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Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the New York Yankees. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. This is the fifth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb.
A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.
All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Pitchers With Good Breaking BallsCade Smith, RHPGage Ziehl, RHPAlex Mauricio, RHPCole Ayers, RHPKevin Stevens, RHPOmar Gonzalez, RHP
Smith was New York’s 2023 sixth rounder out of Mississippi State. The former SEC righty pitched well at Low-A (frankly, an assignment beneath his skill level and experience) in 2024 thanks largely to his two plus breaking balls. His fastball sits 93 mph and touches 96, and Smith’s command is rather reliever-y. New York’s 2024 fourth rounder out of Miami, Ziehl is a stocky 6-foot righty with a great mid-80s slider whose 93 mph fastball plays down due to its angle and Ziehl’s fringe command. Mauricio is a 28-year-old reliever out of Norfolk State who has had upper-level success thanks to a good cutter and slider. His fastball is a little light for him to be obviously rosterable. Ayers is a 25-year-old righty whose plus overhand curveball has allowed him to pitch well in relief up through High-A and briefly reach Somerset. Stevens is a 27-year-old undrafted free agent out of UT Rio Grande Valley whose plus slider and vertical fastball drive a fair relief look. He K’d more than a batter per inning at Somerset last year until he hit the IL in August. Gonzalez, 19, is a 6-foot-4 Panamanian righty with a due north arm slot that generates a 91-ish mph fastball and really great action on his secondary stuff. He has struggled with walks in each of his three seasons.
Youngsters With Physical ProjectionDavid Carrera, OFCarlos Villarroel, C/1BRonald Tejada, LHPBrowm Martinez, OF
Carrera, 18, is a 6-foot-3 Venezuelan outfielder with plus physical projection. He produced roughly average contact rates in the DSL and is still growing into his body. He’s a prospect to file away as we collectively wait for him to get stronger. Villarroel is a 17-year-old Venezuelan catcher and first baseman who played first twice as often as he caught during his pro debut. He has a very noisy and elaborate swing, but he still managed to perform pretty well from a contact standpoint. Tejada is a rail thin 6-foot-3 Dominican lefty with a mid-to-upper-80s fastball and a very promising curveball. He’s still at the stage where his jersey is wearing him and is someone to monitor for more strength and velocity. Martinez, an 18-year-old Dominican outfielder, is similar to Carrera except less overtly projectable, as he’s closer to an even six feet tall.
Developmental DSL ArmsOscar Vasquez, RHPMauricio Vargas, RHPVaris Villarreal, RHP
Vasquez signed in the middle of 2024 and turned 20 in December. He’s a long-levered righty whose 92-93 mph fastball has plus life, while his upper-70s curveball flashes bat-missing depth. He’s a player to monitor for an early 2025 velo boost after he’s had more than just a few months in the org and an offseason of strength training. A soon-to-be-18-year-old Colombian righty, Vargas is a smaller prospect whose stuff has explosive movement that he hasn’t harnessed yet. His fastball only sits in the low 90s, but it has huge life, and his curveball averaged 3,000 rpm in his few 2024 innings. He’s a deep developmental sleeper. Villarreal is a 19-year-old Panamanian righty with a deceptive vertical arm slot that’s approaching Josh Collmenter territory. He has the screwball style changeup that many pitchers with this arm slot do. How much velo he can add to his upper-80s fastball as his frame matures will dictate Villarreal’s ceiling.
Skilled Litte GuysIsael Arias, CFEnmanuel Tejeda, INFJackson Castillo, OFGabriel Terrero, 2BLuis Escudero, 2B
Arias is a damn good little baseball player, a 5-foot-9, 19-year-old center fielder from Mexico who has good feel for defense and rotates with verve. He’s advanced enough that he might be on the Tampa complex this year. Tejeda is a fun-to-watch little 20-year-old infielder who has been productive at the lower levels when healthy. It takes a ton of effort for him to swing hard, and I’m not sure his above-average contact ability is going to hold as he climbs. A junior college draftee out of Southern Nevada, Castillo is a compact lefty-hitting outfielder who has the offensive skills (50 hit, 40 power) to be a part-time piece if he develops in center field, where he’s currently quite raw. Terrero and Escudero are skilled, undersized, switch-hitting infielders who have produced good low-level slash lines, but at a maxed out 5-foot-8 or so, each lacks the overt physicality of the typical big leaguer.
Power Bats K’ing a LotGarrett Martin, OFBrian Sanchez, OF
Martin, 24, spent time at three different schools — McClennan JC, Oklahoma State, and Austin Peay — and signed as an undrafted free agent in 2023. He’s a power-over-hit outfield prospect who clubbed 17 bombs in 2024 between A-ball and the AFL. Sanchez, 20, is a powerful Venezuelan outfielder who had a .908 OPS in the FCL last year. He has general stiffness and bat path issues that create a ton of hit tool risk.
Young CatchersJosue Gonzalez, CEngelth Urena, C/1BQueni Pineda, C
Gonzalez, 21, is a 5-foot-9 catcher who has a great low-level bat-to-ball track record and is an explosive in-the-box rotator. His size and persistent issues with his exchange make his future as a defender less certain. Urena is a physically mature (probable) first baseman with present power, but he has crude enough feel for contact that I didn’t feel comfortable ranking him despite his huge slash line. A physically mature 17-year-old Dominican catcher, Pineda put up big DSL numbers in 2024 — .254/.434/.438 — in part because he’s a very, very patient hitter, which means you can run a 23.7% walk rate in the DSL. He’s an advanced receiver with an accurate arm.
Depth Starter CeilingsKyle Carr, LHPTrystan Vrieling, RHPZach Messinger, RHPBailey Dees, RHP
Carr was an athletic small school lefty with a vertical fastball/breaking ball combo when he was taken in the third round in 2023. His stuff backed up a bit in 2024 as he made 24 starts and he sat more 88-92. Carr has a really quick arm and a deceptive north/south slot, but he needs to find greater release consistency. Vrieling is a 6-foot-4 righty out of Gonzaga who had a solid 2024 at Somerset, where he worked 147.1 innings and had a FIP just below 4.00. He’s a command-oriented depth type who sits 93-94 and has fringe secondary stuff. Messinger, a 6-foot-6 25-year-old out of Virginia, worked an efficient 150 innings at Somerset in 2024. He sits 92 and has an average slider and changeup. Dees’ stuff isn’t nuts; he sits 92-93 and has a 45-grade slider, but the former Penn Stater has a plus changeup that’s enabled him to pitch well through the mid-minors and reach Double-A.
Chance Nolan, RHPChance Nolan, RHP
Nolan was a college quarterback at Middle Tennessee, Saddleback College, Oregon State for two years, and finally TCU, where he never played a snap. He trained at Driveline Baseball and was sitting 95-97 mph at their pro day earlier this month. Nolan is a good athlete who is crude in every other facet of pitching but the arm strength part.
Inactive Names to File AwayBrendan Beck, RHPJordarlin Mendoza, RHPAngel Benitez, RHP
Beck, a pitchability righty from Stanford who I had previously evaluated as a spot starter, had elbow surgery in March. Mendoza, a 21-year-old Dominican righty with a mid-90s fastball and plus slider, had TJ in late June. He’s been very wild and is likely a reliever. So too is the 6-foot-7 Benitez. The 21-year-old had no 2024 IL designation, but he threw 10 innings in May and then was shut down. He has a mid-90s fastball and a good changeup.
System Overview
The Yankees farm system is chock full of enormous athletes, especially pitchers. There are nine players who are 6-feet-5 or taller on the main section of this list, and a couple more in the Honorable Mentions. Players of considerable size seem to be New York’s flavor, especially in the international market, where there often aren’t as many huge players, though the ones who pop up tend to become Yankees.
Another international trend here: volatile contact ability. Some of New York’s multi-million dollar bonus guys have come to pro ball with unpolished hit tools, and each has pretty quickly been an “arrow down” prospect as a result. (It’s more noticeable when that player got a bonus of $4 million or more.) Even though the Yankees frequently spend really big on at least one international player every year, they still generally fill out two DSL rosters with interesting guys signed for lesser amounts, which often isn’t the case with other clubs that tend to have top-heavy classes.
In the draft, the Yankees take opportunistic gambles on young hitters but overwhelmingly gravitate toward college pitchers, many of whom the team’s dev staff helps to make better. Whether their picks lack present stuff (think Brendan Beck), didn’t have great college performance (last year’s top two picks, Ben Hess and Bryce Cunningham, had bloated ERAs), or were relievers (Will Warren), it’s clear the Yankees are drafting with preconceived notions as to how these guys will be developed, and a lot of the time it works. This system has above-average depth thanks largely to the org’s ability to do this. Keep in mind that the Yankees have also traded a lot of prospects during the last couple of deadlines. There are about 15 players who were originally Yankees and are now list-worthy prospects in other orgs. That’s a whole ‘nother third of a system.
Despite their above-average depth, the Yankees only have two Top 100 prospects, so the overall quality of their farm is closer to average, and it will probably look below average six months from now when several of the top players graduate. Jasson Domínguez and Warren are virtual locks to walk into the prospect cornfield this season, and if Hampton is healthy, the same is probably true for him. Potential impact relievers Clayton Beeter and Eric Reyzelman (don’t sleep on Reyzelman, folks, he developed two plus pitches from scratch in a matter of months), as well as sleeper Opening Day backup catcher candidate J.C. Escarra, are also earmarked for graduation. Some of the hitters who fell short of expectations last year will need to rebound for the Pinstripes to have as robust of a list next cycle.
