Yankees: 3 forgotten prospects who’ll give you rare hope

2. Glenn Otto

Did you have 2017 fifth-rounder Glenn Otto marked in your prospect handbook before the year began? Understood if not! Otto’s been somewhere between an organizational arm and intriguing middle relief for a while now, but he’s experiencing a breakout at Double-A Somerset after entering the season as the team’s 28th-ranked prospect.

Your typical Otto start this year features about six innings, two or three runs, and eight or 10 strikeouts. Extremely good! Your atypical Otto start that’s becoming more typical over time, though, looks a bit more stunning, like his May 20 outing that featured 5.1 two-hit innings with 14 strikeouts.

Sometimes, his boring fastball/wipeout slider combination is entirely unhittable. All told, his progression this year has resulted in a 3.96 ERA and a remarkable 83 whiffs in 52.1 innings of high-level baseball. That ERA was boosted a little bit by Otto’s most recent outing where he ran out of gas and surrendered some homers in the sixth. That strikeout total was boosted by … well, nastiness. The kid’s just good.

Otto was, of course, selected in the same very interesting 2017 draft as Clarke Schmidt up top, Indians Rule 5 pick Trevor Stephan, second-rounder Matt Sauer, and …18th-rounder Garrett Whitlock. If you’d prefer not to vomit at the mention of Whitlock’s name, though, keep in mind that it looks like Otto might be able to fulfill the same role with the Yankees in the not-so-distant future, provided they’re able to protect him.

Sorry. That was uncalled for and anger-inducing. Sorry.