Francisco Cervelli is considered the early front-runner for the Yankees’ starting catching job in 2013, nudging ahead of Chris Stewart, Austin Romine and Bobby Wilson as the club prepares to head to Spring Training.
The Yankees insist that it’s more likely than not that they’ve already got their Opening Day catcher on the roster, but plenty can change between now and Opening Day, as Cervelli learned the hard way last season. It’s fair to say he wasn’t exactly planning on spending so much time in places like Rochester and Batavia.
With that in mind, he told the Newark Star-Ledger’s Jeff Bradley in a telephone interview that he didn’t celebrate much when Russell Martin inked a two-year, $17 million deal with the Pirates.
“I was happy for Russell because it was a good deal for him,” Cervelli said. “But for myself, I’m not going to make any conclusions. I know I have a lot of work to do, and I am going to remain very focused on that work.
“The way I’m thinking, I’ve changed a little bit because of what happened last year,” Cervelli continued. “But I’m very positive and looking forward to being the starting catcher, but I don’t think too much about it. I keep my expectations low because a lot of things can happen. But I really want it and this is my dream. It’s always been my dream.”
And just because, this seems like a good time to drop in this Cervelli classic from the spring:
