You folks know how this stuff works by now, so have at it.
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