Ben Rortvedt’s injury means the Yankees have less depth at catcher

Ben Rortvedt, who is the catcher with 39 games of MLB experience that the Yankees acquired from the Twins in the Josh Donaldson and Isaiah Kiner-Falefa deal, injured his oblique on Saturday.

He was expected to be Kyle Higashioka’s backup, but this injury puts his spot on the Opening Day roster in question. Manager Aaron Boone said that he had been dealing with the Grade 1 strain for “a few weeks” but it was just announced the end of last week. This is likely because he was previously with the Twins up until March 13 and his injury status had not been revealed partially because of the MLB lockout.

“I don’t think it should be too long-term of a thing,” Boone said. “I think he’s kind of feeling it when he’s hitting, so we want to kind of back him off a little bit, try and nip that in the bud and not allow that to become a long-term issue for him.”

This likely means that this injury will have him sidelines for weeks and not months of the season.

Rortvedt is a defensive specialist who has a strong throwing arm (he is very strong overall) who has not been known for his offense. In his 89 at-bats last season with the Twins, he had a .169 average, a .229 on-base percentage, one double, three homers and seven RBI (-0.1 WAR).

In 2016, the Twins drafted him in the second round out of high school in Wisconsin, so they obviously thought highly of him. In 2019, at two different levels in the Twins system, he had seven homers, 16 doubles, 29 RBI, a .238 average and a .334 on-base percentage in 79 games (277 at-bats). Last season, he had a better .254 average with five homers, six doubles and 22 RBI in 34 games at Triple-A.

If Rortvedt can have an average of at least .250 this season with the Yankees that would be a successful season on offense for him. He can’t really be counted on to produce much in the power numbers, but the Yankees do not really need that from him.

Rortvdt, who is a 5–10, 205 pound lefty, is still able to work on his catching and throwing, but he was not going to be able to swing a bat until Thursday. It was announced that he would go five days without swinging a bat to try to get the injury to heal faster. Boone said some doubt exists about him being ready for Opening Day on April 7, but they should know for sure the end of this week.

“We’ve got to see how these next few days are when he’s allowed to start swinging again in a progression,” Boone said. “Sure, I’m concerned about it. Two and a half-plus weeks left, so the timeline’s not great there. First things first is hopefully in these next few days we can start ramping him up at some point.”

If the Yankees do not acquire a veteran catcher before April 7, which would probably make sense, the next in line to be Higashioka’s backup at catcher to start the season would be Rob Brantly. Brantly is a 32-year-old veteran but he is a career journeyman backup catcher. He was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 3rd round of the 2010 draft out of University of California, Riverside.

Brantly has played at the Triple-A level in nine different seasons. He has proven that he can hit very well at the Triple-A, which is the highest minor league level.

In 2019, he had a very good .314 average with six homers and 28 RBI in 82 games with the Phillies Triple-A affiliate, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. In 2021, after the minor league season was cancelled in 2020, he had a good .290 average with nine homers, nine doubles and 43 RBI in 68 games with the Yankees Triple-A affiliate the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

In his 586 games in his career at Triple-A (1,985 at-bats), he has a a .267 average (very good for a catcher) with 52 homers, 86 doubles and 254 RBI. He is a player who has never really been able to stick consistently at the Major League level during his career.

He has played in the Majors for the Marlins, White Sox, Phillies, Giants and Yankees. However, that is a little deceiving since played in one game for the Phillies in 2019, one game for the Giants in 2020 and six games for the Yankees last season.

Back in 2012, when he was a rookie, he had a very good .290 average with the Marlins with three homers and eight RBI in 31 games. The Marlins gave him even more at-bats and playing time in 2013 when he played in a career-high 67 games as the backup and had nine doubles, 18 RBI and a .211 average. He is known for his defense but has been playing well on offense at Triple-A his last two seasons.

On August 26, 2020, Brantly was traded from the Giants to the Yankees in exchange for cash considerations. He did not play in a game with the Yankees in 2020 since the minors were cancelled, and on October 13 he elected free agency.

On December 12, 2020, he re-signed with the Yankees on a minor league contract and was invited to 2021 spring training. He began the season with Triple-A, and on July 17, 2021 his contract was selected by the Yankees after Higashioka tested positive for Covid-19 was was placed on the Covid injured list. Brantly went 2–15 with a double in four games when Higashioka was out of the lineup.

On July 26, he was sent back to Triple-A, and on August 6, he was promoted again when Gary Sanchez tested positive for Covid. Brantly went 1–5 in two games before going back to the RailRiders. He was 3–20 overall in his six games as he never really got into a groove.

On November 5, the journeyman was removed from the 40-man roster and elected free agency. On December 10, he re-signed with the Yankees on a new minor league contract since he felt that he wanted to stay with the same team he had been with since 2020.

The Yankees have more of a need to add another starting pitcher at this point than a catcher and they are rumored to be interested in Athletics starters Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea. The Yankees could acquire a catcher who gets put on waivers between now an April 7 or trade for one in June or July.

It seems like Rortvedt could be recovered from his oblique injury in the middle or end of April since he is still able to throw and catch while he is not swinging. The catcher position should be a defensive upgrade with Higashioka and Rortvedt this season without much offensive production. It is a positive that 10 of Higashioka’s 35 hits last season were homers and the Yankees pitchers, especially ace Gerrit Cole, like pitching to him. .