Yankees prospect Slade Heathcott makes a spectacular home run robbing catch (VIDEO)

Slade Heathcott had a taste of the big time when he played six games with the Yankees back in May and did things like this:

Heathcott is currently in Triple-A with the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders working his way back from an injury, where he continues to do things to help him get back to The Show.

In the bottom of the fifth inning Saturday night, robbed Rochester Red Wings' Xavier Avery of a home run with this spectacular leaping grab against the fence preserving the 0-0 tie.



The future of Yankees baseball is looking pretty good.

Yankees minor leaguer drilled in head, pitcher ejected (VIDEO)

New York Yankees minor league catcher Austin Romine, of Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, had to leave the game Friday night after he was hit in the head with a pitch.

The pitcher — Lester Oliveros of the Minnesota Twins' affiliate Rochester Red Wings — was immediately ejected. Oliveros had just surrendered back-to-back home runs immediately before taking aim at Romine, who fell to the ground in pain.

The benches cleared immediately after the drilling. Romine's condition was unclear after undergoing testing.

Lester Oliveros allowed back-to-back HR and then did this with his next pitch to Austin Romine. pic.twitter.com/emKD61czOS

— Parker Hageman (@ParkerHageman) June 13, 2015

Romine battled with John Ryan Murphy for the Yankees' backup catcher job, behind starter Brian McCann, in spring training. Romine — who is batting .242 with four home runs and 22 RBIs — has played 76 big-league games but none this season.

A-Rod could still face MLB roadblock on way back to Yankees warns player's union exec

On Wednesday, Alex Rodriguez said he was "excited like a ten-year-old boy" about the possibility of rejoining the New York Yankees in Texas by Monday.

Today, that same "boy" might be holding his breath after the executive director of the Player's Association laid out a not so sunny scenario for A-Rod and the other major leaguers linked to the Biogenesis scandal.

Speaking to The New York Daily News at a union golf fund-raiser for Hurricane Sandy charities at Bethpage Black, Michael Weiner said that if Major League Baseball has overwhelming evidence linking the players to the defunct anti-aging clinic and its founder, Anthony Bosch, the powerful Players Association may be in the position of putting the kibosh on Rodriguez's long-awaited return.

“I can tell you, if we have a case where there really is overwhelming evidence, that a player committed a violation of the program, our fight is going to be that they make a deal,” Weiner said without referring to specific players. “We’re not interested in having players with overwhelming evidence that they violated the (drug) program out there. Most of the players aren’t interested in that. We’d like to have a clean program.”

The News wrote:

Weiner did not specifically mention Rodriguez by name, sources have told The News that MLB investigators have gathered an overwhelming amount of evidence that shows the Yankee star received performance-enhancing drugs from Biogenesis. Players connected to Biogenesis will soon begin meeting with union officials and MLB executives to discuss pending penalties.

Players who don’t grieve suspensions are expected to begin serving them immediately; those who opt for arbitration could see their cases drag into next year.

“We will surely meet with the commissioner’s office and try to resolve all the pending cases. If we can’t, we’ll have arbitration cases. At this point, that’s all we can say. It will happen soon,” Weiner said. Speaking to baseball writers on Tuesday, Weiner said that the union will try to find common ground with MLB officials on the length of suspensions and how they will be publicized. He reiterated that on Wednesday, adding that in many instances grievances, including some involving banned substances, are settled before a suspension is imposed and publicly announced.

“This is a somewhat new situation, but some of those grievances have been disciplinary grievances as well,” Weiner said. “They just don’t get the play that the Biogenesis case did.”

A source said in the past Weiner has quietly convinced MLB to drop 10 to 15 drug cases by pointing out flaws in those cases. Weiner also raised questions about the highly contentious Ryan Braun arbitration of 2012. In that case, the Brewers star was supported by the Players Association and successfully challenged a 50-game doping suspension by raising questions about the chain of custody of his urine sample.

“The Braun case was one of many where there were problems with the case,” the source said. “The others just didn’t become public.”

Sources said Rodriguez should expect no better than a 150-game ban if a deal is reached. Other sources said no meeting between Rodriguez, the union and MLB has been set up, but the source added: “It will be soon.”

Wednesday, Rodriguez denied that any deal is being negotiated on his behalf. “No deals. At this moment that is all we can discuss on the matter. There’s no deal that I instructed anyone to do at this point,” Rodriguez said on WFAN.

There is also the possibility that Rodriguez, after evaluation and consultation with physicians, would be declared physically unable to perform once he returns to the Yankees — almost eight months after his second hip surgery in four years — and retire, although he would still be able to collect the more than $100 million owed to him by the Bombers.

Rodriguez is expected to finish his rehab games this weekend with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankee affiliate starting Thursday.

Don't book that ticket to Texas just yet A-Rod.

Jeter singles, scores in first at-bat in return to Yankees (VIDEO)

The captain is back.

Derek Jeter reached first base with an infield single on his first pitch following a nine-month long layoff from surgery, immediately testing his healed left ankle Thursday afternoon in the first inning of the New York Yankees' series finale against the Kansas City Royals.

Jeter didn't acknowledge the cheering fans as he made his long-awaited return. He turned on a 95 mph fastball from Ervin Santana and sent a three-hopper up the third-base line that fell from Miguel Tejada's throwing hand.

Fans chanted "De-rek Je-ter! De-rek Je-ter!" as the 39-year-old shortstop ran up the line well past first base, then returned to the bag. The ankle got tested more when he raced to third on Robinson Cano's single up the middle and came home without a throw on Vernon Well's sacrifice fly to right.

Jeter was the designated hitter and batted second in his first big league game since he broke his left ankle during the AL championship series opener Oct. 13. He said after the initial injury he would return by opening day, then fractured the ankle again in April during his rehabilitation and missed the first 91 games of the season. He played four rehab-games for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders until Wednesday.

Late Wednesday night, general manager Brian Cashman called Jeter in Scranton and said come back home to New York.

After Brett Gardner and Travis Hafner each suffered minor contusions during Wednesday's 8-1 win over the Royals and are considered day to day, the short-handed bench prompted Cashman to summon Jeter from the Minors.

"It was an obvious situation where, 'Hey, he could DH today in Scranton or he could DH today in New York,'" Cashman said. "We'd might as well bring him in and DH him in New York."

Jeter was not introduced at Yankee Stadium by Bob Sheppard's recording in his first at-bat but the old familiar intro was used when Jeter walked up to the plate in the second-inning before he grounded out.

Welcome back.

Jeter 'pleading' with Cashman to let him rejoin Yankees before All-Star break

It only took two rehab games with the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders before Derek Jeter got the itch to get back into Yankee pinstripes and now he wants Brian Cashman to bring the backscratcher.

The rehabbing shortstop admitted "pleading" with New York Yankees' general manager to let him rejoin the Yankees as soon as possible.

"I told him I want to get back as soon as possible," Jeter said before Monday night's game against the Rochester Red Wings. "I get it, I know why I am here, so I will make the most of it. I know I have to get into some games to see how I can do. Hopefully, I can get out of here soon."

Cashman, who angrily told Alex Rodriguez to “shut the f--- up” through the media when the rehabbing third baseman tweeted on June 25 that he had been medically cleared to play games, told The New York  Daily News in an email Monday that the Yanks “will take (Jeter) when he is ready, and yes, he wants to be back yesterday, understandably so.”

Jeter ended up playing another five innings for the minor league team and went 0-for-2 with a walk and a run scored before a sellout crowd of 10,000 that was filled with Jeter No. 2 jerseys at PNC Park.

Afterward, he said he's making progress.

"It was good to be out there running and moving," he said. "It [his ankle] felt a little bit stiff once the game started, but it was fine after that. I felt better out there than the other days.

"I feel good overall playing and can move pretty freely. But I would feel better playing in New York."

Jeter said he won't be at the ballpark Tuesday for the Railriders' afternoon game but said he expects to be back in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's lineup for Wednesday night's game.

"I had to run a lot and it [my ankle] does feel good," Jeter said. ". . . The fans have been great here and it is good to see them out here. I'm looking forward to playing Wednesday at this point."

At the outset, Jeter looked a little tentative during his third rehab game. He charged a grounder in the first inning and made a routine throw to first for the out. In the bottom of the inning, leading off, Jeter smacked a chopper to shortstop and appeared a bit slower than usual running down the line. But he was safe when Rochester first baseman Chris Colabello bobbled the ball.  In the third, he scored from second on a single running at normal stride.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi remains optimistic about Jeter's possible return before the All-Star break.

"There is always a chance," Girardi said. "You have to see how he does in the next three or four days."

Jeter goes 0-for-2, plays five innings in first rehab game (VIDEO)

Derek Jeter played in his first real baseball game Saturday night for the first time in nine months.

The New York Yankees' shortstop and captain put on the pinstripes for the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, his first minor league rehab game on the road back to the big leagues.

Jeter went 0-for-2 with a walk and played a pre-planned five innings at shortstop before exiting the game in front of the the standing-room-only crowd at PNC Field.

"It was fine. I didn't do much," Jeter said after the highly anticipated return to the field. "It was maybe the first time I sort of got a mini-standing ovation for grounding out."

Jeter led off in the bottom of the first inning and drew a five-pitch walk against lefty Raul Valdes (a former Yankee) of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. He did hit a line-drive foul down the third-base line during the at-bat.

In the third inning, Jeter lined out to second base, and in the fourth inning, he bounced out to third, again off Valdes. Jeter looked fine running down to first base in the fourth, his only real action on the basepaths. He only got one play in the field — a routine grounder in the fifth inning, which he handled with ease.

"I just wanted to see pitches," he said. "That's all I really wanted, to have good at-bats, and just get back out there."

Jeter, who turned 39 in June, hasn't played in an official game since Oct. 13, when he suffered a broken left ankle in Game 1 of the 2012 American League Championship Series against the Detroit Tigers. He re-injured the ankle in spring training, and has missed the entire regular season thus far.

He admitted being nervous before Saturday's game.

"This is a little different because I've missed a lot of time," Jeter said. "I've missed nine months. Not nine months of games ... but I've never missed this amount of time."