NY minor league prospect news (2018 edition)

jon abbey

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Nice piece at mlb.com on NY's next wave of pitching prospects, the ones after Sheffield/Abreu/Adams/Acevedo. They talk about Luis Medina, Freicer Perez, Deivi Garcia, Clarke Schmidt, Matt Sauer and Nolan Martinez, Medina seems especially exciting:

"Meanwhile, after an offseason in which he added 15 pounds, Medina has continued to make progress in developing his high-octane stuff this spring while performing well early in Minor League camp.

"In his second outing the other day," noted Borrell, "he struck out four guys in two innings and was 97-100 mph with his fastball, with a 90-91 mph changeup that had some bottom to it and probably a 55- or 60-grade curveball. He's special.""

https://www.mlb.com/news/yankees-pipeline-spring-training-report/c-268848994?tid=151437456
 

jon abbey

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Austin, McKinney, Heller and Gallegos all sent down, Scranton is going to be crazy loaded to start the year.
 

jon abbey

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Florial is starting in Tampa, but I don’t think he’ll be there long. First game he was 2-5 with a triple, and just now he homered in the first against the #18 pick overall in 2017.
 

jon abbey

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Nice night for NY's minor league SPs last night, they had four top 20 prospects start their games, and combined they only allowed one earned run (and that was to the Vlad Guerrero Jr/Bo Bichette-led juggernaut in AA):

RHP Chance Adams: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
RHP Domingo Acevedo: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K
RHP Trevor Stephan: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
RHP Glenn Otto: 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 5 K

Stephan was NY's 3rd round pick last June, he already seems too good for high A and should be promoted to AA before too long.
 

jon abbey

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Three more impressive SP pitching performances today, Nelson's Ks especially. Loaisiga is already on the 40 man, he needs to be moved up soon.

LHP Justin Sheffield: 5.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K (AA)
RHP Jonathan Loaisiga: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K (high A)
RHP Nick Nelson: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 12 K (low A)
 

jon abbey

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There has been much written about Cashman's 2016 trading deadline selloff, and the big moves were Chapman (Gleyber, McKinney, Warren) and Miller (Frazier, Sheffield, Heller) but the Beltran rental to TEX is looking like an increasingly impressive move also. In exchange for 2 months of a 39 year old DH, Cashman got back three pitching prospects:

Dillon Tate, the lead prospect and the #4 overall pick in the 2015 draft who TEX gave up on really quickly. He seems to be back on track now, 10 3 1 1 0 9 in two starts so far, and he was dominating today through 4 when he had to come out after a lengthy rain delay. He should hit top 100 lists again soon if he keeps it up.

Erik Swanson, also in the AA rotation now, his two starts combined have been 8.2 5 1 0 3 11.

Nick Green, in the high A rotation, he's had one start, 5 1 1 0 2 6.

So the three combined have given up just 9 hits in 23.2 innings and 1 earned run, 26/5 K/BB ratio. That seems like a good trade to me.
 

jon abbey

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Jhalan Jackson was NY's 7th round pick in 2015, he is having a unique season so far in AA. He just hit his league-leading 6th HR, he has one double, one triple, and zero singles. He has 41 other AB, and 26 of those are Ks. So he is hitting .163 with a .818 OPS, that is taking all or nothing to an extreme.
 

jon abbey

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Justus Sheffield with another impressive AA start, he needs to be promoted.

6 3 0 0 3 9 tonight, 28 16 9 7 14 39 for the season (5 starts), too many walks but a 2.25 ERA and a 12.5 K/9.
 

jon abbey

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And there it is, promoted to AAA, I'm sure sped up slightly by the Montgomery news:

Dan Federico‏ @DanJFederico

According to #Yankees Vice President of Baseball Operations Tim Naehring, Justus Sheffield has been promoted to Triple-A.

An NL executive on Justus Sheffield's promotion to SWB: "2018 was always the year I saw him making the big leagues. With that Montgomery injury, he's probably on the fast track. Fastball command remains a cause for concern but I'm certain he'll correct it. He's ready for MLB."
 

jon abbey

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Erik Swanson is too good for AA, two earned runs total allowed in six starts, 34.2 18 3 2 11 44, 0.52 ERA. He's not a top prospect but that is quite dominant, and much better than the more touted and roughly the same age Dillon Tate is doing in the same rotation currently, both came from TEX for two months of Carlos Beltran (heh).

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=657024#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
 

jon abbey

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Also I shouldn't overlook what might end up being the best game score for any minor league NY pitcher all year, Michael King for Tampa on Wednesday, 8.2 3 0 0 0 8, 94 game score.

Where did NY get King from, you might ask? Funny story there, they just got him in November from the clearly going for it in 2018 Miami Marlins in exchange for Caleb Smith (who is having an impressive season so far actually) and Garrett Cooper (who is not) when clearing 40 man spots before the rule 5. So not only did Cashman get something back for those guys, but the return is looking like yet another SP prospect, 1.53 ERA through his first six starts, he will turn 23 in a few weeks and he was a 2016 draft pick so under control for a while.
 

jon abbey

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Dom Thompson-Williams is a CF picked in the 5th round in 2016. His pro career so far has not been noteworthy until his last three games:

Sunday: 4-6 with 2 HRs and a double.
First game of today's doubleheader: 2-4 with 2 HRs.
Second game of today's doubleheader (going on now): 1-1 with a HR and a walk.

So 5 HRs and a double in 11 ABs, up to a 1.323 OPS for the season now.
 

jon abbey

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Erik Swanson is too good for AA, two earned runs total allowed in six starts, 34.2 18 3 2 11 44, 0.52 ERA. He's not a top prospect but that is quite dominant, and much better than the more touted and roughly the same age Dillon Tate is doing in the same rotation currently, both came from TEX for two months of Carlos Beltran (heh).

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=657024#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
Six more scoreless innings for Swanson yesterday, 23 in a row now and ERA down to 0.44.
 

jon abbey

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Chance Adams with by far his best game of the year, seven dominant shutout innings including striking out the side in the seventh. 7 1 0 0 2 10, 102 pitches. Welcome back, Chance!!
 

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Florial wasn't going to help this year anyway, or maybe even next, but this is a blow to his development and to the top position player prospect left in the system.

George A. King III‏ @GeorgeAKingIII

Yankees stud prospect Estevan Florial will be out until August due to hamate surgery.
 

jon abbey

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Erik Swanson with a well-deserved promotion to AAA, he will start there tomorrow.
 

jon abbey

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A bunch of moves up and down the system today, but worth noting that my man Kyle Holder is back after a cracked vertebra late in spring training (!). I was expecting him to blow up this year into a top 100 player, he has always been a superior defender at SS and started to hit late last season, so he'll be exciting to keep an eye on assuming he's actually healthy.
 

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Welcome back to Domingo Acevedo, who could be an important player for NY this year and is already on the 40 man. He was out since April 11 with I believe first a blister and then a concussion, but he came back with three perfect innings on 38 pitches in AA today, 3 Ks.
 

jon abbey

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Good game from Sheffield today too, they are bringing him back slowly still (4 innings/75 pitches today) but his ERA so far in AAA is 1.65.

Also Clint Frazier had four singles and two stolen bases today, OPS of 1.047 in AAA. He desperately wants to come back up, and IMO he should be on the roster now ahead of Austin.
 

jon abbey

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Billy McKinney with his 5th HR in 54 ABs in AAA since coming back from his injury.
 

jon abbey

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Proud of myself for not talking up Josh Rogers here even when he was dominating AAA, because he has gotten absolutely shelled in his last two outings (22 hits and 11 earned runs, yikes). People were talking about as a possible major league fill-in option, but he never really was and these last two games have made that clear.
 

jon abbey

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New Fangraphs top prospect list is up, Torres and Andujar have graduated, but NY still has 4 guys in their top 131 (everyone they think has 50 value or more).

Justus Sheffield-30 (up from 39)
Albert Abreu-50 (up from 59)
Estevan Florial-85 (down from 79)
Luis Medina-127 (newly entered)

I think this might be the first list to include Medina, who is 19 and supposedly has both the best fastball and the best curve in NY's system (!!!).
 

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Yankees stud prospect Estevan Florial will be out until August due to hamate surgery.
Giancarlo Stanton had this surgery in 2015 and it set him back at least a year. Some folks say there would be fewer fractures if bats were designed a little differently, specifically the knob.
 

jon abbey

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Billy McKinney with his 7th HR in 68 AAA ABs, Frazier and Drury have 7 combined in 231 ABs there by comparison.
 

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In The Quivering Forest
New Fangraphs top prospect list is up, Torres and Andujar have graduated, but NY still has 4 guys in their top 131 (everyone they think has 50 value or more).

Justus Sheffield-30 (up from 39)
Albert Abreu-50 (up from 59)
Estevan Florial-85 (down from 79)
Luis Medina-127 (newly entered)

I think this might be the first list to include Medina, who is 19 and supposedly has both the best fastball and the best curve in NY's system (!!!).
We can toss Frazier in there too. Just because he has to many at bats in the majors to qualify doesn't mean he isn't one of the top minor leaguers in all of baseball just waiting down there to help the big team.
 
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jon abbey

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Agreed on that, and as we type, he just crushed a HR to dead center, 2-2 again tonight, OPS back to 1.001 (league-leading, I believe).
 

jon abbey

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NY seems to have signed some very exciting prospects in last year's international crop, BA wrote one up today:

"Everson Pereira, OF, Yankees: Pereira, 17, ranked as the No. 4 international prospect last year when the Yankees signed him out of Venezuela for $1.5 million. Pereira has yet to make his official pro debut, but his stock is already climbing. When Pereira signed, he was an athletic center fielder with a well-rounded balance of tools and skills, hitting well in games with a fluid swing, good bat control and strike-zone judgment. At the time, Pereira was mostly a line-drive hitter with gap power, but he’s grown an inch and added significant size and strength, to the point where he now has plus raw power. And that power is already showing up in games. The Yankees had already planned to skip Pereira over the Dominican Summer League, but Pereira was so good in extended spring training (he hit eight home runs there) that he now will skip over the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League and make his pro debut with Pulaski in the Rookie-level Appalachian League. Two other big 2017 international signings—Rays shortstop Wander Franco and Blue Jays righthander Eric Pardinho—will join Pereira in the Appy League, and while Franco is already a Top 100 prospect, Pereira has a chance to join him soon and potentially skyrocket up the list. (BB)"

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/top-mlb-prospects-hot-sheet-61818/
 

jon abbey

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Some exciting teenagers set to debut stateside when NY's Pulaski team starts their season tonight, Luis Medina (one of NY's top few pitching prospects, BA said this winter he had both the bast fastball and the best curve in the organization) is pitching the opener, and 2017 IFAs Ezequiel Duran and Everson Pereira (I believe at 2B/CF respectively) are also very highly regarded. Medina and Duran are both 19, Pereira is 17 as mentioned in the previous post, all three may be top 100 prospects very quickly if they perform well.
 

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Some exciting teenagers set to debut stateside when NY's Pulaski team starts their season tonight, Luis Medina (one of NY's top few pitching prospects, BA said this winter he had both the bast fastball and the best curve in the organization) is pitching the opener, and 2017 IFAs Ezequiel Duran and Everson Pereira (I believe at 2B/CF respectively) are also very highly regarded. Medina and Duran are both 19, Pereira is 17 as mentioned in the previous post, all three may be top 100 prospects very quickly if they perform well.
I am so tempted to take a little road trip.
 

jon abbey

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BA has NY linked to 3 of the top 15 and 5 of the top 50 international FAs for the signing period that opens July 2. NY has traded once already for more international spending money and will presumably keep doing so as they did last year. The Cuban pitcher Rodriguez sounds exciting:

==========================

Osiel Rodriguez Cuba RHP

Born: Nov. 22, 2001 | Ht: 6-3 | Wt: 205 | B-T: R-R

Scouting Report: Rodriguez was the best Cuban pitcher in his age group before he left the country to sign with a major league club. As a 14-year-old pitching in Cuba’s 15U national league in 2016, Rodriguez ranked first in ERA (0.39) in 69 innings. He struck out 127 batters (third in the league) and walked 27. Later that year, Rodriguez won a gold medal pitching for Cuba in the 15U World Cup in Japan, where he posted a 1.50 ERA and a 14-3 K-BB mark in two starts. At that time, Rodriguez was a 6-foot, 165-pound 14-year-old throwing in the mid-80s, but he has since grown bigger, stronger and developed into a pitcher with an impressive combination of power and feel. He’s one of the hardest throwers in the class, reaching 96 mph. While his velocity has fluctuated, he typically sits around 90-94 mph with late finish in the zone. Rodriguez throws hard but frequently throws his slider, an out pitch that flashes plus and produces a lot of empty swings. Like a lot of Cuban pitchers, Rodriguez varies his arm slot intentionally, which causes his slider to have three-quarters break or criss-cross in and out of the strike zone. Rodriguez also shows feel for a splitter/changeup. Compared to Venezuelan righthander Richard Gallardo, Rodriguez has more of an unorthodox delivery and his arm action isn’t as clean, but he is a strike thrower with feel for pitching beyond his years. The Yankees are the favorites to sign Rodriguez, who is expected to land a bonus just north of $1 million.

==========================

5- Osiel Rodriguez RHP
14- Antonio Gomez C
15- Kevin Alcantara OF
43- Denny Larrondo RHP
48- Agustin Ramirez C
 

jon abbey

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Also I shouldn't overlook what might end up being the best game score for any minor league NY pitcher all year, Michael King for Tampa on Wednesday, 8.2 3 0 0 0 8, 94 game score.

Where did NY get King from, you might ask? Funny story there, they just got him in November from the clearly going for it in 2018 Miami Marlins in exchange for Caleb Smith (who is having an impressive season so far actually) and Garrett Cooper (who is not) when clearing 40 man spots before the rule 5. So not only did Cashman get something back for those guys, but the return is looking like yet another SP prospect, 1.53 ERA through his first six starts, he will turn 23 in a few weeks and he was a 2016 draft pick so under control for a while.
I posted this in early May, King continues to pitch fantastically. He is up in AA now and tonight beat his game score from above, 9 3 0 0 0 11, 99 game score. His AA ERA is down to 1.91 now (7 starts) after a 1.79 in high A (also 7 starts).
 

jon abbey

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Clint Frazier is 3-3 with two homers in the first four innings today in AAA, please bring him up again.
 

jon abbey

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He can play against lefties and Gardner can sit, and if all of Stanton, Judge, and Hicks get a day off per week, seems like there is plenty of time for him, plus there is another doubleheader this Monday. They need to find space for him, he has been crushing the ball in AAA and in his few chances with NY this year.
 

jon abbey

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Very exciting news that Estevan Florial is back on the field after his hamate surgery in May, 2-2 with a walk and a SB and five innings in CF in the GCL today.
 

jon abbey

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Estevan Florial destroying the GCL in his rehab games (as he should be, but still nice to see):

Florial is now batting .478 (11-for-23) w/ 7R, 2HR, 2 doubles, 4BB, 7RBI and 4SB in seven rehab games.
 

jon abbey

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Billy McKinney is up to 13 HRs in 183 AAA ABs now, his blossoming makes Clint Frazier even more expendable in the right deal. Today's was off a rehabbing Ervin Santana and when you read the below tweet, keep in mind all of the power hitters that have gone through Scranton in recent years:

Conor Foley‏ @RailRidersTT

Billy McKinney just hit a home run out to right out of PNC Field. I don't know that I've ever seen that.
 

jon abbey

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18 year old SP Roansy Contreras was RAB's #21 NY prospect in their June 1 rerankings despite having very little track record at that point. Since then, he has shown he deserves that ranking and more, dominating in five starts in short-season ball, 28.2 15 5 4 9 32, 1.26 ERA and a ,158 BAA. It was reported on Twitter that both the Padres and the Tigers had a scout watching him today, so he may not be around so long.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&player_id=672710#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
 

jon abbey

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Another one is Luis Gil, who NY got just this March from the Twins in exchange for Jake Cave, who they couldn't keep on the 40 man anymore. Cave not too surprisingly has been very good in limited duty so far, a .904 OPS and 1.0 WAR in just 81 PAs. So that is what makes this tweet from a baseball writer last week even more amazing, Cave is already contributing in the bigs at 25 and has full team control and Gil is in rookie ball at 20:

Chris Blessing‏ @C_Blessing
Chris Blessing Retweeted Adam McInturff

I had a scout tell me two weeks ago that Luis Gil could make the Jake Cave trade look like one of the most lopsided trades this decade. Multiple scouts who saw both Gil & Luis Medina prefer Gil.

Gil touches 100 and has been pitching great in rookie ball, he wasn't even mentioned in that RAB top 30 last month but will presumably make the next edition.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=661563#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
 

jon abbey

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21 year old Garrett Whitlock was somehow just an 18th round pick in the 2017 draft. He has given up just four runs in his first six starts in low A Charleston, 7 2 0 0 1 10 tonight and a combined 34 19 4 4 7 40 for the season. Give that scout a raise.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&player_id=676477#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
Whitlock has been promoted twice since this post I made in early May, today he debuted in AA with five scoreless innings. He has a combined 1.46 ERA for the season across the three levels in 92 innings and has been climbing NY's prospect charts, around #15-20 now on most of them.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&player_id=676477#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
 

jon abbey

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Keith Law has his midseason top 50 today. and Sheffield is all the way up to #12 overall:

12. Justus Sheffield, LHP, New York Yankees

Sheffield wasn't at his best at the Futures Game but still fired off a few plus sliders and touched 95, giving up a homer when he left a fastball up to a right-handed hitter. His changeup -- his best offspeed pitch in high school -- has become more of a third weapon, one he'll need to recover to keep right-handed hitters honest, and he can still show you 40 command even on days when he's throwing strikes. He's very close to major league-ready, however, and has all the elements of a future No. 2 starter.
 

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After demolishing both eastern and western Gulf Coast League pitching, Estevan Florial was back in Tampa yesterday, and went 1 for 5 (single) with 2 strikeouts.
The Yankee starter and winning pitcher in that game was Luis Rijo, born September 6, 1998. He went 6 6 2 2 0 3, throwing 63 strikes and only 21 balls to the 24 batters he faced. This gives him an impressive 114/12 K/BB ratio In 119.1 innings of minor league pitching.
 

jon abbey

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19 year old Deivi Garcia is rapidly climbing NY's prospect list, #13 currently at mlb.com. Tonight he threw his best game yet, in low A Charleston, 6 2 0 0 0 12. He struck out the side in the fifth and the sixth, so the last six batters he faced, and the only two hits he allowed were to SF's top prospect Heliot Ramos. He has 63 Ks in 39.1 IP, 14.4 K/9.

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&player_id=665620#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL
 

jon abbey

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NY is going nuts in the international market again this year, they have signed 3 of the top 15 guys according to BA, two more in the top 50, 21 players in total, and they're now going after more with the extra IFA money they got in the two trades this weekend.


RHP Osiel Rodriguez, No. 9 on @MLBPipeline’s Top 30 International Prospects list, signed with the @Yankees for $600K. The club remains active on the international market and continues to target other prospects.