The Yankees start out on their west coast road trip tonight as they take on the Seattle Mariners.
#Yankees lineup vs SEA: Gardner LF, Jeter SS, Ellsbury CF, Teixeira 1B, Beltran DH, McCann C, Solarte 3B, Ichiro RF, Roberts 2B, Nuno P.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 11, 2014Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter stay at the top of the order. Jacoby Ellsbury returns to the lineup after he was supposed to sit last night with a sore hip, so it must be feeling better. Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran, and Brian McCann make up the heart of the lineup, while Yangervis Solarte, Ichiro Suzuki, Brian Roberts make up the bottom. I'd personally much rather see Solarte bat higher, but oh well.
According to "major-league officials" Kelly Johnson has been made available in a potential trade. Obviously, this could all be a lot of noise, since the article he was mentioned in was about trade options for the Rangers. I'm not too sure how interested the Rangers would be in Johnson as a replacement first baseman after he's already shown to be incapable of playing the position at a level that would make him a worth the effort. So far this season Kelly Johnson has hit .216/.279/.392 on a $3 million contract, so while he's certainly movable, would anyone really want that?
Shawn Kelley will rejoin the Yankees now that his rehab assignment has ended. He should be back on the roster by tomorrow, and if I were to guess, I'd say either Jose Ramirez or Matt Daley will be sent down to Triple-A.
In case you haven't heard by now, Yankees second base prospect Rob Refsnyder has been promoted to Triple-A after thoroughly destroying Double-A pitching to the tune of a .342/.385/.548 batting line. This move has been long overdue, but a promotion was not entirely surprising once Brian Cashman hinted that something could be in the works. With this move, and Brian Roberts' continued ineptitude, it's looking more and more likely that we could see Refsnyder in New York at some point this season.
Yankees third-round pick Austin DeCarr will report to Tampa and officially sign with the Yankees tomorrow. His contract will reportedly be for twice slot value, which was about $575K in 2013, so he will be getting over $1 million to avoid going to college. Their 19th round pick Joe Harvey has also signed with the team for a $60,000 bonus.