With ample injuries, could Rosell Herrera be the latest non-roster invitee to make a major league impact for the New York Yankees?
Last year, non-roster invitee Gio Urshela‘s emerged out of seemingly nowhere with a monster spring training and by late April became the New York Yankees starting third basemen. We have seen a similar breakout spring this year from Rosell Herrera.
In 14-at bats this spring, Herrera is batting .563 with three doubles, a triple and four RBI’s.
These numbers are even better than those of Urshela from last spring. Urshela left Tampa with a .321 spring training batting average as he had nine hits in 28 at-bats. This led to a regular season that saw him became one of baseball’s biggest success stories as he hit .314, with 21 home runs and 74 RBI’s.
Like Urshela, Herrera has major league experience but has yet to find his stride.
Herrera has spent time with both the Royals and Reds in 2018 and hit just .234 with a home run with 20 RBI’s in 86 total games.
In 2019, he played in 63 games for the Miami Marlins, where he slashed just .200/288/.314 with two home runs and 11 RBI’s.
These offensive numbers are only slightly uglier than what Urshela posted in his major league stints.
In parts of three seasons with the Indians and Blue Jays, Urshela never batted above .233 and only hit a total of eight home runs.
It’s no given Herrera will be anything close to Urshela was in 2019 for the Yankees, but at the very least, he is a name to watch given the teams’ injury questions in the outfield.