Yankees News & Notes: A-Rod could miss entire season, Gary Sanchez ranked in top catching prospects

The past few days for the New York Yankees have seen quite the contrast in headlines. Just yesterday, Yankees’ fans read a bit of news that wasn’t so wonderful. General manager Brian Cashman announced Friday that he’s not ruling out the possibility of Alex Rodriguez missing the entire season. That bit of news comes out just days after Yankees’ fans read that Gary Sanchez, the highly touted catching prospect in the farm league, was ranked third in the top 10 prospect catchers behind Travis d’Arnaud of the Mets and Mike Zunino of the Mariners.

Kevin Youkilis is going to have to pick up a lot of weight at third now. (Image: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports)

When Rodriguez had surgery just on the 16th of this month, his intentions were and still are to return sometime in July. While Rodriguez, who will be 38 in July, remains positive on the situation, Cashman has been preparing for the worst. On the possibility of  A-Rod missing the season, Cashman had this to say:

"“I think because [of] the serious nature of the surgery and the condition that he’s trying to recover from, you know, there is that chance.”"

So if A-Rod remains out for the rest of the season, clearly this makes the Kevin Youkilis deal look even smarter, a subject that was touched on before. What this exactly means for Rodriguez’s future is that he’ll more than likely shift into the DH spot, maybe even less gradually if he’s unable to play the field as much.

Clearly this puts a lot of pressure onto Youk, but it’s something he’s handled before in Boston and Chicago. However, this puts a strain on the DH position if A-Rod is completely gone as the only two avaliable bats will be Jayson Nix and Eduardo Nunez, neither of which are stunning with the bat.

Moving on, Sanchez’s ranking is something that should bring a lot of attention to the 20-year-old. Being ranked 3rd out of some of the best catching prospects in the league is by far nothing to scoff at. Sanchez, who probably has another two years or so before being major league ready, is already making huge waves in Single-A Charleston and Single-A+ Tampa.

In Tampa, Sanchez played in 48 games in 2012 and did extremely well. He had a slash line of .279/.330/.436 with five homers, 29 RBIs, 21 runs scored and even stole four bases. Sanchez’s defense is also part of his strong suit as he had a .986 fielding percentage and threw out 29 percent of the runners who tried to steal on him.

Discussion Points:

• How much of an impact do you think Youkilis will make if A-Rod is gone for the season?
• Do you think Sanchez will come up earlier than expected?