Part 12 in a series analyzing the New York Yankees
The actual event happened Dec. 12 in San Diego at the winter meetings, when Austin Romine left the Yankees and signed a one-year deal for $4.1 million with the Tigers, who offered him the opportunity to catch full-time for a club that requires a large talent infusion.
However, the Yankees had planned for Kyle Higashioka to eventually become Gary Sanchez’s backup for several years, so it wasn’t a surprise Romine vanished from the organization that selected him in the second round of the 2007 draft out of El Toro High School in Lake Forest, Calif.
Romine’s departure ensured Higashioka, 30, would be Sanchez’s backup in 2020 and, barring a spring training injury, he would be on a big-league Opening Day roster for the first time in his career on March 26 in Baltimore against the Orioles.
Of course, that didn’t happen. Spring training was canceled March 12 and it’s not known when or if the 2020 season will start.
“[March 26] would have been my first major league Opening Day. But, to be honest, I didn’t really think about it during the day,’’ Higashioka told The Post’s Ken Davidoff for a Yankees diary entry in March.
How could a player not be thinking of being part of a big-league Opening Day roster for the first time after spending nine seasons in the minors before playing in nine big-league games in 2017, 29 in 2018 and 18 last year?
“I think over the years I’ve gotten pretty good about only worrying about stuff I can control. I know that right now, my goal is to stay ready for when the season does start. As long as I’m prepared for it, then good things can happen,’’ Higashioka told Davidoff.
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Considering Sanchez’s injury history — four trips to the injured list with lower-body issues in the previous two years and a biceps problem in 2017 — replacing Romine with Higashioka is viewed as a gamble by some. Romine, 31, has caught 333 big-league games and started 276. Higashioka has caught 53 games and started 38.
Higashioka showed some power in 2016, when he combined to hit 21 homers and drive in 81 runs while hitting .276 for Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The next year he made his major league debut but dealt with injuries that limited him to 21 minor league games and nine in the big leagues. That was followed by a 2018 season in which he batted .167 in 29 big-league games and just .202 in 53 Triple-A games.
Higashioka bounced back in 2019 by hitting .278 with 20 homers and 56 RBIs in 70 Triple-A games. The Yankees brought veteran catchers Erik Kratz, Chris Iannetta and Josh Thole to camp, but only an injury to Higashioka was going to open the door for any of them.
The analytical folks grade Higashioka, who is out of minor league options, highly for his work behind the plate and, with a bat in his hands, the way he handles fastballs on the inner half of the plate.
Like Romine, Higashioka has a good relationship with pitchers and worked smoothly with Gerrit Cole in the right-hander’s final spring training outing March 10.
The true value of a backup catcher is solid defense, because hitting in the big leagues is hard enough for everyday players, never mind those who play once a week. However, being Sanchez’s backup the past three years also entails stretches as the No. 1 catcher. Romine handled that well and was considered among the best backups in the game.
Now, it’s Higashioka’s turn.
“He has improved every year and has worked hard at it,’’ an NL talent evaluator said. “Each year he does more. He has a little power and receives the ball well. This past spring training he threw better than he did last year.’’
Now, if there is a season, Romine will be in Detroit and Higashioka will be a Sanchez groin pull away from stepping into the role Romine filled very well.