Chad Jennings has the details.
- Juan Miranda will start the year splitting 1B/DH with Eric Duncan.
[Farm director Mark] Newman said the Yankees still have high hopes for Duncan, and he put Duncan's age in nice perspective.
"Last year he was a college senior playing Triple-A," Newman said.
- Mark Melancon and JB Cox will be ready for Opening Day, but will likely start the season down to in Tampa to avoid the chilly Northeast April.
- Humberto Sanchez won't be ready for opening day. I'd been holding out hope he'd be ready to play. He reached AAA as a starter with the Tigers before the Sheffield trade, and I think that he could be Joba-esque out of the pen.
- Nick Green will be in camp. If the Yankees decide to carry an extra infielder (in addition to Betemit and Duncan), Green will have competition with Alberto Gonzalez for that spot.
- All hands will be on deck for the Yankee bullpen, both in Spring Training and all season.
Basically, it looks like spring training will be a free-for-all for the final few spots in the major league bullpen. Newman said some of those minor league starters will have a real chance to win one of those spots. Competing for the big league bullpen, though, doesn't mean those pitchers will be converted to relievers in the minor leagues. Newman said he would be comfortable calling a minor league starter straight from the Triple-A rotation into the major league bullpen. At the same time, he wouldn't rule out another Joba Chamberlain situation, where a starter gets a few minor league relief appearances before going to the big leagues as a reliever. The situation is, as he put it, fluid.
I like this approach to building the pen. I'm excited for Spring Training.
It's December 19th, and it's snowing in Scranton. Damn it.
Update [2007-12-20 1:37:3 by jscape2000]: Sweet. The Royals signed Ron Mahay. Which means the Yankees didn't.
I couldn't be happier.