NY Daily News | Gary Phillips ($): Yankees pitchers and catchers officially report to spring training on Wednesday, bringing with them the end of the offseason at long last. It was a drawn-out winter as the Yankees mostly held serve and retained key parts of their roster, but the few new faces that were brought in could be interesting to watch. Ryan Weathers will get a shot out of the rotation right away with half of the regular roster still nursing injuries, and the health of said rotation will be monitored closely as something always comes up, and they cannot afford any big blows to come early in the process.
NY Post | Greg Joyce: Ben Rice is one of the Yankees’ more versatile defensive pieces, being able to catch as well as man first base, but up until a few days ago the tools of ignorance were going to be used in emergency situations at most. Now that Paul Goldschmidt is back in the fold as a platoon bat at first, however, manager Aaron Boone sees Rice getting a bit more play behind the plate as he can fill in for Austin Wells against left-handed pitchers. The plan is still for Rice to get plenty of time against lefties this season, as the team is hopeful that their promising young star will get a full breakout this season.
FanGraphs | David Laurila: Yankees broadcaster David Cone sat down for an interview last season where he had to guess which player he had the most appearances against, who he struck out the most, who hit the most bombs on him, etc., and then give his thoughts on the actual answers. Cone had a fairly good memory, coming close on a few categories, and his anecdotes were a neat look into the playing days of a fan favorite.
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