Chance Adams a Dark Horse Rotation Option in Second Half

Yankees 2015 fifth round selection Chance Adams has torn through the minor leagues and is a threat to crack the big league rotation in the second half of 2016.

A shutdown reliever in college and in his first professional season, Chance Adams has made a seamless transition to the rotation in 2016. Adams moved into a full-time bullpen role as a junior at Dallas Baptist University in 2015, putting up a sparkling 1.98 ERA in 59 innings.

That performance got Adams selected in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. The Yankees assigned him to Short Season Staten Island initially, but the polished Adams earned two promotions before the season was done, finishing the year with the High-A Tampa Yankees.

All told, Adams threw 35.1 innings across three levels down the stretch last year, with a combined 1.78 ERA and 11.5 K/9. He limited free passes to 2.3 per nine innings and didn’t allow a single home run in 14 appearances.

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Adams stuff took a big step forward in his first professional season with the help of the Yankees MiLB coaching staff. He sat in the mid-90’s with his fastball and reportedly would touch 99 occasionally. Adams developed his secondary pitches to the point where the club thought he could make a successful transition to starting.

That decision has looked extremely prescient in 2016. Adams began the year by returning to High-A Tampa. In 12 Florida State League starts he pitched to a 2.65 ERA, and maintained the strong peripherals he had as a reliever (11.4 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9).

A June promotion to Double-A Trenton has not slowed Adams one bit. In seven starts with the Thunder, Adams has a 2.02 ERA. His strikeout numbers have declined slightly, but remain solid at 8.6/9. Some regression is to be expected considering he is 3.6 years younger than his average Eastern League opponent and his lack of professional experience.

Baseball America listed Adams in Friday’s Prospect Hot Sheet, under their “Helium Watch” section. They note that all four of his pitches project to be average or better in the major leagues. On the down side, they cite his lack of size and the fact that his fastball “flattens out when he leaves it up in the zone.”

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The question now is, how far are the Yankees willing to push Chance Adams this season? A promotion to Triple-A Scranton seems like a certainty at some point. With the big league rotation in shambles, could the Yankees give the 21-year-old Adams a shot in the second half?

Yankees 2015 fifth round selection Chance Adams has torn through the minor leagues and is a threat to crack the big league rotation in the second half of 2016.

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