The talk going in to the season was that Jorge Posada’s days as a catcher were over. The Yankees have stayed true to that plan too, as he has not donned the tools of ignorance since spring training.
But before yesterday’s game, Joe Girardi conceded that, yes, Posada is the team’s “emergency catcher.” Which normally doesn’t mean much because most emergency catchers never catch. But in the Yankees’ case you might want to replace “emergency” with “backup.”
Why? Because despite the fact that the Yankees won’t put him on the disabled list for some reason, Russell Martin is hurt, with back and toe problems, and his backup -- Francisco Cervelli -- stinks. One foul tip and/or one Joe Girardi meltdown over just how bad Cervelli is back there, and Posada is in the game, ain’t he?
Of course the wild card here is Jesus Montero, who remains at Scranton for reasons that are only clear to Brian Cashman. I mean, no, he’s not tearing up the pea patch at the plate or anything, but he’s been solid enough compared to Cervelli. One wonders if they want to keep him down on the farm so as to preserve his marketability a bit in advance of the trade deadline, with the thinking being that if he came up to the bigs he wouldn’t hit and then no one would be willing to trade a front line starter for him. In the minors, every big prospect has the sheen and gloss of potential.
Oh well, that’s between Brian Cashman and his God. Or Randy Levine, whichever one ranks higher in the Yankees organization.
