Yankees’ Luis Medina carving up Dominican Winter League is awesome

In case you were worried about the New York Yankees mistreating another top pitching prospect, these Luis Medina Dominican Winter League highlights from his Wednesday night debut should rock you to sleep at night.

OK, fine, we’re still worried about it. But for now, everything’s copacetic.

Coming off a season where he finally harnessed his high-90s fastball and 12-to-6 curveball for strikes, finishing off a 6-4 mark with a 3.39 ERA and 133 strikeouts in 106.1 innings pitched across two levels, Medina decided that a Futures Game berth in Colorado wasn’t quite enough reward for him.

No, he still had more “compete” left after a pivotal season that put him firmly in the Yankees’ (trade?) plans: he wanted to go play for the Toros del Este alongside familiar face Miguel Andújar, and he wanted to face top-flight MLB talent in an intense environment.

It’s safe to say that Wednesday’s game went according to plan.

Medina blitzed through two scoreless innings, hitting 100 on the gun in grand style.

Yankees top prospect Luis Medina plowed through the Dominican Winter League.

Medina’s problem was always composure and command, not stuff. It’s not shocking he’s maintained this ridiculous velocity and brought it to shorter showings down south, but it’s extremely impressive that the 22-year-old leveled up all aspects of his game this season, just in time to rocket up the prospect charts.

Now, is he a starter or is he a reliever? Next question. We’re not on that now. We’re just impressed.

Medina’s debut with the Toros mirrors the end of his 2020 campaign, which put him back on the prospect map after a lost year stateside. Last season, he took his talents to the Puerto Rican Winter League, where he pummeled the competition for Indios de Mayaguez. Through four starts that season, he whiffed 32 men, leading the entire league.

Though he didn’t provide the length Wednesday night, he still brought the same fire.

Medina is firmly on Yankee fans’ radar these days, due in large part to the impressive amount of shining he’s done every time he’s been given the spotlight.

From the midsummer classic to a mid-winter firestarter while the rest of baseball’s sitting silently, Medina always knows how to seize the moment and sizzle. Hopefully, his encore is at the MLB level in the Bronx this season.

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