Yankees Editorial: Are the Yankees Giving up on Rob Refsnyder?

Despite conflicting reports, there is reason to believe that the New York Yankees are significantly interested in Braves second base prospect Jose Peraza.

Peraza, who will turn 21 on April 30th, was signed by the Braves out of Venezuela in 2010 with a $350,000 signing bonus. In 2014 he posted his best season in the minors with a .339/.364/.411 slash line over 499 plate appearances split between high-A and Double-A. What set’s Peraza apart from many other prospect in the game is speed, as he converted on 60 out of 75 stolen base attempts in 2014.

His impressive 2014 season earned him a spot as the #24 overall prospect on Keith’s Laws Top 100 Prospect List. MLB.com is also high on the young second basemen, ranking him as the 39th best prospect, and the first amongst all Braves prospects in the MLB.

Ryan Hatch of NJ.com speculates that the club’s interest in Peraza might be bad sign for Rob Refsnyder. While Refsnyder’s offensive numbers in 2014 (.300/.389/.456) and an impressive spring training almost forced him on to the Yankees roster to start the 2015 season, his defensive struggles are well documented, as he’s already recorded four errors in seven games played for Triple-A Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre.

However, I’m not so sure this move is reflective of Rob Refsnyder. As I mentioned in a previous post, Peraza is a shortstop by trade, and was only converted to second base because the Braves already had Andrelton Simmons locked in as their shortstop of the future. This actually leads me to believe that this might actually be a sign that Didi Gregorius is on the hot seat for the Yankees instead of Refsnyder.

Though it’s a rather small sample size, Gregorius has been unimpressive in his Yankees debut. Through nine games, Gregorius is batting .172 in 29 at-bats. He’s also made a plethora of errors on the base path as well as on the field.

What do you think Yankee fans? Let us know in the comments below.

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