Chad Jennings

cjennings@lohud.com

Still waiting for an official roster announcement for the other full-season minor league affiliates, but we do have an Opening Day roster for the Low-A Charleston RiverDogs. It's headlined by an interesting mix of middle infielders, an outfield of 2015 draft picks, and a big name starter in Domingo Acevedo.

“He’s a big, tall right-handed pitcher," vice president of player development Gary Denbo said earlier this spring. "If you look back over the years at all of those type of pitchers that we’ve had, I think those pitchers take a little bit longer to develop because it’s not a short, compact delivery by any means. He’s got such long arms and long legs, and it takes time for those types to develop the ability to command their pitches, and that’s what he has to do.

"He’s got to get to a place where he can command his fastball over the plate first and then to both sides of the plate. He’s working on his breaking ball. His changeup, we think, has a chance to be a plus pitch for him. We’re very optimistic about his chances to help us in the future, but like all of our pitchers, he’s got to learn to command his fastball before he’s able to go up and help us in the upper levels."

A few things worth pointing out about this roster:

1. Mix-and-match infield

When minor league camp opened last month, Denbo said this was possible. The Yankees have assigned two of their top shortstop prospects, Kyle Holder and Hoy Jun Park, to the same team, meaning those two are likely to split time at shortstop and second base. Interestingly, the Yankees have also sent Thairo Estrada and Angel Aguilar to Charleston. Those assignments make sense in terms of a player's usual development steps, but they give Charleston four infielders who have some legitimate prospect status and can play shortstop, suggesting a lot of moving around (I assume Holder and Park will be the priorities at short). First basemen Chris Gittens and Connor Spencer are very different types of offensive players, but each one has done enough to be worth watching. The Yankees seem very high on Gittens.

2. Draft pick outfield

The regular Charleston outfield should be made up of last year's fourth-round pick (Jeff Hendrix), last year's seventh-round pick (Jhalan Jackson) and last year's 13th-round pick (Trey Amburgey) who had a terrific year in the Gulf Coast League and Staten Island last year. This group walls somewhere below Aaron Judge and Dustin Fowler in terms of organizational outfield prospects, but all three have some potential to open eyes this year. An interesting group to follow.

3. Converted position player

While Acevedo is a pretty big headliner, the rest of the pitching staff is made of relatively small names in the organization (including converted utility infielder, Claudio Custodio). It will be interesting to see where several pitchers not listed here end up opening the season. Last I knew, Austin DeCarr, Ty Hensley and Domingo German were making progress on their way back from Tommy John surgery. I wonder if they could end up in Charleston at some point.

4. Where's Luis Torrens?

Early this spring, Denbo said he planned to have catching prospect Luis Torrens open the year in Charleston. On the day I left Tampa, Torrens was not listed as an active player at the minor league complex, so perhaps he had some sort of setback in his recovery from shoulder surgery. I honestly don't know, but it's certainly worth noting that he's not listed here.

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Pitchers

Domingo Acevedo

Cody Carroll

Will Carter

Claudio Custodio

Simon De la Rosa

Willie Gabay

Anyelo Gomez

Travis Hissong

Brody Koerner

David Palladino

James Reeves

Josh Rogers

Andrew Schwaab

Catchers

Radley Haddad

Eduardo Navas

Infielders

Angel Aguilar

Thairo Estrada

Chris Gittens

Kyle Holder

Hoy Jun Park

Connor Spencer

Outfielders