Baseball is back!
Pitchers and catchers officially reported to Tampa earlier this week for the New York Yankees. The long offseason has ended. Spring training has started. The 2017 baseball season is here. By Saturday, the position players had joined their teammates and everyone was camp, except Jacoby Ellsbury, whose wife is pregnant and expecting to give birth any day.
The injury bug has already bit the Yankees. Tyler Austin arrived in camp a month early to prepare for the season, in hopes of winning a spot on the opening day roster. Instead, his foot is in a boot after fouling a ball off it during batting practice earlier in the week. He is expected to be out at least six weeks. Mason Williams will be sidelined for two weeks. He reaggravated a strain in his patellar tendon that had bothered him over the winter.
Off the field, the Yankees suffered a strained relationship. Dellin Betances had his arbitration hearing on Friday. The announcement came on Saturday that he will earn $3 million instead of the $5 million he was seeking. Normally, that would be the end of it. However, in a bizarre turn, Yankees President Randy Levine decided to make public the team’s argument why they believed their all-star reliever was asking for too much.
The ensuing hours brought about an uncomfortable public relations nightmare between Levine and Betances’ camp. Both sides using the media to explain their view. Betances is expected to get past this and has already joined his teammates at the facilities. It seems that the entire situation could have been handled much better. At this point, I bet both sides had wished they could have settled somewhere in the middle and avoided this fiasco.
Today is the first day of full-squad workouts. By this time next week, we will be discussing Grapefruit League action. In the meantime, here are the stories from this past week, in case you missed it.
- James Vlietstra breaks down the Pinstriped Prospects top 50 Yankees prospects.
- Antonio Mendes catches up with Yankees prospect Domingo Acevedo to discuss a variety of topics.
- Jed Weisberger takes a look back at the Yankees 2001 Top 10 Prospects.
- Paul Pagnato explains why the next two seasons are about preparing for the future.
- James Vlietstra presents the pitchers in the system that throw 100+ mph.
- Gershon Rabinowitz gives the details of the Carter signing.
- Josh Sabo tells us about James Reeves and JR Graham, two more players added to the Yankees spring training roster.
- Paul Pagnato outlines the upcoming season.
- Jed Weisberger gives reasons why Jordan Montgomery can help the Yankees.
- Joe Dixon profiles Yankees prospect Greg Weissert.
Pinstriped Prospects unveiled their gear for the upcoming season. The store is open for only a limited time so order yours today.
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