Yankees Top 30 Prospects according to MLB Pipeline

On Monday MLB Pipeline released it’s Top 30 prospects for every AL East team. The Yankees list isn’t as impressive as it’s been in year’s past but there’s still a lot of talented young players who have a chance to rise up the ranks this season.

The Yankees farm system isn’t as highly touted as it’s been each of the past three seasons, but for good reason. A lot of their top young prospects are now in the big leagues thriving while some of the others were traded away to bring back veterans who could impact the major league club immediately.

Justus Sheffield was the Yankees top prospect entering the offseason but he was traded away in exchange for James Paxton. That title now belongs to Estevan Floral the promising 20-year-old center fielder from the Dominican Republic. Florial is also ranked as the 57th best prospect in all of baseball.

Florial is a true five-tool player with a ton of upside but he has some holes in his swing and needs to work on increasing his contact rate. After an injury-plagued 2018 season, he’ll likely start the season at A-Advanced Tampa but it shouldn’t be long before he gets the call to Dobule-A Trenton. Florial is projected to arrive in the big leagues during 2020 at the earliest so if he continues to progress, there’s a chance he could take over as the Yankees everyday center fielder by then.

Behind him in the rankings is Jonathan Loaisiga, the Yankees only other prospect ranked in the overall top 100. He comes in at #66 on that list and unlike Florial he has a really good chance to impact the big league club this season. Loaisiga really impressed the Yankees coaching staff last season when he made four big league starts and pitched to an ERA of 3.00 in 18 IP.

He could have an opportunity to win an Opening Day roster spot this spring, especially if CC Sabathia isn’t good to go by the start of the regular season. If not it shouldn’t take long before we see him in the Bronx for good.

Rounding out the organization’s top five prospects are RHP’s Albert Abreu, Deivi Garcia and 2017 first rd pick Clarke Schmidt. Of the three Garcia made the biggest leap after he was ranked #11 at the end of last season. He had an outstanding 2018 campaign at three different stops going 5-4 with a 2.55 ERA, 105 K’s and a WHIP of 0.95 in 74 IP. He’ll have to conquer Double-A Trenton this season, but he’s an intriguing name to keep an eye on because he combines plus stuff with really good control.

The farm system is stacked with RHP’s with 21 of them featured on this year’s list.

Trevor Stephan (#8) was invited to participate in his first big league camp this spring and he’s already made a strong impression on Aaron Boone after throwing his first bullpen. Stephan is still about a year away from the big leagues, but he has a starter’s repertoire, featuring three plus pitches.

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After a breakout campaign in 2018, Michael King comes in at #12, ten spots up from where he was at the end of last season. Even though he’s sidelined right now with a stress reaction in his right elbow he was mentioned by Boone as one of the young arms who could impact the big league staff this season.

The same goes for Chance Adams, despite falling all the way down to #20 on this list. He started last season as the Yanks fifth-best prospect but had a tough time at Triple-A. Adams did make his big league debut last August and is now over a year removed from offseason elbow surgery so his overall stuff should see an improvement this season. He’ll be in the mix to be a potential spot starter in the rotation throughout the year.

Of the position players, notable names include last year’s first-round pick C Anthony Siegler (#6), and talented international signings OF Everson Pereira (#7) and OF Antonio Cabello (#9). Triple-A IF Thairo Estrada (#19) was expected to make big strides heading into last season but that was before he was shot in the hip during a robbery attempt in his native Venezuela.

Estrada has all the tools to eventually become a solid utility player for the Yanks so it should be interesting to see how he rebounds this season and improves his ranking.

MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Yankees Prospects