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The Yankees have a roster problem. Lots of roster problems actually.
With the Yanks’ starting lineup decimated by injury, night after night the bottom of the lineup reads like the bottom of a mediocre NL line up: Thames, Miranda, Cervelli, Winn…ugh. With those kinds of hitters filling out a roster with a slumping Jeter and A-rod, it’s hardly surprising the Yanks were blanked twice in Detroit.
Despite last night’s A-bomb from A-rod, Teixeira’s annual May awakening, and Cano’s slump busting night, the Yankee line up is going to remain thin for a while. Granderson is still a month away, Johnson longer away than that, even Swisher–who was supposed to by Yankee depth last year and has become a crucial starter–is day to day. Posada is creaky and needs lots of time off.
The Yanks need to make some moves to shore up the offense. The could use a veteran corner outfielder with power and/or a veteran DH (er, like, Damon and Matsui), someone like Jermaine Dye–who is still looking for a job. And they desperately need a third catcher on the big league roster so on nights when Cervelli is catching (which should be most nights at this point) Posada can DH.
Once Yankee GMs were sure to have a rehabing veteran OFer and a late-career backup catcher on the 40-man roster and sitting in Triple-A for just such a stretch as the Yanks are going through now. But today the Yankees are painted into a corner by a thin and poorly thought-through roster. Forget Nick Johnson, a signing I hated from the start because a) Nick’s a mediocre hitter to being with and b) he inevitably misses half a season, but the only infield depth the Yanks have is Ramiro Pena–a slick fielding shortstop who hits like one of the extras in Freddie Prinze Jr’s deathless “classic” Summer Catch. All six of the active OFers on the 40-man have already been up, and none of them–including starters Gardner, Swisher and Granderson–is exactly Mickey Mantle. And forget bringing up a third catcher so that Posada can DH more because there are no catchers on the 40-man roster other than Posada and Cervelli. The Yanks have no veteran back up cooling his heels in Scranton. They’re not bringing up Double-A prospect Austin Romine to serve as a back up and Jesus Montero is off to a lousy start in Triple-A and doesn’t project as a catcher anyway.
The Yanks will certainly find a way to muddle through especially if then continue to get good starting pitching and if A-Rod and Jeter get hot. But I sure would feel more comfortable if, say, Jermaine Dye was DHing instead of Marcus Thames, or if Posada could DH because the likes of Kevin Cash was available if Cervelli went down with an injury.
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