Early Takeaways from the Yankees’ September Call-Ups
September 10, 2014 · Gary Phillips · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
We are 10 days into the month of September, a time when major league teams are littered with minor league prospects; players decent enough to warrant a call-up when the 25-man rosters expand to 40.
Hopelessly fighting for the playoffs, the New York Yankees have some call-ups of their own as they sit 5.5 games out of the second wild card.
With their chances dwindling by the day and every game a must-win, the Yanks have relied very little on the players they brought up such as Chris Young, Antoan Richardson, John Ryan Murphy, Bryan Mitchell, Preston Claiborne and more.
Just a few days into the month, these call-ups have had only a handful of opportunities to showcase their abilities, making it hard to judge their games fairly.
One thing that is certain is that Young is far removed from the player he once was in Arizona, not that he was anything too special back then anyway.
Due to injuries and a rapid decline in talent, Young has gone from averaging 126 games, 19 homers and 58 RBI a year in seven seasons with the Diamondbacks, to hardly being worthy of a major league roster spot. He hit just .205 in 88 games with the New York Mets earlier this season before he was released.
The Bombers picked him up to deepen the outfield, but a kid out of rookie ball could probably offer the same production at this point.
No one else has shown much of anything, or has seen the time to for that matter.
Richardson is being used as nothing more than a pinch runner. He’s clearly not a big-league ballplayer.
A yo-yo player for a few years now, Austin Romine’s game is limited to defense. It is safe that that is not going to change at this point.
Claiborne and Mitchell have both pitched this season in the majors, but not in September yet. Both could have the potential to be middle relievers at the moment.
One player who has impressed all season, not just in September, is Murphy.
The Yankees’ backup catcher earlier this season, Murphy was sent down in June when Francisco Cervelli was activated off the disabled list.
It was not because Murphy was failing to produce. Prior to being sent down, he was hitting .288 while playing solid defense behind the plate in 24 games. He showed flashes of what it will take to possibly be an everyday catcher, and he got some interest in trade chatter as well.
With Gary Sanchez being one of the Yankees’ top prospects, Murphy often gets overlooked as a catcher, but he could be a nice piece for the team to get some sort of value via trade.
Other than that, there is not much here. There is no Sanchez, Rob Refsnyder or Luis Severino among these call-ups. There is no one that is going to jump out at you. The guys that are here are hardly playing.
While they are still technically in the race, the Yankees could care less about giving a minor leaguer some playing time. They just cannot afford to right now with every game being so important.
All stats were obtained via Baseball-Reference.com and are accurate as of the end of play on September 10, 2014.
Question or comments? Feel free to follow me on Twitter @GPhillips2727 to talk New York Yankees and Major League Baseball.
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