Yankees Smother Phillies: Final Roster Is Set For Opening Day

The Yankees extended their spring record to 24-8 crushing the Philadelphia Phillies by a score of 14-1. Earlier, the team finalized their roster for Opening Day on Sunday.

The Yankees continued their winning ways traveling to Clearwater Florida where they beat the Phillies again in a spring contest.

The Yankees power surge was evident again as they crushed four home runs, including a three-run blast by Gary Sanchez and a two-run shot from the heir-apparent replacement for Didi Gregorius, Ronald Torreyes. Showing his versatility, Torreyes made a start at third base, and Pete Kozma made the start at shortstop going 1-3.

Aaron Judge did not make an appearance in the game, but the Yankees announced that he would be their starting right fielder when the season opens on Sunday. Aaron Hicks made the start and went 1-2 and scored two runs.

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Luis Severino turned in five innings of one-run ball on one of his “up” days rewarding Joe Girardi for his decision to name Severino as the fourth starter in the rotation. Girardi said a few days ago that he would be looking at these final starts as a gauge in making his decision for the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation.

As a whole, the pitching staff today gave up only seven hits while walking two and striking out seven Phillies batters.

Behind The Refsnyder Move

The decision to cut Refsnyder is not earth shattering and the writing was pretty much on the wall when the team floated his name out there earlier in the spring as being available in a trade.

Refsnyder also picked this spring to hit .209 in 43 at-bats with six runs driven in. A native of South Korea, Refsnyder has been in and out of the Yankees plans since he was selected by the Yankees out of Arizona in the fifth round of the 2012 amateur draft.

He was immediately tagged as a good-hit, so-so fielder and never lifted himself above the latter label. That being said, it would also be fair to say that the Yankees never gave Refsnyder a genuine chance to prove himself as a regular in their lineup.

At some point in the season, it’s likely that he’ll be packaged in a deal when the team gets closer to seeing who they are further into the 2017 season.

Other Yankees News – The Final Roster

On his decision to tab Judge over Hicks, Girardi told MLB.com:

"“[Judge] had more consistent at-bats,” Girardi said. “There were less strikeouts, better contact, more consistent contact. If you look at his last week to 10 days, it was better than before, and you’re facing better pitching.”"

Hicks will get plenty of playing time, though, as the fourth outfielder spelling Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury, as well as Judge on certain days against certain pitchers.

On the Severino, Girardi said the decision mainly came down to:

"“We didn’t think there was one guy that really stood way above. I thought Sevvy did a better job,” Girardi said. “I thought Sevvy’s numbers were among some of the best, so he will be our fourth starter. In saying that, he needs to grab this and run with it.”"

That leaves the fifth spot up for grabs, but there is not immediate need for the Yankees to make that decision now since the team will not need a fifth starter until at least April 16 against the Cardinals.

This means that Chad Green will go to Trenton and Jordan Montgomery to Scranton where each will get two starts prior to that date.

Regarding the Yankees bullpen, Girardi didn’t hesitate in stating that:

"“I think we have a strong bullpen, and I think it’s going to be important for us,” Girardi said. “We have two guys [in Mitchell and Warren] that can give us really multiple innings, can pitch the fifth through the ninth if they needed to, keep it close. I like the combination of our bullpen and I think there’s some really good options for us and arms in Triple-A, too."

It was also announced that Pete Kozma made the team as a reserve and in a surprise move of sorts, Bryan Mitchell will take a spot in the bullpen along with Adam Warren.  Jonathan Holder and Tommy Layne also made the team as bullpen specialists.

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So, there we have it. These are the 2017 New York Yankees.