The Yankees' forgotten outfield option is catching fire at Triple-A

The New York Yankees, desperate for right-handed power this spring, seemed likely to take a chance on Everson Pereira as their temporary Giancarlo Stanton fill-in at DH to start the year. Pereira was still midway through Tommy John recovery and couldn't play the outfield, but could slug. He had MLB experience and opened the spring with aplomb. It seemed like a perfect fit ... until the Yankees instead decided they prized Ben Rice's defensive versatility, and the rest was history.

Probably the correct call. Rice has a 154 OPS+ with eight bombs, has reached the exploding red top percentiles on Baseball Savant in so many key hard-hit categories, and has been a folk hero at both first base and catcher for a Yankees team that needed all the inspiration it could get.

But still ... while you weren't looking ... Pereira has now returned to playing the outfield, and is doing it quite well. He's also hitting for power without skipping a beat, capping his recent surge with a walk-off home run at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday.

Against the odds, the Yankees have four outfielders worth playing right now (thanks, Trent Grisham) as well as a DH rotation that satisfies them (and Stanton's return reportedly closer on the horizon). But, if and when the need arises, Pereira seems to be streaking into consideration, too.

Yankees slugging prospect Everson Pereira looks ready for MLB return at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre

That walk-off blast was Pereira's seventh of the season in only 78 at-bats, paired nicely with a .295 average and .941 OPS. After starting the year at a deficit, he's now played parts of 11 games at his primary position of left field, also covering 18 innings in center and 26 in right. It only took Pereira 10 games to escape DH purgatory, and he mashed every step of the way.

Pereira, often overlooked (in part because of Jasson Dominguez's magnetism, in part because of his brutal cameo in a lost 2023), was a Top-100 prospect as recently as last season; he ranked 67th on Baseball America's preseason list. The door might not be wide open for Pereira's MLB return in the Bronx at this point in time, but the Yankees do not have the luxury of bailing on bats this strong. He holds more value to the Yanks than in a trade (for now), and could easily be next in line to carve out a big-league role.