In a surprising move, the Yankees announced prior to Sunday’s game that infielder Rob Refsnyder had been optioned to Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre and reassigned to minor league camp. Coming into the weekend, Refsnyder had been seen by many as the favorite for the open backup infielder position on the Yankees’ bench. Although Refsnyder was blocked from a starting job by New York’s acquisition of Starlin Castro back in December, the team asked him to begin working out at third base this spring in order to increase his versatility for a possible bench role. The Yankees currently have no obvious internal candidate to backup Chase Headley at third, so whomever they choose to carry as their fourth reserve would need to be at least passable at that position. Refsnyder impressed in his first seven games at the hot corner, although obviously his opportunities were limited in spring play.
However, things deteriorated quickly this weekend as Refsnyder had to leave back to back games after being struck in the face by ground balls. In Friday night’s game, Refsnyder committed two errors in the tenth inning, the second a sharply hit grounder that took a bad hop and bloodied his cheek. In the eighth inning of the very next game Refsnyder was hit in almost exactly the same manner and was forced to leave once again.
It sounds as if the Yankees aren’t totally abandoning the idea of transitioning Refsnyder to third, but do not think he’s ready to handle the position at the major-league level. Following his demotion, manager Joe Girardi told the YES Network crew, “We want him to go down and get more reps at third. We’ll continue to try and improve him.”
This is yet another disappointing development for the 25-year-old Refsnyder, who was ranked the sixth overall prospect in the Yankees’ system by Baseball Prospectus prior to the season. With a .282/.370/.423 batting line in 855 Triple-A plate appearances the last two seasons, many Yankees fans feel he is overdue for an extended look in the big leagues, despite his occasional misadventures in the field. The backup infielder competition will now come down to Pete Kozma and Ronald Torreyes, neither of whom possess the offensive upside of Refsnyder, but have considerably more defensive ability and experience on the left-side of the infield.