Yankees: 5 Prospects Most Affected by Minor League Season Cancellation

The New York Yankees prospect pool took a hit when the minor league season was cancelled.

As we long have expected, news dropped on Tuesday that the 2020 Minor League Baseball season will not take place, leaving many Yankees prospects in the lurch.

Unlike MLB action (which will be constantly threatened by the pandemic in the ensuing weeks, too), MiLB teams had no method to subsist without fans in the stands, and once their gate receipts were destined to be null and void, there was no point in completing the campaign.

Well, except for that little insignificant detail called…player development. Some Yankees prospects on the verge of big league success have now been doomed to the 60-man pool in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, while others still won’t be doing much of anything.

We hope no one’s growth is forever stunted, but these five Yankees top prospects would’ve vastly preferred not to take the year off.

5. Deivi Garcia

New York Yankees top pitching prospect Deivi Garcia needed a full 2020 season.

Deivi Garcia rose all the way to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2020 as a 20-year-old. Buoyed by a strong showing in Tampa and Trenton, he was the NYY’s Futures Game nominee.

But once he got to the highest level, his numbers sputtered — 1-3, 5.40 ERA, 20 walks and 45 Ks in 40 innings. Yes, he’s just a kid. But he did nothing to prove he was ready for a big league cameo, nor did he assuage concerns that his small stature will eventually force him into a relief role and short spurts of effectiveness at the highest levels.

Garcia’s shown exceptional strikeout stuff, but has a ways to go to prove he’s a starter, and not simply an electric relief option. If he gets the chance to dominate with the Yankees this season, it likely won’t be in the rotation — and that’s not really what he needed in 2020, with plenty left to prove at Triple-A.

4. Albert Abreu

Albert Abreu of the New York Yankees just lost another year.

Yup, that’s another year gone in Albert Abreu’s quest to provide fruit from the Brian McCann trade.

The 24-year-old Abreu will be available in New York’s 60-man player pool for the 2020 season, meaning he’ll at least get a chance to work out in some capacity and be an option for the Yankees if everything clicks.

But after coming over in 2017 as a near-big-league-ready option with electric stuff, he hasn’t really pitched all that much. He’s posted ERAs of 4.16 and 4.28 at Tampa and Trenton in ’18 and ’19, and has yet to pass 100 innings in a campaign, regularly dinged by injuries (he battled tightness in his biceps in 2019).

Abreu is a top prospect without a role right now, still somehow more known for raw stuff than results at every level. Now another year older, he’ll be 25 and unproven with the 2021 season begins, with plenty of arms in New York’s lower minors now ranking as more highly thought-of. He needed 2020, and he needed to perform.

2. Luis Medina

Luis Medina won’t be able to build on his wild 2019 season.

New York’s 10th-ranked prospect Luis Medina posted one of the all-around wildest stat lines we saw at any level in 2019.

The 21-year-old is one of the NYY’s most electric options, but also clearly ranks as mega-raw. At Single-A Charleston, Medina whiffed 115 in 93 innings with his shoulder-bending curve. Nice! The bad? He also walked 67, and went 1-8 with an even 6.00 ERA. A late-season promotion to Tampa (you ever post a 6.00 ERA and get promoted?) yielded different results — in two starts and 10.2 innings pitched, Medina allowed just a single earned run and whiffed 12.

Needless to say, the team brass was very excited to see him operate at that level for a full season — then, nature intervened.

Of the team’s top 10 options, Medina likely has the most stuff still left to harness, but will no longer get a chance to do so in 2020.

1. Roansy Contreras

New York Yankees prospect Roansy Contreras doesn’t have options in 2020.

When the 60-man player pool was announced for the 2020 Yankees season, many expected it to be more expansive than ever in terms of top prospect deployment. After all, if someone couldn’t participate in a full campaign, they might as well be in the pool, right?

That’s why it was so surprising that Roansy Contreras, New York’s 19th-ranked prospect and the most advanced of the team’s 20-year-olds, wasn’t included.

Unlike his out-of-control cohorts, Contreras spins and spots his 92-to-95 MPH fastball quite well, walking just 36 in 132.1 at Charleston last season. Though he’s got a propensity for the fly ball, he’s certainly more pro-ready than most of the erratic pitchers around his age.

If the Yankees needed a pitcher in a pinch, it actually seems like Contreras would provide more value than someone like Abreu.

Instead, he’s lost for the 2020 season, and his future remains a mystery.