Jorge Posada spent most of last season on the disabled list and spent October with the rest of the Yankees, at home. So he’s not too concerned with the sore neck that kept him from catching for four straight games before he returned last night.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not on his mind — not with the playoffs set to begin next week.
“I hope not,” Posada said, asked if his neck would pose a problem in the postseason. “Moving forward, I don’t think it will be any concern. It should be gone already and it feels like it is.”
That may be the case, but the Royals were 3-for-3 in steals last night off Posada until John Buck was nailed at home on a failed squeeze attempt. He’s thrown out 31 of 107 base-stealers (29 percent), far better than last season’s 17 percent (7-for-41).
“I think every team in the playoffs is in the same boat,” Posada said before Joba Chamberlain’s latest debacle in the Yanks’ 4-3 loss to the Royals in their final regular season home game. “Not everybody is gonna be 100 percent.”
That’s why Posada, who thought he would be behind the plate on Tuesday after serving as the DH on Monday, is being treated carefully by Joe Girardi, giving the catcher an extra day off on Tuesday.
“I’m curious to see how it reacts after playing,” Girardi said of the neck. “I’m really hoping it doesn’t spasm back up.”
Girardi said he hasn’t decided if Posada will catch every game in the playoffs.
“Those are things we will consider and talk about as time goes on,” Girardi said.
Whatever it turns out to be, Posada will be in better spirits than he was at this point a year ago.
“I think Jorge’s gonna catch most of time, if not all the time [in the playoffs],” Jose Molina said. “And he should. He’s proven that he can hold up.”