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Yankees' 2024 lefty draft pick just hurled most dominant prospect start of the year

ByAdam Weinrib|
May 25, 2024; Hoover, AL, USA; LSU Tigers pitcher Griffin Herring pitches in the tenth inning against the South Carolina Gamecocks (35) during the SEC Baseball Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images
May 25, 2024; Hoover, AL, USA; LSU Tigers pitcher Griffin Herring pitches in the tenth inning against the South Carolina Gamecocks (35) during the SEC Baseball Tournament at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images | Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images

It's been exceedingly difficult for any Yankees draft picks to challenge first-rounder Ben Hess for supremacy this season, but sixth-round pick Griffin Herring's start certainly fit the bill this week.

Hess has flashed dominance from time to time this season, but his first professional campaign has had unpolished peaks and valleys. His pro debut threatened to reconstruct his ceiling, but some of Hess' collegiate warts have also surfaced from time to time, with 20 walks in 35 2/3 frames at High-A.

Herring? He's rarely skipped a beat, proving time and again that he's far too advanced for Low-A Tampa, but is stuck behind a Yankees logjam thanks to some impressive drafting and offseason acquiring (Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, we see you).

His most recent outing was his nastiest by far, and will be tough to beat when all's said and done in September. Herring faced the Blue Jays' top-rated offense — No. 1 in the Florida State League — and hurled six no-hit innings with 10 strikeouts to boot. The outing lowered his ERA to a near-spotless 1.21 in eight starts, complete with 58 Ks in 44 2/3 innings and an 0.90 WHIP. Nobody gets on base. Nobody hits. Herring prospers.

Yankees left-handed pitcher Griffin Herring dominated for Single-A Tampa Tarpons

It's certainly time for Herring to get a look at High-A, and while the Yankees' decision on a corresponding move won't be easy, they've got to examine the clog and resolve it.

So far, so very good for the Yankees' overloaded crop of pitching draftees from last summer. The Yankees clearly hoped their pitching development pipeline could turn at least a few of the many hurlers they selected into either viable trade chips or certified future cogs. Eight of the Yankees' first nine selections were moundsmen last summer, and Herring, Hess, and second-rounder Bryce Cunningham have shined the most clearly. Cunnigham's Vanderbilt teammate Greysen Carter and Miami's Gage Ziehl have struggled, and fellow LSU hurler Thatcher Hurd will miss the season after Tommy John surgery.

The strategy has paid more than enough dividends already to seem viable, though, and Herring might soon become Hudson Valley's latest fruit of last season's labor.

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