Week in Review: Player Moves

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

This Tuesday, the Yankees will open their season up in Houston. This opener has had more anticipation since the beginning of the 2009 campaign. Along with the start of the season comes the final player moves and roster cuts.

A series of cuts this week rounded out the Yankees 25-man roster. Seven pitchers have been sent to minor league camp. Preston Claiborne was optioned to Triple-A. Chris Leroux.

Other cuts include Cesar Cabral, Shane Greene, Matt Daley, David Herndon, Jim Miller, Yoshinori Tateyama, Danny Burawa and Fred Lewis.

Dean Anna received the great news on Friday that he had made the big club. Of course, this is no shock because Anna had a very good spring and hit .331 in the minors for the Padres last year.

The final infield spot came down to Eduardo Nunez and Yangervis Solarte. Nunez has struggled with the bat the last couple years but has had the potential to be a great hitter. As for his defense, it has been spotty at best. Let’s just say Nunez wasn’t going to win any Yankee fans over with his glove.

It seems that Nunez has been given so many chances over the years and hasn’t really done anything to really catch the Yankees’ eye. On top of that, Nunez had a spring slash line of .265/.280/.388 opposed to Solarte’s much more impressive .429/.489/.571 slash line.

All these being taken into consideration, it was a no brainer that Solarte was rewarded the final spot on the roster. Of the position players, Scott Sizemore, Russ Canzler, Eduardo Nunez, and Zelous Wheeler were he final players to get the boot.

Keep in mind Brendan Ryan is starting the season on the Disabled List. When he is healthy and ready to be activated, someone will have to be sent down. Once that time comes, it should be very interesting to see who the Yankees choose.