One current Yankees top prospect who will become a future Silver Slugger winner

Outside of George Lombard Jr. and Dax Kilby, the top of the New York Yankees' prospect board is full of pitchers. As soon as you start venturing beyond the top 10, however, you run into some intriguing bats. One of them is 18-year-old outfield prospect Yostin Pena, who hasn't spent long in the organization but has already impressed with his natural power, exit velocity, speed, and even some swagger. Something ... tells us he won't sit outside of the top 10 for long, once the offseason updates start rolling through.

The Yankees were able to sign Pena in Dec. 2025 after the St. Louis Cardinals botched their deal for him. He's already been loosely compared to Aaron Judge (in a Spencer Jones-Shohei Ohtani kind of way, wink-wink), but despite that ridiculous comp, Pena's got some undeniable talent worth getting excited about.

Yostin Pena looks like a future Silver Slugger for the Yankees

In his first pro season this year, Pena hit .354/.431/.608 with 14 homers and 37 stolen bases in 61 games across Single-A and the Dominican Summer League. As a 6-foot-4, 205-pound teenager, Pena has the physical profile to be a serious power threat at the highest level. He's also an aggressive baserunner (with the 37 stolen bases to show for it), though he'll likely slow down a bit as his frame fills out in the coming years.

Scouts think Pena will end up playing right field (he has a plus arm), which immediately gets one thinking about Pena as a potential Judge "replacement" down the line for the Yankees. We're still four or five years away from that arriving, but why not explore the possibility in theory?

The best-case future for Pena offensively is that he turns into a 30-plus homer outfielder and decent base-stealing threat. It's easy to casually throw that forecast out there, and much harder for everything to go right for Pena in his development to get there. For example, his chase rate is a weakness. Then again, we've seen the Yankees live with Spencer Jones' strikeout tendency as Jones develops into a legit MLB contributor.

Jones and Lombard -- so far -- look like two homegrown success stories of the Yankees' farm. Could Pena be next in line to step into an everyday role when New York ultimately transitions into the post-Judge 2030s? It's a big-picture question that the Yankees will be keeping at the back of their mind over the next few years, but plenty of things can and will change between now and then.

Pena will need to prove that this season wasn't a fluke by continuing his production as he moves up through the minors. Some ups and downs are sure to follow, just as there were (and continue to be) for Lombard and Jones. But looking at Pena now, he's been blessed with many of the tools needed to develop into a perennial Silver Slugger candidate. Now begins the real work.

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