very nice read. thanks.

Nice to know what happened to Almonte. I'd been wondering about that.

Cerda looks pretty good so far.

This was a nice article, I was expecting a cheap hack job on Almonte.

I concur, very good article.

I had no idea any jucos allowed some former minor leaguers to play. Good for them.

Yeah, it really was overwritten. But an interesting story nonetheless. For what it's worth, Cerda is listed as an outfielder when you search him on milb.com, and as a DH when you actually click through to his player profile. Nothing about catching anywhere.

Nothing about catching anywhere.

I noticed that too...maybe he's not quite ready for the position and they don't want him to injure himself.

On Baseball-Reference Cerda is shown to have played 10 games behind the plate, 2 at second, and 23 as DH. Hitting 279/373/380 at 18 in rookie ball is pretty good I'd say.

As to Almonte, I'd take a flier on him if I was part of a MLB team. Send him to rookie ball with a good coach and see what happens. Odds are he is very coachable (based on the article) at this stage so why not?

I'm guessing that rookie league catchers see a lot of time at DH so they don't wear out, right? Sort of a catching rotation. That'd be an especially good idea for a kid who's just starting to learn the position and has a good bat that you want to keep in the lineup.

As to Almonte, I'd take a flier on him if I was part of a MLB team

I can why no one picked him up either during the draft or after. He's basically a lefty with a below average fastball. Not to mention that he's 21 and would be starting in Rookie ball. The AAA players his coach refers to are probably guys who had, at one point in time, a good fastball. Almonte basically amounts to organizational filler and there are tons of those guys around with a lot less baggage.