Aaron Judge, Greg Bird, and Luis Severino are key to the success of the Yankees' youth movement

The Yankees have invited their top three prospects in Luis Severino, Aaron Judge, and Greg Bird to spring training as non-roster invitees. It will be exciting for fans who don't follow the minor leagues as closely to see some of the top talent from the farm in action before the team heads north for the start of the year. Putting any real stock in spring training stats is pretty foolish, but seeing how Severino, Judge, and Bird look against tougher competition is important because they are really the keys to the Yankees' new youth movement being a success.

It isn't a surprise to anyone that the Yankees have needed to get younger for a while now. With aging players weighing down the roster over the last few seasons the team has finally tried to infuse some real youth on the roster by trading for Didi Gregorius and Nathan Eovaldi while depending on Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda to carry the rotation. Working towards getting a younger roster is important, but it can't all come at once. The Yankees need some help from their farm system to really turn things around, and hopefully Rob Refsnyder and Jacob Lindgren, among others, can begin to infuse the big league team with homegrown talent as soon as this season.

Then there is the trio of prospects in Severino, Judge, and Bird. They appear on nearly every big prospect list out there, and for good reason. They had highly productive seasons down on the farm in 2014 and seem primed to be able to compete for a big league job before too much longer. Severino has the ceiling of a frontline starter, Judge could easily make for a powerful addition to right field, and Bird brings impressive plate discipline and power at first base that could ease the blow of a declining Mark Teixeira. None of the three are ready to be on the big league team today, but they aren't too far off if they can put together another impressive season in 2015. Each of them could very well be knocking on the door by this time next year.

For the Yankees to effectively get younger, these three may very well be the key. A quality starting pitcher and two strong offensive talents to add to the roster would go a long way toward the team being able to avoid expensive free agent contracts for declining players. Prospects don't always pan out, no matter how promising they may see, and these three are no exceptions. Even two of the three turning out to be special would be fantastic. How they perform this spring training won't make or break their futures by any means, but it will give fans a chance to see some potential pieces of the future. It's been a while since there was something on the farm really worth looking forward to, but all the hype surrounding these three prospects makes it feel like there may legitimately be something here worth keeping an eye on. Inviting them to spring training is just the first step in seeing if they can truly be big players in what the team is currently trying to do to turn itself around. Hopefully Severino, Judge, and Bird can prove that they can be what everyone hopes they will be in the near future.