Welcome to another edition of the 2024 weekly minor league roundup, where I review each Yankees affiliate from the week before and the prospects playing there. We’ve got some exciting developments to break down on the farm..
. and some less interesting ones as well. Let’s dig in! Record : 25-19 (2nd half), 5 GB in the International League East after going 4-2 against the Buffalo Bisons (Blue Jays) Run differential : +35 Coming up: Away for six games against the St.
Paul Saints (Twins) starting Tuesday, August 20th Despite the winning week, the RailRiders had middling outputs from its pitching staff (3.83 ERA, 10th in the International League) and lineup (26 runs, also 10th in the IL). Aside from a blowout win and loss respectively, this was a closely contested series against a last-place Bisons team with an especially porous pitching staff.
Jasson Domínguez seemed to get the memo, as the outfielder mashed with a 412/.524/.588 slash line through five games before receiving the call-up to Williamsport.
I was never concerned about Jasson after his return from an oblique/rib injury, as it seemed to be a timing issue rather than a mechanical one. As his slash line suggests, he’s back in rhythm. Make Jasson Dominguez the left fielder already pic.
twitter.com/mo6LS7FR0M Caleb Durbin is impacting Scranton’s lineup in a world without Ben Rice and Agustin Ramirez to help carry the load. When healthy, the infielder has been consistently outstanding, making contact and producing lethal gap power.
His speed and gap power profile showed up last week, as he slashed .350/.480/.
550 including a homer. Durbin needs to be the next infielder selected to the major league roster. He is certified #good at baseball and is one of the best super-utility prospects in the minors.
Caleb Durbin hits his fifth HR of the season; a well-timed one potentially given the news with Jazz Chisholm. He entered tonight's game with a 136 wRC+ in Triple-A and a sub-10% strikeout rate. pic.
twitter.com/WsvokbvIQL Another week, another amazing outing for Thomas Pannone. He isn’t a prospect, but he’s a southpaw who’s making a case to crack the Yankees ’ bullpen in September.
If you need to visualize the shape of his production, imagine if Lucas Luetge threw a couple ticks softer. His curve is beautiful and when properly utilized, I believe he could be a very good LOOGY. Here’s an older video of Pannone’s curve, which is comfortably a plus offering: Thomas Pannone, Nasty 71mph Curveball.
pic.twitter.com/WdpriXQOyo Aside from Pannone, Edgar Barclay and Yoendrys Gómez had solid albeit unspectacular outings on the week.
While Scranton has been a quality team all year, they are unlikely to advance to the playoffs. Even if they were to clinch a spot, I think there’s an evident talent gap between them and other teams like Columbus (Guardians) and Omaha (Royals). Record : 25-18 (second half), 4.
5 GB in the Eastern League Northeast after going 4-1 against the Hartford Yard Goats (Rockies) Run differential : +32 Coming up: Away for six games against the Portland Sea Dogs ( Red Sox ) starting Tuesday, August 20th The Patriots took care of business against a squad they had to usurp in the standings, executing a nearly perfect series against their Rockies counterparts. While the weather sapped this series of one game, Somerset’s bats came to play. Their 27 runs scored placed them fifth in the Eastern League despite playing one fewer game than most clubs.
Rafy Flores led the charge with an absurd .412/.500/.
824 slash line, highlighting his above-average raw juice as he slugged two homers into the Hartford night. He’s striking out a lot, but everything else has carried over from Hudson Valley after a brief adjustment period. First career multi-homer game for Rafael Flores✅ Over his last 12 games, the #Yankees No.
30 prospect is batting .372/.426/.
907 with 6 HR, 10 RBI, and 9 R. pic.twitter.
com/TeWtRxogSW Aside from Flores, Grant Richardson and Anthony Seigler strong weeks. As per usual, Spencer Jones’ Jekyll and Hyde production continued, with the ugly side rearing its head against a middling Hartford pitching staff: he struck out nine times in five games. Woof.
While the pitching was mid, one pitcher performed especially well: my dawg, Trystan Vrieling. It’s been a weird year for the Gonzaga product in which he started white hot, cooled down, and then picked it up again, only to hit a months-long skid that saw his ERA balloon to nearly 6.00.
Vrieling’s ERA is just north of 5.00 now, and his recent string of good performances coincides with more fastball precision that flat-out disappeared in June and July. It’s important to remember that Vrieling didn’t pitch aside from a fall league cameo last year, so I believe there was typical mid-season fatigue.
In any event, he appears closer to the version that came out of Tampa seemingly on a mission. Here’s an older video from an outing in June: Record : 25-22 (second half), 1 game up in the South Atlantic League League North after going 3-3 against the Hickory Crawdads (Rangers) Run differential : +22 Coming up: Home for six games against the Wilmington Blue Rocks (Nationals) starting Tuesday, August 20th Despite splitting the series against Hickory, the Renegades surprisingly find themselves atop the SAL North division in the second half. I say surprisingly because I didn’t expect the offense to stay afloat following the departures of Rafael Flores and Jared Serna.
Alas, the Renegades scored 26 runs last week, good for third in the SAL. Jackson Castillo was *the* star of the week..
. until he landed on the injured list after a collision in the outfield. The undrafted signing from last year posted interesting Trackman data during his time in Low-A, and he carried over the success into Hudson Valley.
Through his first seven games with the club, Castillo batted a sensational .348/.400/.
783 including two homers in this series before going down. What a shame: he was turning into my personal cheeseball! GRAND SLAM ALERT JACKSON CASTILLO CLEARS THE BASES WITH ONE SWING-PURE POWER, PURE CLUTCH pic.twitter.
com/dJhR18g3WY Jackson Castillo leaves the game with a presumed head/neck injury. Slams into Anthony Hall here. pic.
twitter.com/GAe1ASrkcs Garrett Martin was the only hitter who did anything worth mentioning, though I don’t think he’s a legitimate prospect. Omar Martinez’s .
851 OPS for the week was buoyed by seven walks: his OBP was .536. George Lombard Jr.
’s transition has proved to be more difficult than I anticipated, as his inability to make contact in the zone continues to serve as his kryptonite. Frankly, several Hudson Valley hitters struggled with punchouts last week: namely GLJ, Martin, Roc Riggio, and Josh Moylan. I’ve seen enough: Kyle Carr is back.
I never allow myself to get too excited over one, two, heck even three good outings in a row, but this one’s different. Carr’s mechanics were so out of sync to begin the year that I’m led to believe he was battling an injury. I have no idea if that’s the case, but call it an educated guess.
Carr got into the habit of throwing crossbody towards the plate, which I found odd since his delivery had been so smooth coming out of the draft. Those are mechanics I’m now observing. Carr’s stuff has always been good, but that becomes a moot point when you can’t locate early in the count.
He is now, and his 10 innings of impeccable command last week beautifully illustrate the complete 180 he’s undergone. It wasn’t just Carr who shined in the rotation, though: both Josh Grosz and Trent Sellers put up zeros in their 5.1 and 4 innings of work, respectively.
Grosz’s topline numbers are better than his actual performances, though, as his command has been spotty and he’s not getting the same number of whiffs he got in Tampa. Through 14.2 innings in High-A, he has 5:13 K:BB ratio and a 3.
07 ERA. Sheesh! Record : 22-23 (second half), 2.5 GB in the Florida State League West after going 3-3 against the Clearwater Thrashers ( Phillies ) Run differential : -6 Coming up: Home for six games against the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (Twins) starting Tuesday, August 20th With the promotions of several key hitters, most eyes fall on new Tarpons pitchers, Henry Lalane and Carlos Lagrange.
Both got starts last week against Clearwater, with Lagrange looking the most impressive of the duo. As opposed to talking about Lagrange, though, we need to talk about Mr. Lalane.
His velocity is way down. There’s no sugarcoating this, but he looks like a shell of the player I evaluated last year. I have to imagine like Kyle Carr earlier in the year, he’s not 100%.
Lalane was sitting 93-95 last year and topping out at 97: he’s now sitting 90/91 and topping at 94 with dead zone characteristics that aren’t as devastating as other pitchers because of the sensational extension he generates from his 6-foot-7 frame. The secondaries still look good, but he isn’t close to his peak last year. That’s not to say I’m out on him - I’m still very much in - but something’s wrong.
For his part, Lagrange was excellent in his four-inning outing last week. The towering right-hander allowed just one run on two hits, striking out five and perhaps most importantly, not walking a single batter. He’s touching 100 with his fastball, but it has natural sink instead of rise, so it plays more like 96-97.
Still, that’s a heck of a fastball and this outing was a step in the right direction. If Lagrange shows his command is better, he will easily crack my top 10 in the offseason. Carlos Lagrange allowed just 2 baserunners in his 4 Innings of work today.
He registered a ridiculous 40 CSW% as he was able to land his 97mph 4-seam and 87mph cutter/slider for called strikes. Another impressive outing from the 6’7” 21 year old. pic.
twitter.com/QHrXPUwTsH Aside from Roderick Arias who succeeded exactly how you’d expect him to, the recent hitting draftees like Joe Delossantos, Tyler Wilson, and Brendan Jones are helping keep the Tarpons afloat (no pun intended) in the second half. Their 38 runs scored last week were the second most in the Florida State League.
That also puts into perspective how bad the pitching was last week (6.28 team ERA, worst in the league). That’s nothing new, as their season staff ERA is comfortably the worst in the FSL at 4.
79. Still, this team is way more competitive in the second half thanks to the additions of several college bats. Season over.
Check out my final remarks on the FCL Yanks from three weeks ago Records : DSL NYY Yankees: 17-37, 21.5 GB in the DSL South | DSL NYY Bombers: 29-25, 3.5 GB in the DSL East Run differentials : -70| +13 The two Dominican affiliates went a combined 2-11 last week.
Specifically, the Yankees lost their final 10 games of the season and have no more scheduled games. Their negative run differential nearly doubled to -70. It was all-around ugly, with nothing to write home about on the pitching or hitting fronts.
This might be the worst Dominican side the Yankees have put forth since I started scouting for public outlets five years ago. As for the Bombers, they’re far more competitive but are in a skid of their own, losing four consecutive contests as of this writing (Monday afternoon). Even so, the hitting continues to look light for the squad: it’s the pitching that’s carried them throughout the season, much of that pitching being a couple of years older than the rest of the league.
Take Franyer Herrera, for example, who’s 19 but spun a gem last week by going five innings and allowing one run and walk apiece while punching out eight. He is far too advanced for the DSL, and it’s tough for me to say that he’s a prospect we should be watching since this is his third rodeo in the Dominican circuit. Like, he should be dominating.
Mariano Salomon is an even more egregious example of this, as he’s 22 going up against 16 and 17-year-olds. I am as out on Francisco Vilorio as I have been on any top Yankees international signing since I started scouting. There are frighteningly bad swing decisions being made with poor vertical spray.
There are obvious physical gifts that are negligible if he can’t develop better plate discipline. A stalwart of this series, Queni Pineda continued his torching of the DSL last week by slashing .357/.
526/.714. It’s ironic how polar opposites Pineda and Vilorio are: Pineda isn’t athletic, but he boasts outstanding swing decisions and has a swing optimized for lift.
Carr’s 2024 season perfectly demonstrates how prospect development isn’t linear, but rather a rugged path from Point A to Point B. Carr is simply too athletically gifted to suddenly display poor mechanics with no reasonable explanation..
