ESPN expert's surprising Yankees prospect rankings might redeem a controversial trade

The New York Yankees dedicated their entire 2024 draft (barely an exaggeration) to building up their pitching prospect capital. In the end, though, they might've nabbed their best pitching prospect of all in a sneaky trade rather than an early-round selection.

ESPN prospect expert Kiley McDaniel just dropped a June reset of his team-specific Top 30 Prospect lists to start the week, and delivered a dose of optimism to Yankees fans (despite their middling ranking overall).

While it's not all good news from McDaniel's midseason update - thanks a lot for, "This system really falls off after Lombard," Kiley - the way he aligned the Yankees' pitching prospects certainly felt like a redemptive moment.

Behind Lombard Jr. in the No. 1 slot (duh) and a resurgent Spencer Jones ranked second (hell yeah), McDaniel slotted in right-hander Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz third, better known as the Yankees' return in the foolhardy-on-the-surface-but-sneaky Carlos Narvaez trade.

The Yankees may have handed the Red Sox a sturdy defensive catcher on an offensive hot streak, but they also nabbed an electric righty who at least one expert believes is the highest-upside pitcher in their system.

ESPN's Kiley McDaniel ranks Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz as Yankees' top pitching prospect. Sorry, Red Sox!

If you'd like to read this pessimistically, you can dwell on Ben Hess, last year's first-rounder, getting outshone by some of his lesser-known pitching counterparts. But why do that?!

It's time to get the hype train rolling on Rodriguez-Cruz, if for no other reason than to match the victory lap that Bostonians are already taking on 1.5 months of Narvaez. Jason Varitek? Really?

Rodriguez-Cruz has used his wipeout slider to whiff 57 men in 48 innings, carrying a 3.38 ERA for High-A Hudson Valley. He's held left-handers to just 12 hits and a .140 average, whiffing 31 of them.

By end of year, he might just get a chance to strut his stuff at Double-A - especially if one of McDaniel's other predictions comes true and both Jones and Cam Schlittler move up to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre soon. Hell, he doesn't even rule out a big-league cameo in September for either of them.

In all, there was a lot more positivity here than frustration, even if the non-Lombard portion of the system isn't quite as impressive as the Possible Future Carlos Correa who tops it - oops, sorry. Got some of that Boston Hyperbole in us, too, we guess.