Yankees top prospect Estevan Florial has really impressed this spring

Yankees top prospect Estevan Floral might be another year away from making his big league debut, but so far this spring he’s shown exactly why the organization has such high hopes for him.

When it comes to untouchable prospects in the Yankees farm system Florial’s name has been at the top of the list over the past two years. The 21-year-old outfielder has all the tools to become a future star in the Yankees outfield and if he keeps playing the way he has so far this spring there’s a really good chance we could see him in the Bronx by 2020.

After only reaching A-Advanced Tampa in 2018 Florial is going to have to conquer Double-A Trenton this season before he gets one step closer to putting on the pinstripes. That shouldn’t be a problem for him as long as he stays healthy and by the end of the year, he could get that call to Triple-A Scranton.

As for right now and the rest of this spring Florial will continue to try and make the most of his opportunities with the big league club and impress the coaching staff. The Yankees haven’t been shy at all about putting Florial in the lineup as often as they can this spring and he’s certainly given them a good reason to do so.

With almost three weeks left to go in the spring, Florial entered Friday second on the team in at-bats with 19, hitting .368. He has an OPS of 1.060 with a home run, two doubles and four RBI. He’s also shown a good eye at the plate with two walks and when he’s gotten on base he hasn’t been hesitant to run at all stealing four bases on four attempts.

In Thursday’s 6-0 win over the Phillies Florial had his best all-around game of the spring going 2 for 3 with a stolen base and a three-run home run to left center field.

https://twitter.com/Yankees/status/1103757438799564801

Following the game, Aaron Boone spoke to George King III of the New York Post about Florial’s no-doubter and revealed it caught the eye of a certain Yankee legend as well.

“I mean, wow. There is a short list of people who can hit a ball like that,” Boone said of Florial’s three-run blast to left-center. “I told that to Reggie Jackson on the bench, that it was a short list of guys, and he told me he was one of them.”

Sometime in the next week or two Florial is likely to be sent to minor league camp to finish the spring but he’ll probably continue to get some innings playing with the big league club. It remains to be seen if he’ll start the regular season back in Tampa or at Double-A Trenton but if he continues his strong spring it could be the latter.

When the day comes where Florial does get his first big league call-up it will be interesting to see where he fits into the mix in the Yankee outfield. Aaron Hicks is now locked up for the next seven years and it doesn’t look like he’s going to shift to another position anytime soon. There’s a chance he could someday move to left field and Florial could take over in center but that’s obviously a decision for way down the road.

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Some believe that because of the Hicks extension Florial could become expendable this season and be included in a trade package to acquire an ace-caliber starting pitcher. That’s a possibility, especially if Luis Severino can’t stay healthy, but I sure hope the Yanks hold onto him given his immense potential.

You hear a lot of prospects get labeled as five-tool players coming up and Florial is truly one of them and has the chance to become a 30-30 guy someday in the big leagues. I know he still has a ways to go before his dreams become a reality, but if I’m GM Brian Cashman he should remain untouchable in trade talks.

In recent years there haven’t been a lot of players coming up through the Yankees system that have his skill set so it’d be a real shame to watch him reach his full potential in another uniform.