Starting catchers — particularly ones with spanking new $85 million contracts — rarely log heavy miles in spring training.
However, first-year Yankees backstop Brian McCann is trying to get up to speed as soon as possible with a new pitching staff.
Thus, he made a three-hour bus ride March 11 from Tampa, Fla., to Viera, Fla., to work with staff ace CC Sabathia, who is likely to receive the Opening Day nod from manager Joe Girardi despite a down year in 2013.
“The relationship is extremely important between (McCann) and our pitchers,” Girardi said, according to the New York Daily News. “We try to get him with as many as guys as we think are going to be with us, especially the starters, so he can see them multiple times and get comfortable with them.”
McCann, a seven-time All-Star with the Braves, was signed in large part because of his batting prowess. He represents a huge offensive upgrade over the Yankees’ catchers last season: Chris Stewart, Francisco Cervelli and Austin Romine. The latter two are still in camp to compete to be McCann’s backup.
McCann is concentrating mostly on his crash course to learn about a rotation that also includes $155 million Japanese import Masahiro Tanaka along with incumbents Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda and Ivan Nova and possibly injury-rehabbed former All-Star Michael Pineda.
“I can tell we’re going to be able to work together really good,” Sabathia said.
The Yankees also will have a new closer in David Robertson following the retirement of Mariano Rivera, whom McCann said he is looking forward to meeting when he and the Yankees travel even farther — to Panama — the weekend of March 15-16.
“I’ve never met him. I’m anxious to do that,” McCann told the News. “He’s the greatest of all time. Being around that presence is special.”
NOTES, QUOTES
–SS Derek Jeter, who announced plans to retire at season’s end, is pleased with his movement at shortstop after missing all by 17 games last season with ankle and other leg injuries. “The more you play, I think the more comfortable you get,” Jeter said March 9. “I think you just want to be comfortable. The results are probably the last thing on my mind. It’s just seeing the ball, swinging at strikes and progressing from there.”
–LHP CC Sabathia is coming off the worst statistical season of his career (including a 4.78 ERA), so he wasn’t about to accept giving up three runs in three innings in his March 11 outing against Washington: “I sucked,” Sabathia said. “It was hard for me. … I only threw a couple of good pitches out of 61. I just have to take it and keep working on stuff and keep going.”
–RHP Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees’ $155 million free agent signing out of Japan, already is learning about some of the differences in preparing for the Major League Baseball season as opposed to seasons in his homeland. Tanaka’s second scheduled start came in a simulated game March 12 rather than a real spring training game, something he wasn’t accustomed to before coming to North America. “Obviously it was different than a real game,” Tanaka said through an interpreter. “I took it as part of practice to work on the things I needed to work on.”
–RHP Dellin Betances was once considered among the Yankees’ top starting-pitching prospects, but his transformation to the bullpen at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2013 may help him make it to the majors faster as a reliever. “It has been a conversation that had been ongoing for about two years, whether he’d be better, because of his delivery, in the ‘pen,” GM Brian Cashman said. “As a starter, it would come and go, his ability to repeat his delivery. If you kept it short and compact in one-inning stints, this guy would be better served. … All of a sudden, boom! His consistency was completely different.”
–3B Kelly Johnson, signed primarily to play third base with Alex Rodriguez serving a season-long suspension, also has been getting work at first base with regular 1B Mark Teixeira still recovering from 2013 wrist surgery. “You never know how it’s going to play out,” Johnson said. “You guys know after last year here, you just can’t really predict stuff. I’m not going to worry about it, but I’m still going to get early work and do what I need to do just in case.”
QUOTE TO NOTE: “I was definitely going, but I missed the bus. First time ever.” — SS Derek Jeter, joking about why he didn’t make a lengthy trip with the Yankees across Florida to face the Nationals in Viera.