Yankees: Which top prospects are untouchable in trade talks?

Chance Adams

Adams was once considered the Yankees top pitching prospect after an excellent 2017, but after a poor spring training and a slow start to his season at Triple-A his stock has taken a bit of a hit. Despite his struggles, he’s still the Yankees sixth-best prospect and the 74th overall in baseball and has a chance (no pun intended) to make his big league debut this season.

Before the season started Adams was mentioned as one of the first options to be called up in the case of an injury to the rotation. He’s close to completing his development at Triple-A but he needs to improve his fastball control and feel for his secondary pitches. It remains to be seen if he has the makeup to be big league starter or if he’d be better off as two pitch guy out of the bullpen much like Chad Green.

Regardless, he is a guy the Yankees would likely include in the right deal to upgrade their rotation. Adams is still only 23 and could be a guy who could slide right into the rotation of the team trading a front-line starter back to the Yanks. He could still figure into the Yankees rotation by 2019, but I get the feeling that management is higher on younger arms like Justus Sheffield, Albert Abreu, and Frecier Perez.

Domingo Acevedo

Acevedo is a 24-year-old right-hander with a power arm who could also arrive in the big leagues soon. The timetable for him is probably 2019 because he’s still at Double-A Trenton, but it’s only a matter of time before he takes that next step up to Scranton-Wilkes Barre. Right now he ranks behind Adams as the 9th best prospect in the system according to MLB Pipeline, but his upside is probably higher.

Acevedo can get his fastball up over 100 mph and at 6’7 he is an imposing presence on the mound. His control is better than you would think for someone that tall, however, it’s a question whether he has the full repertoire of pitches to be a big league starter. The Yankees have so much pitching depth that really any pitcher outside of Justus Sheffield could be had for the right return, but Acevedo’s build and power arm might make him one of the most intriguing.