Yankees most underrated prospects headed into the 2018 season

With this year’s offseason leaving us with more of this: Yankees to sign SS Bugs Bunny, rather than Yankees about to land Stanton, that leaves us writers with nothing more to write about.

Instead of sitting here and making up another possible trade that will never happen, I can educate some fellow fans about the real worth of certain players. While names like Aaron Judge are clearly valuable to the Yankees while others like Jacoby Ellsbury are not as much, it’s a lot fuzzier when it comes to the value of prospects.

For example, lefty Nestor Cortes pitched to a 2.06 ERA last year with a 1.49 ERA at Triple-A Scranton over 11 games. Still, the Yankees valued hard-throwing right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga, who has never pitched above Single-A, over Cortes.

The Yanks protected Loaisiga from the Rule 5 draft and let Cortes go to the Orioles for absolutely nothing. Cortes will need to stay on the Orioles’ major league roster for the duration of the season, otherwise must be offered back to the Yanks. For those unfamiliar with Loaisiga, here’s a profile of him.

So who are the most underrated prospects in the Yankees system?

If you had asked me last year, I would have said, southpaws, Dietrich Enns and Zach Littel both of whom were traded away in the Jaime Garcia deal.

Well, by now other players have matured and grown into new exciting talents. Some prospects appeared out of nowhere and regained some of their lost statuses. Let’s start with the underrated pitchers.