Jorge Posada is 38 years old and his contract expires after 2011. He will certainly retire after that contract is up. Is it too soon to talk about the next Yankee catcher?
Let's start with Francisco Cervelli. Cervelli is currently 24 years old. Cervelli never put up good minor league stats as his career high for homers in a season was just 3. But, he has done well so far in the majors. In '09 he hit .298 with 4 doubles, 1 homer, 11 RBI, and a .309 OBP. He posted a .995 Fld% at catcher with an incredible 43% CS%. He's gotten off to a great offensive start in '10, hitting .400 with 1 double, 0 homers, 12 RBI, and a .481 OBP. He has posted an 1.000 Fld% an catcher, but he has not thrown out an attempted base stealer yet in 6 tries. That CS% of 0% will definitely improve. Cervelli has filled in very well when Posada has been hurt, but could he be a full-time catcher?
Next, let's talk about the high-profile catching prospect Jesus Montero. He is currently 20 years old. He has done well in the minors the past few years. In '09 between High-A and Double-A, Montero hit .337 with 25 doubles, 17 homers, 70 RBI, and a .389 OBP in 92 games. He posted a .996 Fld% at catcher with a 20% CS%. But, Montero is struggling at Triple-A right now, hitting just .234 with 6 doubles, 2 homers, 11 RBI, and a .294 OBP in 25 games. He has posted a .989 Fld% with a 25% CS%. The thing was Montero is that a lot of people consider him a CINO- a catcher in name only. Those people believe that Montero, who is 6 feet, 4 inches tall, has no future at catcher and will move to another position and/or be a DH. Theoretically, Montero could be the Yankee DH with Cervelli or Romine (who I will mention next) at catcher. So, will he even be a catcher when he reaches the majors? Montero reminds me of a former catcher who really jumped around and played every position, B.J. Surhoff, who is 6 feet, 1 inch tall. Surhoff started as a catcher, but during his career ended up playing every position other than pitcher. Surhoff had a pretty successful career, hitting .282 with 188 homers. But, Surhoff had a dimension to his game that Montero definitely does not have, as he had 141 stolen bases during his career including 21 in 1988 when he was still primarily a catcher. Surhoff's best overall year was in 1999 with Baltimore, when he hit .308 with 38 doubles, 28 homers, 107 RBI, 5 SB, and a .347 OBP. Those numbers are resonable for Montero (besides maybe the SB's). Again, Surhoff was a good player, but considering Montero's potential, the Yankee might want to be more careful with him than the Brewers were with Surhoff. After hitting .332 at Low-A in 1985 and .308 in Triple-A in '86, Surhoff was promoted to the majors and didn't play in the minors until 1994 when he played 8 games in the minors (maybe it was a rehab assignment). I hope the Yankees know what happened to Surhoff and will be a little more careful with Montero.
Austin Romine is another Yankee catching prospect, but he's not considered a CINO. He's currently 21 years old. Romine has done pretty well in the minors. In '09 at High-A, he hit .276 with 28 doubles, 13 homers, 72 RBI, and a .322 OBP in 118 games. He posted just a .984 Fld% at catcher including 11 passed balls, but he also threw out 30% of attempted base stealers. Romine has gotten off to a hot start in '10, hitting .326 through 24 games at Double-A, with 9 doubles, 3 homers, 18 RBI, and a .396 OBP. He has posted a .994 Fld% at catcher and a 19% CS%. Romine might be the best candidate to be the next Yankee catcher, but he hasn't played above Double-A yet.
Cervelli might not be able to be more than a backup and Montero might not be a catcher when he reaches the majors. Assuming all 3 have a future with the Yankees, I would say that in 2012, Cervelli will probably start the year as the starter, Montero would be the DH, and Romine would start in the minors and come up to the majors to become the starter if necessary.
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