Yankees: 3 first-rounders NYY should’ve chosen over Trey Sweeney

2. Chase Petty, RHP, Mainland Regional HS

Often these past few years, when the Yankees get petty (by trolling the Astros), it comes back to bite them.

We think things might’ve gone differently if they’d gotten this Petty: Chase Petty, another New Jersey high school standout who eventually was selected at No. 26 by the Minnesota Twins.

Petty was selected right where he was projected to be — The 27th prospect going 26th? What a novel concept! — and might be a reliever when he crashes the bigs, based on his 6-0 frame. However, the righty has many barriers to cross before he earns that designation. As of now, he’s a Florida-committed starting pitcher who has touched 100 multiple times this spring across his showcase appearances.

And, again … Jersey boy.

It’s clear the Yankees have become spooked in recent years by the potential disintegration of all pitching prospects, and have responded to a rash of pitching injuries by waiting ’til after the first round has ended — or by selecting someone like Clarke Schmidt, already past the first Tommy John. Based on the way things unfolded on Sunday night, it’s also clear the Yankees saw their pitching targets get sniped, and moved on Sweeney instead of settling for alternates. Gunner Hoaglund, often mocked to the Yanks, went one pick prior during his TJ recovery, and Andrew Painter (another common target) went to the Phillies well before New York’s pick arrived.

This is a philosophy pick; New York liked Sweeney’s underlying numbers more than they liked any of the pitchers remaining on the board. We’ve just seen them select too many underwhelming bats and miss on too many ace types (where were they on Walker Buehler in 2015?) to still drop the benefit of the doubt on them. We like Petty.