Montero Loses Catching Job

Just read a post from Joel Sherman about Montero, and I have to agree with his take. When Cervelli went down with his foot injury it was largely expected that Montero would win the backup job. I wrote in a post earlier in the spring that it would probably be best for Montero to play every day in the minor leagues, instead of getting into games here and there in a backup capacity at the big league level. The wisdom at the time from the Yankees leadership was that it would actually benefit Montero to have him play as a backup in the majors as Posada did early in his career, so he can be groomed into the starting role. But as Sherman points out, the Yankees have backtracked on this. This from Girardi: “We thought it was more beneficial for them (Montero and Austin Romine) to play every day instead of maybe just getting a couple starts in the month of April.” Personally, I think it was smart not to bring Montero up this early, but the reason he's not coming up right now isn't because the Yankees had a change in heart, but because Montero couldn't catch and couldn't hit during spring training. He has the talent to, he just couldn't put it together. The Yankees were hoping to see him replace Russell Martin at the end of the season as the every day catcher, but they may need to be a little more patient. I still think Montero can become a legitimate big league hitter, but they should still make him earn that spot. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery for Cervelli.