New York Yankees: Catching Prospect Austin Romine Developing Well

The New York Yankees have some good depth in the catcher position with three prospects developing in the farm system.

Austin Romine, Gary Sanchez and J.R. Murphy all show promising signs of solid futures in the Yankees organization.

Romine appears to be the closest in line and made his MLB debut last season on Sept 11.

In 2009, he was rated as the Yankees’ fourth-best prospect. Climbing his way up, he was rated as their second-best prospect in 2010, according to Baseball America.

Assigned to the Double-A Trenton Thunder in 2011, he was called up to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees on Sept. 1 right after a game with Trenton. Yankees catchers Russell Martin and Francisco Cervelli were both injured and the Yankees needed a replacement.

Joe Girardi had difficulty reaching Romine to call him up and got a hold of his girlfriend’s cell number from Romine’s older brother, Andrew, who plays for the Angels.

Girardi called her while they were shopping in a Walmart in Kentucky and told him there that he had been called up to the Yankees.

Romine was added to the 40-man roster on Sept. 11 against the Angels in L.A. and made his major league debut in the seventh inning.

He got his first major league hit on Sept. 12 off of Dan Cortes of the Mariners.

In the 2011 season playing in both Double-A and Triple-A, Romine played in 89 games getting 98 hits, 13 doubles, six home runs and 48 RBI with a .279 batting average.

The excitement of getting called up to the majors last season is sure to be an incentive for him to continue to progress in Triple-A.

He knows that he has the skills to make it and he has already impressed the Yankees organization. With another season in Triple-A to refine his catching skills and to gain more experience with quality at-bats, Romine looks to have a solid future as a Yankee backstop.

His father, Kevin, spent his MLB career with the Boston Red Sox. The rivalry lives on.