2 Yankees top pitching prospects reveal surprise Tommy John surgeries

OK, it’s a random Tuesday in the middle of a lockout February, so which Yankees top pitching prospect wants to reveal his top secret Tommy John surgery diagnosis first? You go? Or should I go? Sh-you want to go? Or should we both just say it together?!

The best kind of surprise!

Yankee fans have watched their farm system get overhauled with top talent in recent years, but most of the team’s successful high draft picks have been offensive players like Trey Sweeney and Anthony Volpe. On the flip side, their pitching successes have come from the later rounds (Ken Waldichuk, Hayden Wesneski) or international markets.

Much like wide receivers under Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots regime, the Yankees can’t seem to nail pitching in the early rounds, and a few promising pitchers in recent years have simply … disappeared.

What happened to left-hander TJ Sikkema, a 2019 comp pick, who disappeared during the 2020 pandemic while battling a shoulder issue of some sort? Who knows!

And where did 2021 second-rounder Brendan Beck out of Stanford go? Wasn’t he supposed to be a polished, poised, fast-rising right-hander? Why didn’t he pitch in the pros in ’21?

Well, turns out … secret Tommy John, announced “per source” on Tuesday.

Yankees top prospect Brendan Beck had Tommy John surgery in 2021

The last time we saw the 23-year-old Beck, he was posting 108.2 for the Stanford Cardinal, maintaining a 3.15 ERA and whiffing 143. Considered advanced before the surgical setback, it’s also a positive to hear he’s already recovering according to plan.

It’s unlikely, though, that we’ll see Beck for large portions of 2022, if not the entire campaign. That means he’ll be 24 and making his pro ball debut in 2023. Not great for MLB Pipeline’s 14th-ranked Yankees prospect!

And hey, speaking of high-ranked prospects, what about Yoendrys Gomez, the top-10 Yankees prospect whom most of us have … well, never really seen in action?

Boom. Secret TJ. Last summer. At some point. Welcome to the club!

Gomez, the Bombers’ 10th-ranked prospect (per Pipeline), reportedly added a slider in 2021, which sounds like the Nets trading for James Harden: nice in theory, nonexistent in practice.

The 22-year-old struck out 29 in 23.2 innings in 2021 at Low-A Tampa, posting a 3.42 ERA before disappearing to have a surgical procedure the organization did not confess to.

The good-ish news? Both Beck and Gomez are on the mend, a half-year removed from the procedure.

The bad news? Come on, secret surgeries! For two pitchers with high hopes attached to them! Should not have had to spell that one out for you.

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