Previewing the Yankees’ potential non-roster invitees to Spring Training 2023

Soon.

Three weeks from Thursday, Yankees pitchers and catchers will report to Tampa for Spring Training, then position players will follow four days after that. This will be the first normal Spring Training since 2019. 2020 was halted by the pandemic, 2021 was a shorter schedule with little 5-6 team pods because of the pandemic, and 2022 was truncated by the lockout. A normal spring is upon us.

“We have a number of guys down there already working out every day at Himes (the minor league complex). Excited that it’s upon us,” Aaron Boone said during a recent YES Network interview (video). “... We feel ready, excited. Can’t wait to get down there and get going.”

Yankees pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report Thursday, Feb. 16th, and at some point between now and then (likely next week), the Yankees will announce their non-roster invitees. Those are non-40-man roster players who get to mingle with Gerrit Cole, Aaron Judge, et al in big league camp rather than grind away in minor league camp across the street.

Non-roster invitees are a blend of prospects looking to make a name for themselves and journeymen trying to prove they have something to offer. The Yankees typically bring 20-25 non-roster players to camp. Add in the 40-man roster guys and that’s 60-65 players in big league Spring Training. The list then gets whittled down to a 26-man roster come Opening Day.

This is a World Baseball Classic year and the Yankees could bring additional non-roster players to camp to fill in for the guys who will be away at the WBC. Nestor Cortes (USA), Kyle Higashioka (USA), and Wandy Peralta (Dominican Republic) are the only Yankees known to be on WBC preliminary rosters. I'm sure there are others. Final WBC rosters will be announced sometime in early-to-mid February.

The WBC runs from March 8th to March 21st, though there are workouts before that, and WBC players have different Spring Training reporting dates than everyone else. WBC pitchers and catchers have to report to camp on Monday, Feb. 13th. WBC position players must report on Thursday, Feb. 16th. They’ll be a few days ahead of everyone once camp fully opens, then they’ll depart for WBC workouts.

If the Yankees bring additional non-roster players to camp to help cover for WBC absences, it’ll likely only be a few extra players, not like 10-15. They can easily cover for absences by calling up players from minor league camp for the day’s Grapefruit League game. The WBC won’t disrupt camp too much. We’ll just see a few different names throughout March.

Previewing the Yankees’ non-roster invitees is one of my favorite posts of the year and I didn’t get to do it last year because of the stupid lockout. For me, this post is a sign baseball is drawing close, plus we get to talk about players and prospects and how ugly the hats are. It begins the transition away from hypothetical offseason targets to actual players we will see in pinstripes in 2023.

With all that in mind, here is the return of my annual positional look at non-40-man roster players the Yankees could bring to Spring Training this year. As a reminder, 40-man roster players will be in big league camp automatically.

Catchers

40-man roster players (3): Kyle Higashioka, Ben Rortvedt, Jose Trevino

Being a non-roster catcher is a thankless job. You might only get a few at-bats or innings behind the plate in Grapefruit League games, but you will catch bullpen sessions each and every day. Non-roster catcher Kellin Deglan spent 25 days in big league camp in 2021. He appeared in three Grapefruit League games and got four at-bats. I don’t know how many bullpen sessions he caught but my unofficial estimate is: a lot. Deglan caught a lot of ‘em.

“We’re shoulder to shoulder, making each other better,” Rob Brantly, then with the Phillies, told Ted Berg in 2019 about being a non-roster catcher. “The goal is to get a big league spot, but we’re all going to buy into the ethic: We’re all trying to compete for a championship. If someone goes down, the next guy’s got to be ready.”

The Yankees have a nice pipeline of catcher prospects (some better than others) and we’ll see them in Spring Training. I know this because we’ve seen them in previous Spring Trainings. Josh Breaux, Anthony Seigler, and Austin Wells were all non-roster invitees in 2021. Antonio Gomez is younger than those guys and less experienced, but I think his time has come as well.

Non-roster prediction: Breaux, Gomez, Seigler, Wells, Rodolfo Durán, plus a catcher still to be signed. The Yankees lost Brantly and Max McDowell, Triple-A stalwarts the last two years, to minor league free agency, and I expect them to bring in a replacement. Someone has to be the No. 3 catcher behind Breaux and Rortvedt in Scranton. Unless the Yankees believe Durán, who had a .266 OBP in Double-A last year, can be that guy, another catcher signing is coming.

(Deglan spent four years in the system and every year his re-signing became known when the Yankees announced their non-roster players. We never heard about it beforehand. I’m banking on a random catcher showing up on this year’s non-roster list.)

Nine total catchers may be overkill, but teams typically bring 7-8 to Spring Training each year, and Higashioka could be away at the WBC. Also, the just turned 21-year-old Gomez is a prime “report with pitchers and catchers, catch bullpens, then get assigned to minor league camp the first day it opens in early March” candidate. And if Higashioka doesn’t make USA’s final roster, then Seigler probably gets sent down early too.

Infielders

40-man roster players (6): Josh Donaldson, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, DJ LeMahieu, Oswald Peraza, Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres

I would think Oswaldo Cabrera will focus on left field this spring, but we could count him among the 40-man infielders too. I’m sure he’ll see action all around the infield during Grapefruit League play just to reacquaint himself. That’s what Spring Training is for, after all. Likewise, LeMahieu will get work all around the infield (if healthy), Torres might get a few innings at short, etc.

As for non-roster candidates, the big name is Anthony Volpe, who will obviously be in camp. The Yankees’ No. 1 prospect reached Triple-A last season and should make his MLB debut at some point in 2023. Maybe even on Opening Day. The Yankees say there will be a shortstop competition in Spring Training, and even if that’s just lip service, there’s no harm in dangling the carrot in front of young players (or making Kiner-Falefa feel a little heat).

“We do have kids currently. We do have competition at the shortstop spot. We’ll see where it shakes out,” Brian Cashman told Dan Martin at the Winter Meetings. “We have some really high-end young kids that are here that we’re really excited about. Is their future as early as next year? That’s yet to be determined. If it’s not, they can still bide some time.”

Volpe was not in big league camp last spring because the lockout condensed everything and the big leaguers got the playing time priority. The Yankees went with veteran non-roster guys while bringing prospects over from minor league camp as needed each day. Volpe got some Grapefruit League experience that way (five at-bats), but this will be his first official non-roster invite. He would’ve gotten one last year without the lockout.

Trey Sweeney reached Double-A late last season and when a notable prospect (in this case the Yankees’ 2021 first round pick) does that, he typically gets the invite to big league camp the next spring. I don’t think Sweeney gets a non-roster invite though. He’s not a top prospect and there’s little chance we'll see him in the Bronx in 2023, and if the Yankees are truly holding a shortstop competition, at-bats and defensive innings will go to guys fighting for the job. Kiner-Falefa, Peraza, and Volpe will be the priority. Sweeney needs to play too, and minor league camp would be the best place for him. I hope I’m wrong, I want to get eyes on him. I’m just reading the tea leaves.

The only other infield prospect I expect to get a non-roster invite is Andres Chaparro, and I base that on Armando Alvarez coming to big league camp the last few years. Alvarez left as a minor league free agent this offseason and Chaparro will take his place as Triple-A Scranton’s primary third baseman. Chaparro has hit well in Double-A the last two years. A move up to Triple-A and a non-roster invite to camp is the natural order of things.

Other infield prospects like Roderick Arias and Alex Vargas are too young and too far away from the big leagues to be non-roster invitees (plus Vargas had a poor 2022). Tyler Hardman and T.J. Rumfield, who tore up the Arizona Fall League, aren’t prospect-y enough for a non-roster invite. Both strike me as the type who gets called up from minor league camp every few days to get on the bus and play the last few innings of Spring Training road games.

Non-roster prediction: Chaparro, Volpe, Jake Bauers, Wilmer Difo, Delvin Pérez, and Jamie Westbrook. Bauers and Rizzo are the only natural first basemen I expect to see in camp, though Chaparro, LeMahieu, and even Cabrera will see time at first. Billy McKinney, who we’ll cover in the outfield group, has played plenty of first base too. The Yankees are covered there.

Bauers and Difo have big league time and will be in camp. Pérez and Westbrook have not yet reached the big leagues, but they’ve each been non-roster invitees multiple times in the past, so we’ll see them too. Sign a guy like that and a non-roster invite comes with the territory. Volpe is the non-roster headliner on the infield. The rest of this group are the typical yet necessary bodies for Spring Training.

Outfielders

40-man roster players (7): Harrison Bader, Oswaldo Cabrera, Estevan Florial, Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge, Everson Pereira, Giancarlo Stanton

Like I said before, Cabrera figures to get work all over the field in camp. I have him grouped with the outfielders because I have to put him somewhere, and because the left field job is open. Florial is out of minor league options, but all signs point to him still being with the Yankees when camp opens. The decision regarding his roster status will come closer to Opening Day.

Jasson Domínguez was not in big league camp last spring because the Yankees didn’t bring any prospects to post-lockout camp, though unlike Volpe, Domínguez didn’t get into any Grapefruit League games as a minor league camp call up. That’ll change this year. Dominguez reached Double-A late last year and the Yankees have promoted him aggressively, so even though he turns only 20 in two weeks, count on Domínguez getting a non-roster invite. That’ll be fun.

"With the Yankees, my No. 1 goal is to stay healthy and do my work," Domínguez said during his stint in the Arizona Fall League. "I know that if I stay healthy and I do what I have to do, good things will come my way. I don’t know (what level) I’m going to start next season. I don’t control that. All I can control is how I play."

(There are only two possible ways Domínguez’s spring can go. Either he lights it up and everyone talks about him as a left field candidate, or he goes 1-for-9 with six strikeouts and is among the first players reassigned to minor league camp (because the youngest players are always the first to go down), and all we hear is he had a terrible spring. There is no middle ground. In a few weeks Domínguez either MUST be the left fielder or he’s Busty McBustface. It has been foretold.)

The Yankees typically do not bring the previous year’s first round pick to Spring Training. They did it with Wells in 2021, though he’s a catcher and you need a lot of catchers in camp. Before him, the last first rounder the Yankees brought to camp as a non-roster invitee the next spring was James Kaprielian in 2016. Before him, I don’t even know who it was*. It wasn’t Joba Chamberlain and/or Ian Kennedy in 2007. I can tell you that much. It was further back than that.

* Andrew Brackman was in big league camp in 2008, though that was because he signed a Major League contract after being a first round pick in 2007. He was on the 40-man roster and not a non-roster invitee. You can’t give draft picks MLB deals anymore. Brackman was one of the last.

Because of that, I don’t think we’ll see Spencer Jones in camp this year, even though he’s poised to become the next great Yankees prospect. He could get into a few Grapefruit League games as the minor league camp call up du jour (Sweeney did last year), but I don’t think Jones will get the full non-roster invite treatment. It’s a year too early for that based on how the Yankees have handled first rounders in the past. I hope they switch it up and bring Jones to camp, that would be a blast, but I’m not expecting it.

Non-roster prediction: Domínguez, Willie Calhoun, Elijah Dunham, Michael Hermosillo, Billy McKinney, and Rafael Ortega. Seven 40-man outfielders (six if you don’t count Cabrera) and six non-roster outfielders is a lot of outfielders! But you need them. Three guys start and three guys replace them in the middle innings, so that’s six per game, and it’s not like everyone plays every single day the first few weeks of camp. There’s a lot of playing time to cover.

Calhoun, Hermosillo, McKinney, and Ortega all have big league time and we can safely assume they received non-roster invites as part of their minor league contracts. Unless the Yankees surprise us with Jones, Dunham is the only outfield prospect other than Domínguez who I expect to get a non-roster invite (Pereira is on the 40-man). Dunham had a good Double-A season in 2022 and will move up to Triple-A this year, where he’ll be a potential injury replacement.

(I wonder about Jeisson Rosario. He had a good year in Double-A last season and he was in big league camp with the Red Sox as a 40-man roster player in 2021. The Yankees claimed him off waivers last spring and slipped him through waivers afterward, so he’s not on the 40-man roster. Does being in camp as a 40-man guy with another team in 2021 mean he will get a non-roster invite in 2023? I don’t know.)

Right-handed pitchers

40-man roster players (20): Albert Abreu, Jhony Brito, Gerrit Cole, Jimmy Cordero, Scott Effross, Deivi García, Domingo Germán, Luis Gil, Yoendrys Gómez, Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle, Mike King, Jonathan Loáisiga, Ron Marinaccio, Frankie Montas, Clarke Schmidt, Luis Severino, Lou Trivino, Randy Vasquez, Greg Weissert

The 20 40-man players are really 17 40-man players because Effross (Tommy John surgery), Gil (Tommy John surgery), and Montas (shoulder inflammation) are injured. Maybe King (elbow) too, though he is throwing bullpen sessions. Given the injury, King will likely be on a slower build up than everyone else, so he may not be ready for Opening Day. We’ll see.

Sorting out the pitchers is always a headache because the lines between starter and reliever are often blurred. Is Schmidt a starter or reliever? He’ll probably do both again this year. Brito could start with Triple-A Scranton and pitch out of the big league bullpen as a long reliever. We generally know who’s starting (Cole, Severino, etc.) and who’s relieving (Holmes, Loáisiga, etc.) for the big league team. Everyone else is just trying to position themselves for an in-season call up.

The Yankees do not have a clear No. 1 pitching prospect right now. They have several pitchers who fit into the same prospect bucket, and the best of the bunch comes down to your personal preference. Vasquez is in that group. So are Clayton Beeter and Will Warren. Beeter spent all of last year in Double-A. Warren started in High-A and moved up to Double-A a few weeks into the season.

I expect Beeter and Warren to be in camp as non-roster players. Beeter should open 2023 in Triple-A, and if you’re in Triple-A, you’re a big league option, so the Yankees will bring him to camp. The Yankees got Beeter in the Joey Gallo trade with the Dodgers, but that doesn’t factor into this decision at all. Showing off the kid you got in a trade isn’t really a thing that happens.

Warren’s non-roster invite is a little less certain than Beeter’s because he had a harder time at Double-A, plus he’s a year further away from Rule 5 Draft eligibility. The Yankees can be a bit more patient with Warren, but I think he’s high enough in the pecking order to get a non-roster invite and throw a few Grapefruit League innings, particularly with Nestor Cortes potentially going to the WBC. Someone has to absorb those innings.

Other notable right-handed pitching prospects, like Luis Serna and Drew Thorpe, are just too far away from the big leagues. Big league camp is not the appropriate place for them at this point in their careers, particularly the 18-year-old Serna. Matt Sauer is on the fence. I could see it going either way with him, and right now, I’ll say he doesn’t get a non-roster invite because the Yankees have signed so many pitchers to minor league deals in recent weeks.

A sleeper non-roster candidate: Carson Coleman, who had a 2.86 ERA (2.33 FIP) with 38.3% strikeouts in 44 Double-A relief innings last year. His mid-90s fastball explodes at the top of the zone (video) and he’s going to Triple-A this summer. It stands to reason Coleman will get a non-roster invite, though Marinaccio and Weissert never did (to be fair, the last few springs were weird), so maybe not. At minimum, the Yankees will seriously consider bringing Coleman to big league camp given the numbers, the stuff, and the proximity to the big leagues.

Non-roster prediction: Beeter, Coleman, Warren, Matt Bowman, Tyler Danish, Demarcus Evans, Zac Houston, James Norwood, and Ryan Weber. Bowman, Danish, Evans, Norwood, and Weber all have MLB time. Houston doesn’t, but he has been in Triple-A for a few years now. A non-roster invite is standard for a guy like that.

The wild card is the random pitcher the Yankees like way more than we know. Brady Lail is my go-to example. He was never on any prospect lists and he didn’t wow with his minor league performance, yet he was in big league camp as a non-roster player every spring from 2016-19. We’ve been unable to get a feel for who the Yankees like more than the public prospect rankings because the last few Spring Trainings have been unusual, so we’ll just have to wait and see whether any unexpected names show up on the non-roster list.

Left-handed pitchers

40-man roster players (4): Nestor Cortes, Matt Krook, Wandy Peralta, Carlos Rodón

Krook is my early pick to be this year’s “really, he made the Opening Day roster?” guy. He’s probably not going to start at the next level because he walks too many (12.1% in Triple-A in 2022), but Krook misses bats and gets grounders, and his sinker checks a lot of analytical boxes. Peralta may be away at the WBC, opening the door for Krook to get extra looks. That’s my prediction: Krook sneaks onto the Opening Day roster.

“(Matt Carpenter, who faced Krook at the Somerset camp late last year) came out of it and said Krook is nasty. That was encouraging to hear,” Cashman told Randy Miller in December. “He’s got some interesting characteristics, so I would not rule (an Opening Day bullpen spot) out. He’s on the roster for a reason, because obviously he possesses enough talent that warranted that. He’ll get a real look.”

The Yankees’ best lefty pitching prospect is 20-year-old Brock Selvidge, who has yet to pitch above rookie ball, so he’s not coming to big league camp. Matt Minnick (Double-A) and Edgar Barclay (High-A) had nice seasons in 2022, but are stats over scouting report guys who were passed over in the Rule 5 Draft. Joel Valdez, who came over in the Nick Nelson/Donny Sands trade with the Phillies, is a sleeper. He’s not a non-roster invitee kinda guy though.

Non-roster prediction: Nick Ramirez, Lisandro Santos, and Tanner Tully. Three guys signed to minor league deals earlier this offseason. This lack of lefty depth is why I continue to think a Zack Britton reunion will happen. We’ll probably find out he re-signed when reporters first walk into the clubhouse in Tampa and one of them tweets “Zack Britton has a locker.”

* * *

Alright, to wrap it all up, here is my predicted Spring Training roster. Players in yellow are on the 40-man roster. Everyone else is a non-roster invitee (full-size image):

I have 30 non-roster invitees, which is 5-10 more than the typical spring. The Yankees have three injured pitchers on the 40-man though, possibly four, and they have at least three guys with a chance to go to the WBC. There could be more. If there were ever a Spring Training to bring a few extra non-roster invitees to camp, this would be it.

Among those 30 non-roster invitees are 19 players signed to minor league contracts (including my TBA catcher), so it’s safe to say they’ll be in camp. I’d say Coleman, Gomez, and Warren are most likely to not get an invite among the remaining 11 players. Coleman is down the bullpen depth chart a bit, Gomez is still so young, and Warren was just okay in Double-A. Trey Sweeney, not Spencer Jones, has the best chance to receive a non-roster invite among the prospects I don’t have listed here. Indigo Diaz, the reliever who came over in the Lucas Luetge trade, could also be on the non-roster radar.

I had 26 non-roster invitees on my 2021 preview and 20 of 26 were indeed invited to big league camp. I also had several TBA spots that were filled with players the Yankees signed to minor league contracts after my post. I think we’re all excited to see Domínguez, Volpe, and Wells this spring. Beeter and Warren will be fun too. Hopefully they all play in games that are televised!