3 recent draft picks Yankees got right and 2 they will regret

Yankees Draft Pick They Got Right: Drew Thorpe, 2022 second round

Every 2022 selection of a pro-ready pitcher was a good selection, in our humble opinion. While it's true that the Yankees print pitching more than they craft position players, they thinned out the upper tier of their starting corps significantly at the 2022 trade deadline, dealing from a position of power to, uh, make the roster worse, ultimately. What can you do?

At the time of his selection in the second round, Drew Thorpe was supposed to be an intriguing arm with a near-perfect changeup who the Yankees believed they could get above 90-91 MPH on the fastball. So far, so good! Just a few months into his tenure with the organization, he already sits closer to 93-95, and has maintained a well-placed swing-and-miss change (while fattening up his slider offering).

A disaster start on Sunday in Hudson Valley (3.2 innings, 6 ER, 5 Ks) has pushed his ERA up to 4.56 and his WHIP up to 1.48, but even in that brutal game, Thorpe displayed flashes of dominance with his well-commanded breaking stuff; he's whiffed 34 in 25.2 innings overall. There's a chance he eventually becomes a reliever if he struggles to maintain his velocity increase deep in games, but this was still a good value pick, and netted the Yankees their current No. 7 prospect.