Seven Yankees Included In MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects

MLB Pipeline concluded their preseason rankings for the top 100 prospects in all of baseball. The best and brightest Yankees are scattered throughout.

Seven. That’s how many Yankees prospects you’ll find on MLB Pipeline’s compilation of the top 100 prospects with less than 130 Major League at-bats. So for all those yelling at Twitter as to how Andrew Benintendi of the Red Sox could still be atop this list after absolutely mashing in Boston for over a month — remember, he was injured in late August and only accumulated 105 at-bats before missing the remainder of the ’16 season.

Tied with the Braves for the most prospects of any team to populate this list, the Yankees’ Gleyber Torres is actually one spot higher than Atlanta’s Dansby Swanson, in addition to being named a runner-up for overall ‘Best Hitter’ — so there’s a feather in our cap.

The rest of the Yankees’ crop includes Clint Frazier (No. 24) and Justus Sheffield (No. 79), both of whom were acquired in the Andrew Miller deal. The organization’s previous three first-round draft picks (2016, ’15, and ’13, respectively), Blake Rutherford (No. 37), James Kaprielian (No. 58), and Aaron Judge (No. 45) are there as well.

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As for Jorge Mateo (No. 47), he was named the fastest runner of all top 100 prospects by Jim Callis, in his ‘Best Tools’ review.

In his piece, Callis wrote:

"“Mateo’s prospect stock took a bit of a hit in 2016 when his stolen-base total dipped to 36 from a Minor League-best 82 the year before. One thing that didn’t change is his status as the speediest player on the Top 100, making him one of two players to repeat. He can fly down the line from the right side of the plate to first base in less than four seconds, and New York might deploy those wheels in center field after trading for Torres.”"

For fans wondering why Chance Adams and Miguel Andujar are nowhere to be found — should they continue to excel in the early part of 2017, both have a real chance of making MLB Pipeline’s ’17 midseason top 100 list.

Overall, the Yankees took the ‘prospect points’ title with 414 points. This is largely due to the fact that five of their seven prospects fell within the top 50 selections.

MLB.com columnist Jonathan Mayo says ‘prospect points’ are a good indication of what’s to come from stars in the making.

"Recent history has shown that prospect points do tell us something about future success. While four of last year’s 10 playoff teams were in the top 10 in prospect points entering the season, seven playoff teams were in the top nine in 2015 and six of the top eight prospect point teams entering 2014 landed in the postseason."

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As for players who no longer find themselves in the newest edition of these rankings, there is right-hander Dillon Tate, who was previously ranked at No. 36 before struggling mightily in ’16, and Gary Sanchez who graduated from prospect to runner-up to the AL Rookie of the Year Award.