Chad Jennings of Lohud recently talked to Mark Newman about several Yankee prospect injuries.
Three Yankee prospects have been diagnosed with the same congenital condition (a misshaped bone in the hip) that Alex Rodriguez was diagnosed with and needed surgery to correct. Ty Hensley, Rob Segedin, and Anderson Feliz all had similar problems that led to surgery and all three should be ready for spring training next year.
Manny Banuelos did not pitch in the 2013 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in late 2012, but he did manage to pitch at the minor league complex and in the instructional league.
Newman said he was reaching 92-94 mph with a good changeup and getting breaking balls over the plate. He is expected to be ready this spring, but he will not pitch at all this winter. "He pitched enough," Newman said. "He's been throwing for 14, 15 months. He's going home to rest."
If he's ready to go for spring training he could get an extended look to see how close he might be to contributing to the big league club. Don't expect him to break camp with the team, but he could earn a spot late in the season if he impresses.
Michael Pineda will also be resting in the offseason and will not be playing winter ball.
He was reaching 94-96 mph with his fastball. "We'll see how he comes back, but I think he's healthy," Newman said. "I thought he was fine. There might be a little bit of (rust) in spring training early in the year, but he's got a history of throwing strikes."
The Yankees' options for the 2014 rotation are pretty limited, so If he can go into spring training and impress, he could put himself in line for a job. Depending on his condition this spring, he could find his way up to the majors again in the first few months of the season.
During the season, Jose Ramirez was shut down due to an oblique strain. He was throwing in the instructional league and is now fully healthy. That's good to hear since his disappearance since July made it look like something serious had happened, potentially to his arm.
Mark Montgomery battled a shoulder injury early in the season and a back injury late in the season.
"He changed his workout program last offseason, experimented with a new program, and that may have been part of it. I don't know. You can't jump to that conclusion, but it impacted his control more than anything. He still struck people out a lot this year, just walked too many."
Hopefully this season can be put behind him and next year will be business as usual for the top relief prospect. He was supposed to make the team by midseason, so hopefully that will happen in 2014 once he proves he's healthy again. Now that Mariano Rivera has retired and Boone Logan is gone, the Yankees will need all the reinforcements they can get for the back end of the bullpen.
Slade Heathcott had very minor surgery on his knee and is expected to be fully healthy for spring training. He had been dealing with knee issues all season long and it ended up taking him out of the last week of the season.
Corban Joseph has season ending shoulder surgery in May and is now throwing and rehabbing for next season. He had apparently tried to make it through the season with the injury, but couldn't make it very far.
Yankees first round draft pick Aaron Judge has been working out after missing the entire season to a quad pull. Newman said that they shut him down as a precautionary measure so they could make sure he would be healthy for next season. Their second round pick Gosuke Katoh has a sprained finger after playing in the instructional league. Thankfully, it is believed to be a very minor injury and he'll be fine.