Romine's Back Injury Killing Any Chance Of Catcher Competition

Austin Romine has been out with a back injury since almost the minute he arrived at camp this year and the words coming from Joe so far indicate that the Yankees are going to take it easy with him this spring, thus killing any chances of him competing with Francisco Cervelli for the backup catcher spot. 

“We’re just making sure that area is very stable. We want that to come back very stable and strong before we put him back. Because he had an episode last year, last August. Once he leaves here I don’t want him to have a setback."

I'm higher on Romine than most everybody else out there, so I'm obligated to talk about this, but the reality is that Romine probably wasn't going to beat out Cervelli for the spot anyway unless he had a big time ST or Cervelli got hurt.  The bigger concern here is that this back issue is the same one that shut Romine down for some time last year.  Catcher isn't a position that's easy to play and stay healthy as it is, so Romine doesn't need lingering back issues to start the season.  Hopefully he can get back to 100% and be ready to start the season healthy in Triple-A.