Francisco Cervelli Has Broken Foot; Injury Opens Door For Jesus Montero

The Yankees came into Spring Training expecting to have Russell Martin as the starting catcher, and Francisco Cervelli as the backup. They'll have to come up with a new plan now, at least temporarily, as Francisco Cervelli has gone and broken his foot.

Cervelli fouled a ball off his foot in Wednesday's game against the Astros, and came out shortly thereafter. Wednesday afternoon, he had both a CT and MRI taken, and while the results were initially deemed inconclusive, it was later determined that Cervelli had a fracture. That fractured foot is going to keep him out of action for at least the next four weeks or so.

What that means is that, for the time being, there's an open spot for another catcher to emerge. Austin Romine is in camp as a non-roster invitee, but the same also goes for top prospect Jesus Montero, who may now be able to force his way into the bigs out of camp. He likely wouldn't stick around for long, but he could at least get his feet wet until Cervelli's able to return.

The nearly 25-year-old Cervelli batted .271 last season with a .694 OPS. As a catcher, he caught just nine of 64 base-stealers.