Yankees Andujar Ranked No. 7 Third Baseman by MLB Pipeline

On Tuesday, Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline released his 2017 top 10 third base prospect list. The Yankees Miguel Andujar came in at lucky number seven.

I first started banging the Miguel Andujar drum last October, when the 21-year-old Dominican native was tearing up the Arizona Fall League, shortly before being named an AFL All-Star. His 2016 Minor League campaign was comprised of stops at High-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton, where he slugged his way into the Yankees’ top prospects conversation and eventually was added to the club’s 40-man roster.

Though Andujar has yet to crack Baseball America’s top 100 prospects, at the completion of last season MLB Pipeline designated him as the No. 7 prospect in the entire Yankees’ farm system.

In his piece, Callis wrote:

“Andujar has raw power and arm strength similar to if not quite the equal of Chapman’s. He reached Double-A and played in the Arizona Fall League at age 21, so he’s not too far away from Yankee Stadium.”

In December, I ranked Andujar as the organization’s No. 6 most important prospect. This had a lot to do with the fact that Chase Headley‘s days in the Bronx are coming to an end, and without a suitable replacement at the big league level, it is my belief that if the Yankees were to struggle in the latter part of the upcoming season, Andujar would be a wise call-up before potentially being inserted as the everyday third baseman in 2018.

General Manager Brian Cashman acknowledged several teams had inquired about Andujar’s availability as late as last November. Luckily, Cashman knows that signing a big-ticket free agent like Manny Machado before 2019, comes with its own set of major hurdles — so holding onto Andujar, who scouts actually compare to a young Machado, wouldn’t be the worst idea should the Orioles re-sign their homegrown star.

Andujar is likely to start this season at Triple-A Scranton, as it’s the only Minor League stop he’s yet to grab a hold of. Should he continue to mature at his current pace, Headley may become expendable the first time he enters one of his patented month long slumps.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see what the kid looks like in camp with the rest of the Baby Bombers. It might just turn out the Yankees decide they have their third baseman of the future already in house.

Next: Didi's Risky Move

The rest of Callis’ 2017 top 10 third base prospects include:

1. Rafael Devers – Red Sox
2. Nick Senzel – Reds
3. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – Blue Jays
4. Christian Arroyo – Giants
5. Jeimer Candelario – Cubs
6. Matt Chapman – A’s
7. Miguel Andujar – Yankees
8. Austin Riley – Braves
9. Ke’Bryan Hayes -Pirates
10. 10. Hunter Dozier – Royals