Yankees: Profiling The Bottom Tier Of Their Top 30 Prospects

#27  Donny Sands  C

Donny Sands was originally drafted as a third baseman out of high school in Tucson, Ariz., in the eighth round of the 2015 draft.

Encouraged by the Yankees player development staff to change his position to catcher, Sands willingly made the switch, telling Baseball America:

"“They told me the hands, the footwork, (potentially being) a catcher that can hit, the leadership, being bilingual, the communication, everything,” Sands said, listing reasons why the Yankees thought he was an attractive candidate for a position change."

In all likelihood, Sands will not be held up in his advancement due to his offensive ability,  as MLB.com indicates in its profile of Sands:

"One of the best pure hitters in the Yankees system, Sands has quick hands and a smooth right-handed stroke. He has great feel for the barrel and makes repeated line-drive contact. While he shows mostly gap power at present, he has the bat speed, strength and hitting ability to provide 15 or more homers per season."

As a catcher, however, he is a work in progress, as shown by his throwing out 18 percent of attempted base stealers and committing 14 passed balls in 20 games at catcher last year.

But Sands is not one to shy away from doing the work necessary to get progressively better defensively, telling Baseball America, “The first time I threw out a guy, we had worked out at 5 in the morning on footwork, footwork, footwork,” he said. “And the first time, it just clicked. That’s when I started feeling like, ‘This is starting to pay off.”

Despite having to endure those 5 AM workouts, there has been an upside for Sands. He was selected by the Yankees to attend the Captain’s Camp that is hosted by Derek Jeter in the early part of the spring. As he always does, Jeter took the group out for dinner, after that Sands could only describe the evening as “crazy.”

Concentrating so much on improving his defensive skills, Sands will need to remain mindful of not letting his hitting abilities slide in the interim. It’s quite a heady challenge for a 20-year-old who is entering only his second season of professional baseball.