John Ryan Murphy wins Yankees backup catcher competition; Austin Romine designated for assignment

The Yankees have decided to go with John Ryan Murphy as their backup catcher for 2015, leaving Austin Romine designated for assignment because he is out of options. Neither Murphy nor Romine hit very well in spring training with Murphy's .238 spring average coming out ahead of Romine's .171. When neither player really did much to separate from his competition it might have been easy to think the Yankees would take the easy way out and keep them both by sending Murphy down to Triple-A. Instead, they chose to go with the superior player in Murphy, even though it meant parting with some depth.

Romine never managed to really put together the offense that went with his highly-regarded defensive skills as a backstop. There's little doubt that he will catch on with some team in need of a backup, but no one should really be broken up about the loss of him on the Yankees. Murphy has proven himself to be the better option with the bat. Romine, in limited big league time, put up a .204/.247/.281 batting line with one home run (in Petco Park!).

With the backup catcher situation sorted out, the Opening Day roster is finally set. Here are your 2015 Yankees.

Catchers: Brian McCann, John Ryan Murphy

First Base: Mark Teixeira, Garrett Jones

Second Base: Stephen Drew, Gregorio Petit

Shortstop: Didi Gregorius

Third Base: Chase Headley

Outfield: Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, Chris Young

Designated Hitter: Alex Rodriguez

Starting Rotation: Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, CC Sabathia, Nathan Eovaldi, Adam Warren

Bullpen: Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller, David Carpenter, Justin Wilson, Chasen Shreve, Chris Martin, Esmil Rogers