Francisco Cervelli (45)

Stance: Starts in a closed stance with his front foot slightly ahead of his back foot. He keeps both elbows up and has a slight lean over the plate with both knees bent. He does a good job of triggering his lower half by raising his front foot as the pitcher is set to release. As he swings his back leg pivots and allows his weight to shift. His upper body keeps good pace with his lower half and he stays inside the ball well.

Approach: Cervelli steps up to the plate looking to slug and does not hesitate to swing early in the count. His catching has helped his good pitch recognition at the plate, and he has maintained a fairly decent strikeout to walk ratio over his career. Cervelli has maintained below average O-Swing% rates, while posting an above average Contact%. (Career average 84.5%). Therefore, despite his aggressiveness at the plate, he minimizes the swings he takes on bad pitches.

Hitting Ability: Cervelli has a fairly level swing and this contributes to solid contact rates. He does well against left-handed hitters, and holds his own against righties. (Career average v RHP is .256). He does a fairly good job of using the whole field. Expect him to hit .270 consistently.

Power: Cervelli possesses good power potential but his low home run totals have been a result of injury-ridden seasons and limited plate appearances. Most of his home runs will be hit to the pull side. He can be expected to hit 10 home runs over 200-250 at bats this season.

Running: Cervelli has below average baserunning skills and speed. He hustles hard at all times and rarely makes poor baserunning choices.

Fielding: Cervelli has done well as a backup catcher throughout his career. He is very mobile behind the plate and often motions with both his hand and glove to give the pitcher a better sense of wear to locate. He does a great job of blocking pitches, as there is no hesitation to sacrifice his body. He has a very good understanding of the movement on pitches he calls for, and does well at catching hard breaking balls. His pitch framing abilities are underrated, and before his injury last season he was among league leaders in framing pitches that were outside the zone. (CSOZ% of 7.94%). Cervelli has good arm accuracy but is not known for throwing out a ton of base stealers.

Physical Description: Cervelli has an average size and build, but gets the most of his body for his catching. He has good weight distribution and strong legs, which allows for durability behind the plate. Despite PED usage, Cervelli’s body made very little changes.

Projection: Cervelli will maintain his role as backup catcher if he stays with the Yankees, due to the long-term signing of Brian McCann. His ability to get the barrel on the ball consistently and use his whole body at the plate will result in increased offensive production if he stays healthy. Specifically, look for an increase in power numbers should he get 200-250 at bats in 2014. He is an ideal backup to have on most contending teams and some organizations may look to acquire him this season.