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.

Justus Sheffield

While outfielder Clint Frazier was the centerpiece of the blockbuster Andrew Miller trade, the Yankees made it clear that acquiring left-hander (and nephew to Gary Sheffield) Justus Sheffield, was just as crucial in completing the deal.

Justus enjoyed a successful year in Double-A Trenton in 2017 on his way to a 3.10 ERA and a trip to the Arizona Fall League. Many expect Sheffield to start this year in Triple-A Scranton and he may very well make his major league debut before the end of the season.

While most fans think of Chance Adams as the Yankees’ top pitching prospect, Baseball America ranks Sheffield higher than Adams. Baseball America gives the lefty the best slider in the Yanks’ system to go along with a fastball that reaches the upper 90s, as compared to Adams’ who sits in the mid-90s.

Furthermore, when you see Sheff’s stuff, it becomes more evident as to why Baseball America ranked him so high.

After a successful trip to the Arizona Fall League, Sheffield’s stock is continuing to rise, yet he doesn’t get the appreciation he rightfully deserves. While his ’17 BB/9 rate of 3.2 can still use some work, it is still lower than Adams’ rate of 3.5.

In the AFL, Sheffield limited his walks to just 1.3 BB/9 and didn’t give up a single home run on his way to a 3.10 ERA and an AFL All-Star appearance against some of the best prospects in baseball.

Scouts there said he looked like he had the stuff of a top of the rotation-type pitcher. Sheffield has already developed two other breaking pitches that are crucial to success at the major league level.

It was the addition of a third pitch that allowed 23-year-old breakout right-hander Luis Severino to come back and succeed, which culminated in him finishing third in the AL Cy Young vote.

Coming into this season, the Yankees’ top prospect list is very much pitcher heavy. This makes it easy for a position player to be overlooked (not named Gleyber Torres).

The Yanks possibly have an entire outfield of major league ready players who are currently blocked from advancing to the next stage in their development. The Triple-A RailRiders could very feasibly field an outfield of Billy McKinney, Clint Frazier and Jake Cave this season. Talk about an abundance of riches!

So none of those players will start for the Yankees in 2018. They aren’t even on the Yankees’ top prospects list (Frazier is no longer considered a prospect). Many other players are getting overlooked in the Yanks’ system, which is possibly the deepest in baseball, even if it isn’t considered the flat-out best.

Nick Solak

Nick Solak started 2017 in High-A Tampa. He hit .301/.397/.460 before being called up to Trenton. In 30 games there, Solak’s offense took a slight hit, as expected, but he still managed a .286/.344/.429 slash line.

Solak also continued in his power development, smacking 12 long balls on the year. While he has yet to crack Baseball America’s top Yankees prospect list, he is ranked as the Yankees’ best hitter for average in the entire system.

While Solak does strikeout a ton, his strong walk rate indicates that he can improve those negative marks. He has speed and hits for extra bases well. However, as a middle infielder, it’s hard to imagine him playing there for the Yankees.

If he can continue to improve, however, he may become trade bait for the Yanks to use as early as this season. Currently, he’s behind Thairo Estrada, Gleybar Torres and Tyler Wade.

Tyler Wade

With seemingly nowhere to put Tyler Wade, the Yankees decided to turn him into a super-utility man, kind of like Ben Zobrist.

After hitting .310 in the minors with 26 stolen bases, the Yankees called him up when second baseman Starlin Castro went on the disabled list.

Unfortunately, Wade struggled in limited playing time and only managed a dismal .155 average in 30 big leagues games.

While this was offputting to many fans, we all know it’s not impossible for a player to struggle in his debut season, then succeed when the calendar flips over. Imagine if we all just wrote off Aaron Judge after his 2016 cup of coffee? That’s how jobs are lost.

The Yankees will likely wait for Torres’ debut until May, as to push back his free agent clock by a full year. This might get Wade a second chance at second base to start the season.

His minor league strikeout rate of 19% is nowhere near the 30% K rate he had in his brief debut. Without the first year nerves of ’17, Wade might succeed in his sophomore season in the bigs. But Wade isn’t the only rookie who might get his shot at starting.

Miguel Andujar

Miguel Andujar has begun to climb in prospect ratings and is now ranked the No. 5 prospect in the Yankees’ system. Even so, he still is underappreciated as to what he can be.

Andujar has been offensively tearing apart the minor leagues the past few seasons, and the consensus is that his bat is major league ready. In his very short debut last year against the White Sox, he showed us what he could do with five RBI.

While he doesn’t walk a whole lot, he doesn’t strikeout all that much either. A high strikeout total would be expected from a power hitter like Andujar. However, he only struck out 71 times over 125 games last season. He hits for extra bases well, and he has speed too, even if he doesn’t use it to steal bases.

Andujar projects to be a player who can consistently hit for an average of .270 with 20+ homers per year. The Yankees have themselves a player who may be of a similar caliber to the Red Sox’s Rafael Devers.

However, Andujar’s biggest shortcoming is his defense. He is not known for his glovework or his throwing accuracy, yet he has remained in the same position since he began his professional career.

He has been working this offseason on his defensive ability and may improve with the help of major league coaches during spring training. The Yankees’ current manager, Aaron Boone, was also a third baseman and should be able to guide Andujar in the right direction.

Next: Greg Bird's last stand with Yankees

Scouts said as far back as 2016 that Andujar has the tools to improve his defense and won’t necessarily be a liability at third base. He has a great arm and good feet. It may be that he only needs some more experience for his glove to catch up to the bat. Now with an opening at third base, this could be Andujar’s chance.