Yankees prospect Jake Cave one step away from majors

Yankees prospect Jake Cave is the reigning International League Player of the month for July. But the only thing on this 24-year-old’s mind is finally reaching the big leagues after six and a half seasons down on the farm.

The 2011 sixth round draft pick out of high school is often an after thought when people talk about the plethora of Yankees prospects toiling away down on the farm.

For Cave, it’s been a bumpy road, as a broken kneecap cost him the entire 2012 season. Obviously, losing a large chunk of developmental time caused the Virginia native to play catch up, but in 2017, his left-handed bat has truly come alive.

Following a promotion to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in mid-June, Cave has compiled a .314/.361/.580 slash line with 18 home runs, 51 RBI and 56 runs scored on the season.

Sure his 91:25 K:BB ratio leaves a bit to be desired, but when you factor in the fact Cave has yet to make a single error in 140 chances (614.2 innings), there’s little fault to find.

After hitting safely in 24 of the 26 games he played in during the month of July, which included a .390 batting average, 41 hits, 25 runs scored, 70 total bases and a 15-game hit streak to close out the month, Cave was a runaway choice for the International League Player of the Month Award.

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A solid center fielder with ever-expanding range and a superb throwing arm, the one player I liken Cave to is current Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner. Both are guys capable of not only making routine plays look easy but often the spectacular ones that save ball games. Similarly, Cave has the top of the order type stick that is capable of hurting you if you’re not careful.

The scary part is that the Yankees actually lost Cave for a short time following the 2016 Rule 5 draft after the Reds claimed him. Luckily, Cave was returned to the Yanks after he failed to stick to their 25-man major league roster.

As Cave recently told Wavy.com, his desire to reach the next level of his professional development is at an all-time high.

“I want to get up there and play in the Bronx. I want to play under the lights in front of a packed house. I want to go on the road and have people boo me, that’s the kind of thing that helps you compete.”

With the likes of Jorge Mateo and Dustin Fowler being shipped to Oakland in the Sonny Gray trade, and Jacoby Ellsbury falling further and further down the depth chart, it looks like Cave has a legit shot to break camp with the big league team come next April. Until then, he’ll just have to keep grinding.

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“Hopefully I’m close, I’m in Triple A, I’m playing well, but that is just one of those things that you can’t control,” Cave said. You can only worry about what you can control and what I can control is, I can go out there and play hard every single day.”