Latest international prospect rankings will thrill Yankees fans (with 1 brutal twist)

Ahead of the (long awaited) formalizing of several rumored international free agency contracts this offseason, MLB Pipeline officially released their talent rankings this week. And yes, Yankees fans, to answer your immediate question ... one of our guys made it. Pretty high, actually.

Wandy Asigen is the prize of the Yankees' upcoming class, and MLB's prospect experts have deemed him to be one of the key prizes of the class in general; he ranked No. 2 overall on the list, behind only Luis Hernandez, the Venezuelan shortstop who has been promised to the San Francisco Giants.

Asigen is nothing to be trifled with. He's reportedly ripped 110+ MPH exit velocities — at the age of 16, before really kicking his fitness up a notch — and has blazing speed, allowing him to smoothly cover the hole at shortstop. But despite all the excitement he brings, there was a world where the Yankees took two cracks at it instead, importing a pair of MLB's top-10 prospects (both currently shortstops, but you know that always changes).

No. 9 on the list looked like theirs as well, until the league stepped in.

Yankees signing MLB Pipeline's No. 2 ranked international prospect Wandy Asigen, but their class could've been even better

The Yankees snagging the No. 2 overall player in the class, according to these experts, is admittedly gigantic. It's a move that fits with their recent guiding light of putting all of their international eggs in one basket, and while names like Brando Mayea and Roderick Arias haven't justified their faith, all it takes is one addition to change the narrative. Given their draft position and MLB's desire to funnel money away from their front office and share it, this is probably the only way they'll ever be able to lure a true top-end name (without an unforeseen development spike, like what happened with cheaper addition Carlos Lagrange). It's worth the risk.

That said ... yeah, things could've looked even brighter if the Yankees somehow could've snagged two top-10 prospects in the same international class. And they would've, if MLB hadn't pilfered $1 million of their international budget for the grievous offense of ... signing Max Fried. The Yankees had a reported verbal agreement with MLB's No. 9 prospect, fellow shortstop Jeyson Horton, who will instead go to the Angels after the Yankees lost his assigned money to bring in Fried, their No. 1 starter in a Cole-less year. A worthwhile trade, but it still stinks. If they'd signed another upper-crust free agent, like Christian Walker, they likely wouldn't have had enough money to keep Asigen, either. Phew! Crisis averted.

Attempting to shrug off how annoying it is that MLB watched the Yankees in crisis after losing Juan Soto, then said, "Sure, you can try to get better and put together a Plan B ... but it's going to cost you," Asigen is a legitimately huge get who should be celebrated. Hopefully, his innate ability carries him into the low minors with momentum, and we can forget all about the Horton mess on the west coast (and how this happened several years ago with Samuel Basallo, too). The Angels could use a development win anyway. Right? ...Right?