Yankees Farm System Ranked 2nd in MLB by Keith Law

The New York Yankees are heading into their first full season with their reloaded farm system, and it’s been a long time since the Bombers had this deep a talent pool in the minors. ESPN Senior Writer and MLB Prospect Extraordinaire Keith Law released his top 10 farm systems on Thursday, and the Pinstripes are unsurprisingly included.

Law ranked the Yankees’ farm system second overall, having been ranked 13th on this list last year. The Atlanta Braves topped Law’s list once again.

More from Yanks Go Yard

• Yankees top prospects butt heads after Giants’ gritty win over Commanders
• CC Sabathia defends Yankees’ massive Aaron Judge contract
• Scott Boras closed Yankees-Carlos Rodón deal from Fenway Park, put cherry on top
• Orioles are bailing out Yankees and AL East by botching free agency
• 4 blockbuster trade targets that could be Yankees next ‘big’ move

As Law pointed out in his column, Brian Cashman took full advantage of the Steinbrenners giving him the green light to sell at the trade deadline. The farm system wasn’t dismal, but it wasn’t strong either. Case in point, Law noted, Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller netted three prospects that now rank among the team’s top six prospects.

Let’s not forget Cashman also picked up Billy McKinney, Rashad Crawford, Justus Sheffield and more for Chapman and Miller. He also got Dillon Tate, the fourth overall pick in the 2015 amateur draft, for Carlos Beltran. Whatever holes the farm system had this time last year, Cashman filled them and then added depth where there weren’t any.

The beautiful thing about prospects is teams can either develop them into major league players or trade them for prospects who’ve already become major league players. With the kind of depth Cashman has built in his farm system, he can do both.

You can’t coach a million dollars into becoming two million dollars, so Major League Baseball’s have-nots are competing with the big-spenders by capitalizing on players’ pre-30s years. However, the Yankees’ impressive cache of minor leaguers – as well as the farm systems of the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers (ranked fifth) – proves this is now the way to build a team.

Now that Law has released his full 1-30 farm system rankings, he will soon begin to release his list of the top 100 prospects in the game. Numbers 100-81 will hit the internet on Jan. 23, and the remainder of the ranking will be revealed 20 at a time on a daily basis. The prospect guru will also release rankings based on position and individual team.

Next: Yankees And Masahiro Tanaka: Creative Minds Can Get It Done

Fans can expect to see plenty of RailRiders, Thunder, and Staten Island Yankees throughout the rest of Law’s rankings.