NY Yankees rumors have been in an uproar over the impending retirement of Yankees captain Derek Jeter, but Yankees manager Joe Girardi's annual press conference to open Spring Training today showed little to no signs of distress.
Members of the media asked the NY Yankees skipper a litany of questions, with one of them being whether or not young David Robertson is still penned in as the heir apparent to Mariano Rivera's closer role. Girardi wouldn't commit, but did heap some praise toward the 28-year old righthander--
"I think he has all the ability in the world...and it’s important for Robby that he’s just himself, and that if something does go wrong one day, you’re going to be compared to Mo. You know what, I think Mo blew six or seven saves last year. Mo was human too, and you can’t get too caught up in just one game."
Girardi was also asked during the NY Yankees manager's Q&A session today about what role he believes newly-acquired pitcher Michael Pineda will fit into on the NY Yankees pitching staff--
“We envision him as a starter,” Girardi stated. “But I think that when we take a look at this, we’ve got to see how he’s doing as a starter. Then, once we pick our starters, we’ve got to pick what we believe is our best bullpen. So the answer to that is, I think anything is possible, but we envision him as a starter.”
One other highlight was Girardi praising the "balance" in the Yankees starting lineup with Derek Jeter back, saying "I think we have a collection of very good hitters this year...I think our lineup is much deeper than it was last year from top to bottom."