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Yankees add six to the 40-man roster

By Jason Cohen
The Star-Ledger-USA TODAY Sports

On the day the 40-man roster needed to be finalized before the Rule 5 Draft, the Yankees added six minor leaguers to their 40-man roster. These players are now protected in the draft and will remain with the Yankees. These six include Gary Sanchez, Slade Heathcott, Bryan Mitchell, Shane Greene, Jose Campos, and the newly acquired Dean Anna.

It had already been announced that Mitchell and Greene would be added to the roster and Heathcott and Sanchez were expected, being two of the system's top prospects.

Sanchez will likely start in Double-A to begin the season as he continues to work on his defense and could earn a promotion to Triple-A sometime mid-season. Hitting .250/.364/.380 in only 23 games at Double-A brings the promise that he could continue to be an offensive threat even against better pitching. As long as he continues to hit for power, Sanchez should move up the system.

That brings the total number of catchers on the 40-man roster to five. No team needs that many catchers, and if they still intend to sign another one, it's likely some of them will be booted in some fashion.

Heathcott has a good chance to start 2014 in Triple-A. The 2013 season was his first time cracking the 100-game mark and his .261/.327/.411 line wasn't bad either. He might stay in Double-A if the Yankees want to take it slow with him, but as long as he's healthy he could really start to impress.

Including Campos is a bit of a surprise, considering he has yet to pitch above Low-A and mainly made three-inning starts as the Yankees wanted to ease him back from injury. Maybe he gets selected, but the odds of him remaining on a team's 25-man roster for the entire season is highly unlikely. He would probably stay through spring training and then be returned.

Including Anna on the roster doesn't really do much for the Yankees. He is a career minor leaguer who couldn't break the Padres roster, so it's hard to see what he will bring other than minor league depth.

Currently, the Yankees have 39 players on their 40-man roster, so they will be able to make a selection in the Rule 5 Draft. Players like Jayson Nix, Eduardo Nunez, Matt Daley, David Huff could also be DFA'd to make room for free agent signings as well.

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