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Yankees set roster for Low-A Charleston
Chad Jennings,
Still waiting for an official roster announcement for the other full-season
minor league affiliates, but we do have an Opening Day roster for the Low-A
Charleston RiverDogs. It's headlined by an interesting mix of middle
infielders, an outfield of 2015 draft picks, and a big name starter in
Domingo Acevedo.
“He’s a big, tall right-handed pitcher," vice president of player
development Gary Denbo said earlier this spring. "If you look back over the
years at all of those type of pitchers that we’ve had, I think those
pitchers take a little bit longer to develop because it’s not a short,
compact delivery by any means. He’s got such long arms and long legs, and it
takes time for those types to develop the ability to command their pitches,
and that’s what he has to do.
"He’s got to get to a place where he can command his fastball over the plate
first and then to both sides of the plate. He’s working on his breaking
ball. His changeup, we think, has a chance to be a plus pitch for him. We’re
very optimistic about his chances to help us in the future, but like all of
our pitchers, he’s got to learn to command his fastball before he’s able to
go up and help us in the upper levels."
A few things worth pointing out about this roster:
1. Mix-and-match infield
When minor league camp opened last month, Denbo said this was possible. The
Yankees have assigned two of their top shortstop prospects, Kyle Holder and
Hoy Jun Park, to the same team, meaning those two are likely to split time at
shortstop and second base. Interestingly, the Yankees have also sent Thairo
Estrada and Angel Aguilar to Charleston. Those assignments make sense in
terms of a player's usual development steps, but they give Charleston four
infielders who have some legitimate prospect status and can play shortstop,
suggesting a lot of moving around (I assume Holder and Park will be the
priorities at short). First basemen Chris Gittens and Connor Spencer are very
different types of offensive players, but each one has done enough to be
worth watching. The Yankees seem very high on Gittens.
2. Draft pick outfield
The regular Charleston outfield should be made up of last year's fourth-round
pick (Jeff Hendrix), last year's seventh-round pick (Jhalan Jackson) and last
year's 13th-round pick (Trey Amburgey) who had a terrific year in the Gulf
Coast League and Staten Island last year. This group walls somewhere below
Aaron Judge and Dustin Fowler in terms of organizational outfield prospects,
but all three have some potential to open eyes this year. An interesting
group to follow.
3. Converted position player
While Acevedo is a pretty big headliner, the rest of the pitching staff is
made of relatively small names in the organization (including converted
utility infielder, Claudio Custodio). It will be interesting to see where
several pitchers not listed here end up opening the season. Last I knew,
Austin DeCarr, Ty Hensley and Domingo German were making progress on their
way back from Tommy John surgery. I wonder if they could end up in Charleston
at some point.
4. Where's Luis Torrens?
Early this spring, Denbo said he planned to have catching prospect Luis
Torrens open the year in Charleston. On the day I left Tampa, Torrens was not
listed as an active player at the minor league complex, so perhaps he had
some sort of setback in his recovery from shoulder surgery. I honestly don't
know, but it's certainly worth noting that he's not listed here.