But what about his defense? In 2009, Francisco Cervelli looked like he was a pretty good defensive catcher. He had positive numbers defensively and threw out 43 percent of base steal attempts. But the last two years, his defense has looked more ragged than the New England Patriots offensive line in the Super Bowl. Cervelli has made nineteen errors in his last 131 games. Fourteen of those errors were of the throwing variety. And if you combine his last two seasons, he’s only thrown out runners attempting to steal thirteen times in 91 attempts (14 percent). That’s pretty dismal. Cervelli has been seven runs below league average with his defense in the last two seasons combined. That’s quite bad for a guy who is a backup catcher. Perhaps his throwing is a mechanical thing that can be fixed. But you would think with Tony Pena and Joe Girardi in his dugout, he would have had it fixed by now.

According to Mike Fast’s terrific work on framing pitches, Cervelli was terrible in 2010 but better in 2011. According to Bojan Koprivica’s work on blocking pitches in the dirt (reported at The Hardball Times), Cervelli is a tick above average at blocking balls in the dirt. So it’s fair to state that other than his throwing, Cervelli has been okay on other aspects of his defensive assignment behind the plate. Are you convinced yet that he should be the backup?

Are there any arguments for giving the job to Austin Romine other than, “Our big prospect catcher was traded to Seattle, let’s try the other one”? Yankee officials seem high on his defense and in an extremely small sample size with the Yankees last season, he did throw out two of the four base steal attempts. Romine hit well at Trenton (Double A) last season and didn’t in just a few games at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and then didn’t again for the Yankees in a handful of games in September. It would seem unlikely for Romine to be able to match Cervelli offensively on the big club.

The biggest argument against Romine is that he only has four games at the Triple A level and nine more at the major league level. But before we get too carried away with that kind of thinking, Cervelli has been the backup catcher for three years and never played more than twenty-one games at the Triple A level before doing so. But again, is there any reason to give Romine the job?

There is this: The Yankees seem reluctant to tie up Russell Martin long term. They had the opportunity to do so after the 2011 season since Martin was eligible for arbitration. But the team only offered him a one year deal. That means that Martin will be a free agent after this season. If he has a good season, he could get expensive on the open market and the Yankees could lose him. There is no guarantee that Russell Martin is the long-term solution as the Yankees’ catcher. If not Martin, then who? The highly touted, Gary Sanchez, is still in Single A ball and had a tough year in 2011. Austin Romine is as close as you get to the Yankees’ catcher of the future if that future does not include Martin. Why not get him the seasoning he needs now with Martin, Pena and Girardi all there to bring him along? There is absolutely no chance that Francisco Cervelli is a starting catcher. We don’t know yet if Romine will be. Isn’t it time to find out?

The Yankees do not have other options in their minor league system. The backup job will probably Cervelli’s to lose. But it seems to make sense to turn the job over to Austin Romine. The team can see what they have and make better decisions about where the future is heading at the position.