Yankees: 2020 will be a huge season for top prospect Estevan Florial

Heading into the 2019 season Estevan Florial was highly regarded as one of the Yankees top minor league prospects. However, after struggling offensively at A-Advanced Tampa in what was another injury-plagued campaign the 22-year-old’s stock has taken a bit of a hit.

Florial was once projected as the Yankees center fielder of the future. He has all the tools in the world to become just that but over the past two seasons he hasn’t been able to stay healthy and his talent hasn’t translated into big-time results.

After only playing in a combined 84 games in the Gulf Coast League and Tampa in 2018 due to right hamate surgery Florial followed that up by appearing in only 74 games in 2019. He was having a great Spring Training at big league camp before he broke his right wrist crashing into the center-field wall during.

The injury really put him behind the eight ball and he was never really able to find any consistency at the plate once he came back. In 274 at-bats Florial hit .237 with 8 HR, 38 RBI, 9 SB and 98 K’s while posting an OPS of .680. It was a step back for him offensively after hitting .283 with 16 SB and a .799 OPS in 2018.

By the end of the season, Florial fell down to #83 in MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospect rankings after beginning the season at #45. He also was no longer considered the Yankees top prospect as he dropped to third behind Deivi Garcia and Jasson Dominguez. And in Baseball America’s preseason rankings heading into 2020, he wasn’t even included in the organization’s top 10 list.

However, on a positive note, he was ranked number #50 in Jim Bowden of the Atheltic’s preseason list of the top 50 prospects heading into 2020 that was released on Friday. According to the former Reds GM, he spoke to Aaron Boone who reassured him that after watching Florial’s performance last spring he still has the potential to develop into an impact center fielder.

I don’t think fans should put to much stock into these prospect rankings from all the different publications whether they’re high or low because we all know they can be flawed at times. That being said there’s no doubt Florial regressed in 2019 and has a lot to prove heading into next season.

He’s now 22 years old and he’s too talented of a player to still be playing in high A-ball after making his pro debut in rookie-ball back in 2015. Health will obviously be key for Florial but he also needs to work on his plate discipline and cutting down on his strikeouts. On the defensive side, there aren’t as many concerns because he has a rocket for an arm and the speed to track down anything as the leader of the outfield.

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Despite having a down year in 2019, Florial is now a member of the Yankees 40-man roster so clearly, the organization still has high hopes for him moving forward and why wouldn’t they? Not many players have his skillset and if anyone watched him play last spring before he got hurt its easy to see why he was considered untouchable in trade talks the past two years.

Whether that’s still the case remains to be seen but at least until around this years’ trade deadline I don’t see him being moved with how the Yankees roster is currently constructed. It’s not something he needs to worry about heading into camp and he can focus on baseball and impressing the coaching staff as he did a year ago.

Florial still has a ways to go before he earns a big-league call-up but if he can have another productive camp I think there’s a shot he could start the year with Double-A Trenton. Conquering that level should be one of his main goals in 2020 and maybe even making it all the way to Triple-A Scranton before the season ends.

He’s got a lot of work to do in order to reach those goals but again he has all the tools to make it happen. Now he just needs to stay healthy and trust in himself that he can put it all together.