Yankees Editorial: Who Got Snubbed From A Spring Training Invite?

Spring Training is right around the corner, and the Yankees finally released their non-roster invitees for training camp. Guys signed like Scott Baker and Andrew Bailey were invited. Top prospects like Luis Severino and Aaron Judge we will be able to get a look at this spring as well. All told, the Yankees will have a whopping 66 players to big league camp. No snubs right? Wrong. Here are two players I was surprised who didn’t get an invite.

On the hitting side, I have to go with Adonis Garcia. Yes he’s 30, but so what? He was invited to big league camp the past two seasons. Yes he only played in 86 games last season, but the guy hit when he played. He put up a .319/.353/.474 last season. 

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Slade Heathcott was re-signed to a minor league deal after being taken off the 40 man in a roster crunch. The guy only played in nine games last year and has been injury prone his entire career. The only reason why he was asked back is because he was a former first round pick and the Yankees want to see if they can salvage him. To me, Garcia deserved it over him.

On the pitching side, I was really surprised to see Mark Montgomery not invited to big league camp. The guy was one of the Yankees top prospects not too long ago and thought to be a potential heir to the Mariano Rivera throne. Then last season came and it didn’t go well.

A demotion and a lack of velocity really hurt him last season. Montgomery in AAA had a 3.03 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP. He then went to AA and rebounded, posting a 0.83 ERA in 21.2 innings. It shows how many young power arms the Yankees now have in the bullpen like Jacob Lindgren and Nick Rumbelow who were invited to camp and could see themselves in the bullpen at some point this year if necessary.

The Yankees have some intriguing prospects and some guys I’m really excited to watch this spring. I was just a little surprised that Garcia and Montgomery weren’t a part of the equation.

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