Yankees acquire former Rays catching prospect

The New York Yankees' catching situation is murky at best, with former Rays 2024 backup Alex Jackson listed as their current backup on FanGraphs' Roster Resource page and not a whole lot of confidence-inspiring options behind him.

Enter another former member of the Rays' organization, Ronaldo Hernández.

Once thought of as a promising, young bat-first backstop, the Rays moved on from Hernández rather quickly for someone as talented as he was, but the move has turned out to be the right one. Hernández has been unable to earn a shot in the majors despite playing for a couple of teams in the Red Sox and Diamondbacks, who have had chances to promote the now 27-year-old.

Neither Boston nor Arizona had a solidified pair of catchers on their major league rosters during Hernández's time with each organization, yet he still remained in Triple-A with both teams.

Now he's joining the Yankees on a minor league contract and a Spring Training invite. The Colombian catcher will try and beat out Alex Jackson and whoever else the Yankees deem eligible to compete for the backup spot behind 2024 AL Rookie of the Year candidate Austin Wells.

Hernández has been a very powerful bat at every level of the minors, with an ISO of .203 over 99 games in AAA during the 2023 season, which he spent in the Red Sox organization.

Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to couple that power with a quality approach or good enough defense to make up for his free-swinging ways.

Last season, he had a 39.1% chase-rate and a 4.6% walk rate in Triple-A for the Diamondbacks' organization, both ranking near the bottom of Triple-A for that year.

He still managed a 114 wRC+ despite such a carefree way of conducting his business in the batter's box, but it still wasn't enough to get the call up, and he was allowed to enter free agency to seek a minor league contract from another team.

The Yankees are likely banking on their ability to show him something in terms of his defense, which was never his calling card as a prospect, ranking as below-average in that mark on his scouting report in both current and future value on FanGraphs.

Luckily, Hernández being a right-handed hitter gives him more of a chance to be a fun platoon option who can spell Wells when he needs a break, although the Yankees might prefer to retain a glove-first catcher like Jackson to prevent a big dropoff in framing when the well-regarded Wells goes to the bench (Wells' +12 framing mark was one of the best in baseball last year).

Either way, whether it's Jackson or Hernández, there's a possibility the Yankees will have a former Ray backing up Wells for the 2025 season, which is an interesting development after the Rays traded for Ben Rortvedt late in the 2024 off-season.