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With Francisco Cervelli out for at least 8-10 weeks, the Yankees have signed Chad Moeller to a minor-league deal and invited him to spring training.
Moeller was released by the Nationals on Sunday.
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on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 2:13 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Chad Jennings joined the The Journal News in October 2009, having spent the better part of seven years covering baseball in Scranton, PA. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri and an award-winning beat reporter and features writer. E-mail me at cjennings@lohud.com
Sam Borden is an award-winning journalist who joined The Journal News
and LoHud.com in January 2008. He covered the Yankees for the New York
Daily News from 2004-06, and has also worked as a columnist for the
Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. E-mail me at sborden@lohud.com
Josh Thomson has done some of everything since joining The Journal News in March 2003. He began working for the Gannett weeklies during the winter of 2002 as a freelance writer. He joined the daily staff soon after and has since covered various high school and pro sports. E-mail me at jthomson@lohud.com
Copyright © The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties in New York.
who ?
Whats the deal with him? I mean any info on him. Couldn’t they just bring someone back up from minor league camp?
I’ve been campaigning for this signing for years now.
…If you’re released by the Nationals…
Well, I guess it’s a step up from being released from the Orioles or Giants, but still…
Its going to be interesting to see how the catching shakes out at the minor league level.
Originally, Jason Brown and PJ Pellitere were supposed to be the catchers at Scranton (AAA).
With Cervelli out, Kyle Anson will probably be the starting catcher at Trenton (AA). Perhaps, Brown goes back to Trenton if Moeller sticks. No way Moeller won’t be in AAA if he shows anything.
Montero and Romine will be the catchers at Charleston (A).
Weems will probably be the starting catcher at Tampa (A).
This was a big injury and it was competely unnecessary.
Hopefully, payback comes Wednesday and its significant enough to put an end to this Tampa Bay nonsense.
Elliot Johnson. You bastard.
Fernando what do you like about the signing?
“Fernando what do you like about the signing?”
He was kidding.
The Nationals kept Nieves and cut this dude. Does anything more need to be said?
Bob–Agreed.
This is a guy who’s got MLB experience, and would be able to back up in the majors if something happens to Molina or, god forbid, Posada. PJ’s definitely not an MLB bat, and Brown’s really not someone you want in the majors. At all.
This is more to help Scranton than it is to help the Yankees.
Aside from Cervelli, the high end catching prospects for the Yankees are in A ball.
Found this Rotoworld note on him:
He’s not even above average defensively, so any time he’s on a roster, he’s a top candidate for worst player in MLB honors.
lol
This basically keeps the playing time on track for Posada and Molina as planned with Moeller now on board.
The minor league spring training games begin on Saturday and all other catchers will be seeing time in those games.
can we get maddon and zimmer to pay for his contract?
what a mess…
“This was a big injury”
yeah, alot of organizations never make it back from losing thier aa catcher for 8 weeks (3 of them in ST)
From a developmental standpoint, it is a big injury.
Cervelli is a very good prospect. He would also be working with some of their better pitchers at the AA level.
They lose that now because their other high end prospects at the position are lower single A kids.
That’s my point when I say it was a big injury.
the funny thing is that the Nationals released Moeller but kept Wil Nieves in camp. Is Moeller that bad?
No chance that Anson will start at AA and no chance that Weems is in Tampa.
Anson will still be in Tampa and Weems will still be in EST and go to a short season league.
One of the Scranton guys will be in Trenton, probably Brown.
Idiot Chris Russo is saying that Moeller is better than Jose Molina. Apparently Chad had a game winning hit once against the Giants. Why is Russo allowed on the radio?
Cerevelli’s loss is going to hurt the AA pitching staff. He’s a terrific defensive catcher and a very good receiver.
Unfortunately, the team really doesn’t have any prospects that are ready or appropriate for AA other than cerevelli.
Anson is older but I don’t think he’s ready for AA. He’s older but was only low A Charleston. They could push him but it would be really pushing him. Montero, Weems and Romine aren’t even close.
Not having cerevelli will only hurt McCutchen, Kontos, etc. who are pegged for AA.
I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this process. The Yanks need a guy in AAA that can be called up if a catcher is hurt. No catcher in camp, Cervelli included, was ready for that role.
That said, Moeller is merely a placeholder for now. A better guys for the job will become available at the end of spring. But to get them now you’d have to give something up – and that’s foolish for a guy you don’t want on the team. The Yanks will likely pick up somebody else that gets dropped at that point as a minors free agent, because Rotoworld is right about Moeller.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yanks kept Moeller and the pickup at AAA and dropped Piliterre to AA – its not like he tore it up there last year, though he handled the P’s ok. That he hasn’t hardly seen action in spring despite being a level ahead of Cervelli and 2 ahead of Anson says something of what the club thinks of him. He can return to AAA when Cervelli returns – then we can release Moeller too.