Jesus Montero is 21 years old and just made his major league debut in September, but despite his expressed interest in playing winter ball this offseason, the Yankees decided not to let him.
“He wanted to, but he doesn’t need the at-bats and with a catcher, you want to avoid risk,” general manager Brian Cashman said before the GM meetings start today in Milwaukee. “We want to keep him healthy.”
Montero was impressive for the Yankees after his September call-up, but said Saturday he felt he needed to get stronger for 2012 if the team decides it needs him to be the primary backup to catcher Russell Martin.
Cashman said he is not worried about Montero’s conditioning, one of the reasons why he will have some down time this offseason.
“He was chiseled at the end of last year,” Cashman said.
The GM said he was pleased Montero is going to spend time with Alex Rodriguez at the third baseman’s home in Miami in January.
“Alex does a great job of taking players under his wing,” Cashman said. “It can only help.”
It will be up to Cashman to decide how much help the rest of the team needs as the offseason kicks into high gear. But he continues to downplay any expectations of making many significant moves over the next few months, including this week in Milwaukee.
“Maybe these meetings are more about getting things done than for others,” Cashman said. “We’re still more into exploratory and preliminary ideas, and this is the time to start feeling each other out.”
Pitchers Yu Darvish from Japan (if he is posted by his Japanese team), and potential big-ticket free agents C.J. Wilson, Mark Buehrle and Roy Oswalt could be targets.
Regardless whether Cashman is able to bring any new pitchers to The Bronx, the Yankees will need improvement from homegrown players, including Phil Hughes, whom Cashman said has refocused on conditioning after a disappointing 2011.
“His agent reached out to us about increasing what he did in the offseason to avoid some of the things that bothered him last year,” Cashman said of the inconsistent right-hander. “We weren’t concerned about him, but it’s clear he’s motivated to get to where he was a couple of years ago and that’s good to hear.”