New York Yankees Prospect Profile: Number 29 Donny Sands

Continuing our New York Yankees prospect profile series, we move down the pipeline to 29th ranked prospect Donny Sands.

Scouting grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 45 | Run: 45 | Arm: 55 | Field: 50 | Overall: 45

Donny Sands was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 8th round of the 2015 MLB June Amateur Draft out of Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, Arizona.

According to MLB Pipeline, the 19-year old Sands was quite the unknown in the 2015 draft class because he wasn’t a regular at many of the showcases leading up the draft. However, the 6’2″ 190 pound third baseman was all over the Yankees radar because he played on one of their scout teams and attended workouts at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida prior to the draft.

One of my favorite sticking points about the young third baseman was his humbling and unorthodox training routine back home in Tuscon that included his mother, a baseball bat and pinto beans in his garage.

Starting daily before his freshman year at Salpointe Catholic High School, his mother Alma would set a clock for five minutes and begin pitching pinto beans to him. Sands would have to make contact with every single bean without missing a single one for five straight minutes; if he missed, the clock was set back to five minutes and the routine started over.

“It was my mom and me; not having a lot of stuff,” Sands told Bryan Hoch days after he had been drafted. “It always helped my hand-eye coordination, not having baseballs or anything like that. We were just going out, working hard with that stuff. Anything that we had and could use, we used to our advantage. The little pinto beans were right there.”

Next time you go to Chipotle and order your burritos with pinto beans, just know that those very same beans are the driving factor behind one of the organizations top prospects!

Anyway, Sands signed with the Yankees for $100,000 and immediately started to impress. In 48 games played with the Gulf Coast Yankees, the 19-year old slashed .309/.405/.364 with a .769 OPS, nine extra-base hits, seven stolen bases and 29 RBI in 190 plate-appearances.

His impressive performance in rookie-ball earned him a call-up to the Class-A Charleston RiverDogs to close out the season, where he showed no signs of trouble adjusting to professional pitching. In seven games with the RiverDogs, Sands hit .310 with four RBI in 3o plate-appearances.

At just 19-years old, Sands possess’ gap power for now, but according to MLB Pipeline the young right-handed hitter does have the bat speed and hitting ability to eventually produce 15 or more home runs per season as he gets stronger over time.

On the defensive side of the ball, Sands is projected to become at least an average defender at third base.

Next: New York Yankees Prospect Profile Number 30: Trey Amburgey

Sands was verbally committed to the University of New Mexico before deciding to sign with the New York Yankees.