I’m not sure any of us are up to talking about the big league team right now given their general awfulness, so let’s instead focus on the minor leagues for a little bit. We have some new information on the injury and winter ball front, so now’s as good a time as any to round it all up. Unless it says otherwise, it comes from Josh Norris’ Twitter account.
- Jose Pirela has taken Corban Joseph’s place in the Arizona Fall League. CoJo missed Double-A Trenton’s playoff run with some kind of wrist injury, and there were rumblings that he would need surgery to fix whatever’s bothering him. Obviously it’s enough of an issue to keep him away from the AzFL. Pirela hit just .252/.329/.364 this season, but his 57 walks were the third most in the system this season behind Austin Krum (64) and Joseph (58).
- Remember, Manny Banuelos is going to the AzFL as well. There are still only five Yankee farmhands listed on the Phoenix Desert Dogs roster (one of whom is CoJo), but ManBan brings them up to the minimum six. It’s possible that they will send a seventh player, but they aren’t required to. Chances are it wouldn’t be a substantial prospect anyway.
- David Adams’ broken foot/ankle has finally healed and he’s started doing actual baseball work. He wasn’t listed on the Instructional League roster, but he’s probably not ready for full blown workouts and stuff. Adams suffered the injury on a slide trying to break up a double play in May, and he didn’t play the rest of the season because the fracture wasn’t immediately diagnosed.
- Jesus Montero, meanwhile, is leaning towards going home for the winter and playing in the Venezuelan Winter League. He played in the VWL last season but not much and not very well, hitting just .115 with three walks and four strikeouts in nine games. He was coming off the finger injury however, and they play for keeps down there. It’s not about development, it’s about winning, so if you’re not producing you won’t play. Hopefully that’s not an issue this season.
- The rosters for the various winter leagues in Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic have yet to be released in full, so we have to wait a little while longer to see who’s playing where. The AzFL season starts on October 13th, the other leagues at different points throughout the winter.
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