Yankees’ NRI Profile: Nick Goody’s Got It!

The New York Yankees have opened up Spring Training and over their first week, the minor leaguers with invites to Tampa have been showing their moxie. One such non-roster minor league invitee who has already showed he can hang with the big boys is reliever Nick Goody. The 23-year old righty is aiming to prove he can be a solid fixture in the Yankees bullpen.

Goody was the Yankees’ 6th round draft pick in 2012, a year after the Yanks selected him in the 22nd round of the 2011 draft. Goody, once both a shortstop and pitcher, decided to return to LSU to hone his craft as a closer. Clearly, he improved his stock.

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Goody had an impressive half season debut in 2012. He climbed from Staten Island to Charleston and finally landed at High-A Tampa and performed well at every level. He finished his rookie year with a combined 1-2 record, a 1.13 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP while striking out 52 batters over 32 innings.

He then, seemingly like most young pitchers in today’s era of baseball, dealt with Tommy John surgery and only made three appearances in 2013. He bounced back well in 2014, pitching very well back in Tampa and accruing a 2-0 record while posting a 2.35 ERA and striking out 27 over 15.1 innings. He struggled once promoted to the Double-A Trenton Thunder allowing 12 runs over his 16 innings pitched.

Goody stands at 5 foot 11 and weighs in at 195 pounds. He owns a career 4-5 record with an impressive 2.85 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP. A 2012 scouting report from River Avenue Blues explains that his fastball sits in the low 90s, hitting between 91 and 94 miles regularly which he complimented with a hard slider. His ability to hide the ball from batters combined with his accuracy on his fastball and late break on his slider has made him a very good strikeout pitcher, amassing 101 strikeouts over 66.1 professional innings.

While RAB says in 2012 that he didn’t have a third out pitch, Yanks Go Yard’s own Ricky Keeler, who has had several interviews with Goody over the years, indicated that he began working on a change-up in spring training of 2013.

Goody has made two outings this Spring Training, tossing two innings and not surrendering a run while giving up one hit and striking out one. While the road to the Yankees closer is filled with a lot of traffic ahead of him, Goody could one day provide solid depth to the Yankees bullpen. Look for him to start the season off in Double-A, but it won’t be long before Goody is a fixture at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

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