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DotF: Estrada returns to game action in Arizona Fall League

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It’s been more than a month since our last minor league update, and now that the Arizona Fall League season is underway and the various Caribbean winter leagues are starting to get going, it’s time for a check-in. Here are some notes to get us started.

  • OF Clint Frazier (post-concussion migraines) is back home in Georgia and resting, Brian Cashman told Brendan Kuty. Well, Clint was in New York this week, but point is he’s doing better. Cashman said Frazier will be recovered in time for the start of Spring Training.
  • MLB.com posted their end-of-season top 100 prospects list. Blue Jays 3B Vlad Guerrero Jr. sits in the top spot. Four Yankees made the list: LHP Justus Sheffield (No. 31), OF Estevan Florial (No. 45), RHP Jonathan Loaisiga (No. 66), and RHP Albert Abreu (No. 85). Glad Johnny Lasagna’s getting some top 100 love.
  • Jonathan Mayo put together a list of 20 pitching prospects who improved their stock in 2018 and three are Yankees: Sheffield, Loaisiga, and RHP Garrett Whitlock. “(Whitlock) finished third in the Minors with his 1.86 ERA and had a combined .214 BAA and 9.1 K/9 while touching Double-A,” says the write-up.
  • The MLB.com crew listed one AzFL sleeper prospect for each team. RHP Matt Wivinis is the pick for the Yankees. “He works with a pair of high-spin breaking balls he’ll throw in any count, and his curveball and slider help his low-90s fastball play up,” says the write-up.
  • Rob Terranova has more on Wivinis, if you’re interested in learning about the former independent leaguer. The 25-year-old managed a 2.41 ERA (2.81 FIP) with 34.5% strikeouts and 6.7% walks in 56 relief innings at three levels this past season.

Arizona Fall League

  • IF Thairo Estrada: 6 G, 4-for-25, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 CS (.160/.192/.160) — hip and back trouble ended his regular season on May 7th … he’s healthy enough to play now though, so that’s good
  • OF Estevan Florial: 6 G, 1-for-22, 2 R, 1 RBI, 3 BB, 10 K (.045/.160/.045) — ouch, rough AzFL so far
  • 1B Steven Sensley: 7 G, 5-for-25, 1 R, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 7 K (.200/.259/.280) — he’s played four games at first base and three at DH … he started only one of his final 34 regular season games in the outfield, so I guess he’s a full-time first baseman now … either way, he was always going to be a bat first prospect, but the outfield is always preferable to first base
  • RHP Jordan Foley: 2 G, 2 GS, 4.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, 1 WP (6.23 ERA and 1.85 WHIP) — I wouldn’t read anything into him starting … the Yankees didn’t send a starter to the AzFL this year (RHP Domingo Acevedo was pulled due to injury) and someone needs to fill the team’s designated rotation spot, and Foley it is … he’s clearly a reliever long-term though
  • RHP Hobie Harris: 2 G, 3.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 2 WP (5.40 ERA and 1.80 WHIP)
  • RHP Matt Wivinis: 3 G, 3.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 3 K (2.70 ERA and 2.40 WHIP)
  • RHP Kyle Zurak: 2 G, 1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 1 WP (54.00 ERA and 8.00 WHIP) — last year’s eighth rounder was added to the AzFL roster late as an injury replacement for Acevedo, who was placed on the disabled list during the Double-A postseason with a biceps problem

[Read more…]

Saturday Links: Severino, Corbin, Kikuchi, Stanton

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(Getty)

This is one of my least favorite times of the year. The Yankees have been eliminated but other teams are still playing baseball. Sucks. Anyway, here are some notes to check out.

Yankees believe Severino was tipping pitches

According to Jon Heyman, several people with the Yankees believe Luis Severino was tipping his pitches in Game Three of the ALDS earlier this week. “The Red Sox had his pitches,” said one Yankees official. Heyman adds the Yankees heard “chatter” from Red Sox people about Severino tipping his pitches, presumably after the series. Ben Harris (subs. req’d) found evidence of the pitch-tipping. With a runner on second, Severino would pause to look at third base when throwing a fastball, even when there was no runner at third base to check. Huh.

There has been on-and-off speculation about Severino tipping his pitches for weeks now. Basically the entire second half. I usually shrug at this stuff because it seems every time a good pitcher struggles, the first explanation is “he must be tipping his pitches.” It’s possible Severino was tipping! I mean, Harris found evidence of it. That said, tipping pitches doesn’t explain the decline in velocity, the crummy command, and the sudden lack of bite on his slider. Tipping pitches would be the best possible outcome here. That is an easy fix, theoretically. It seems to me something else was going on though.

Yankees expected to pursue Corbin

We can file this under no duh: The Yankees are expected to pursue free agent lefty Patrick Corbin this offseason, reports Heyman. They’ve been after him for a while — the Yankees tried to get him at the Winter Meetings last year — and Corbin is a native (upstate) New Yorker who has been pretty open about wanting to play for the Yankees. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard the Yankees like Corbin and it won’t be the last.

Corbin, 29, just wrapped up his best season in the big leagues. He threw 200 innings on the nose with a 3.15 ERA (2.47 FIP) and excellent strikeout (30.8%), walk (6.0%), and ground ball (48.5%) rates. His home run rate dropped from 1.30 HR/9 (16.6 HR/FB%) from 2016-17 to 0.68 HR/9 (11.1 HR/FB%) in 2019. Also, weirdly enough, Corbin was second in MLB in hard contact allowed. That’s generally a bad thing. We’re going to look at Corbin more in-depth at some point for sure. I think 2018 was likely his career year. I also think that he’s very good, that he’s the best starting pitcher on the free agent market, and that he would unquestionably make the Yankees better.

Kikuchi will be posted


The Seibu Lions in Japan will indeed post southpaw Yusei Kikuchi this offseason, report Sankei Sports and Sports Hochi. Kikuchi has not been posted yet. He can’t be posted until after the World Series. Technically, he can only be posted between November 1st and December 5th. Once he’s posted, he gets a 30-day window to negotiate with any and all MLB teams, and the signing team pays Seibu a release fee. Here’s the new release fee system:

  • Contract worth $25M or less: 20% of total guarantee
  • Contract worth $25M and $50M: $5M plus 17.5% of amount over $25M
  • Contract worth $50M: $9.375M plus 15% of amount over $50M

The Yankees have reportedly been scouting Kikuchi. The 27-year-old threw 163.2 innings with a 3.08 ERA and a 23.4% strikeout rate this past season, and that’s in a league with an 18.9% average strikeout rate. (The MLB strikeout rate was 22.3% in 2018.) Kikuchi has a history of arm problems and he’s not considered a potential ace on par with Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka, and Shohei Ohtani when they were posted. He is quite good though, and he is only 27, and the Yankees need starters. The Kikuchi situation will be something to watch this offseason.

Stanton among finalists for Hank Aaron Award

Earlier this month MLB announced each team’s finalist for the 2018 Hank Aaron Award, which is given annually the top hitter in each league. Giancarlo Stanton is the Yankees’ finalist. Here are all 30 finalists. The winner will be announced during the World Series and is selected through a combination of fan and media voting. (The fan voting closed already. Sorry I didn’t pass along the link sooner.)

The Hank Aaron Award was introduced in 1999 and so far only two Yankees have won it: Derek Jeter (2006, 2009) and Alex Rodriguez (2007). Would’ve have guessed Jeter won it twice and A-Rod once, but here we are. Stanton won the Hank Aaron Award in 2014 and 2017 with the Marlins. The Hank Aaron Award tends to favor old school stats like hits and runs and batted in. My guess is J.D. Martinez or Mike Trout will win it in the American League.

2019 Draft: Yankees hold the 30th overall pick

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(Getty)

At 100-62, the Yankees finished the 2018 regular season with their best record since going 103-59 en route to the World Series championship in 2009. They also finished with the third best record in MLB behind the Red Sox (108-54) and Astros (103-59), and ahead of the Athletics (97-65).

As a result, the Yankees will hold the 30th overall pick in the 2019 amateur draft next June. They should have the 28th overall pick, but the Braves (9th overall) and Diamondbacks (26th overall) both have compensation picks for their unsigned 2018 first rounders. That pushes everyone back a bit. Sucks, but what can you do?

The Yankees have not picked this low (or high, depending how you view it) with their first selection since 2012, when they took Ty Hensley with the 30th overall pick. Hopefully the 2019 pick goes better than the 2012 one did. For what it’s worth, the 30th overall pick came with a $2,275,800 slot value last year. That’ll go up a bit next year, as always.

The current Collective Bargaining Agreement changed the free agent compensation rules quite a bit. All first round picks are protected now. The Yankees can’t give up that 30th overall pick in next year’s draft no matter what. They’re locked into that pick. The free agent compensation rules are tied to revenue sharing and the luxury tax now. The rules:

  • Signing team receives revenue sharing money: Forfeits their third highest draft pick.
  • Signing team paid luxury tax during most recent season: Forfeits second and fifth highest draft picks, plus $1M in international bonus money.
  • All other teams: Forfeit second highest draft pick plus $500,000 in international bonus money.

Because the Yankees stayed under the $197M luxury tax threshold this year, they fall into the “all other teams” category. They’ll give up their second round pick and $500,000 in international bonus pool money during the 2019-20 signing period. They get to keep their fifth rounder and an extra $500,000 in bonus money by getting under the threshold should they sign a qualified free agent (i.e. Bryce Harper).

It’s still too early to know the quality of the 2019 draft class — for what it’s worth, Keith Law recently said he’s heard the “class is very down” and the “college crop is especially poor” — but, if you’re interested, here are the FanGraphs draft prospect rankings and MLB.com’s super early mock draft. Southern California kids are the best place to start when it comes to potential Yankees targets.

Sunday Links: Kikuchi, Acevedo, AzFL, King, Judge

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Kikuchi. (Kyodo News)

The Yankees and Red Sox close out their 2018 regular seasons with their three-game series finale later today. Every game across the league starts at 3pm ET today. There are some great postseason races in the National League. American League? Not so much. I’m looking forward to one last stress-free game. Here are some notes to check out prior to today’s season finale.

Yankees scouting Kikuchi

According to Jim Allen, the Yankees were among the teams with a scout(s) on hand to watch Japanese left-hander Yusei Kikuchi during his most recent start. Kikuchi, 27, has a 3.08 ERA with 153 strikeouts in 163.2 innings for the Seibu Lions this season. He’s been among the best pitchers in Japan the last few years. The Lions are expected to post Kikuchi for MLB teams this offseason.

I wrote about Kikuchi and the Yankees back in April. His stuff is legit. He has a qualify fastball and a wide array of secondary pitches. The biggest concern with Kikuchi is a history of arm problems. That doesn’t automatically disqualify him as a possible offseason target. It’s just something that has to be considered. The Yankees have two starters in place for next season (Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka) and I’d bet the farm on CC Sabathia returning. Kikuchi could be a candidate to fill one of the other two rotation spots.

Acevedo removed from AzFL roster

Right-hander Domingo Acevedo has been removed from the Glendale Desert Dogs roster and will not pitch in the Arizona Fall League this year, the league announced. No reason was given but I assume it is injury related. Acevedo was placed on the disabled list with a biceps injury — his second biceps injury of 2018 — at the very end of the minor league season. Injuries limited him to 69.1 innings this season.

The Yankees had an open AzFL roster spot to fill — I have no idea whether that spot is a pitcher spot or position player spot — and now they have to fill Acevedo’s spot as well. I wonder if this opens the door for Jonathan Loaisiga to go to the AzFL to make up for the innings he lost to shoulder inflammation earlier this season. Loaisiga has thrown only 78.2 innings this year and he’s been sitting in the bullpen as a September call-up these last few weeks. The Yankees might not want to throw him to the wolves in the historically hitter friendly AzFL without being properly stretched out.

King among top Eastern League prospects

Baseball America (subs. req’d) continued their look at the top 20 prospects in each minor league earlier this week with the Double-A Eastern League. Blue Jays third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. predictably claims the top spot. He is the top prospect in baseball. Righty Mike King is the only Yankees prospect on the list. He ranks 18th. Here’s a snippet of the scouting report:

He’s lauded internally for the extraordinary amount of work he puts into every start, which has helped him game plan opposing hitters all year long … He starts by commanding a pair of average 89-93 mph fastballs to both sides of the plate and backs it up with a slider and changeup that can generate swings and misses … Because he’s jumped so quickly this year, scouts are understandably hesitant about his future role, with most seeing him as a possible No. 5 starter.

In the chat (subs. req’d), Josh Norris notes righty Erik Swanson showed well this year, though he didn’t throw enough innings with Double-A Trenton to qualify for the Eastern League top 20 list. “(Swanson) saw particular results because of the way his fastball carried through the zone. He also got better at commanding his entire arsenal and made progress with his changeup,” says the write-up. King is not yet Rule 5 Draft eligible. I’m curious to see whether Swanson gets added to the 40-man roster.

Judge has MLB’s highest selling jersey (again)

For the second straight season, Aaron Judge has the highest selling jersey in baseball. MLB and the MLBPA jointly announced their annual most popular player jerseys list earlier this week — that is based on sales at MLB.com’s online shop — and it is dominated by young players. Here’s the press release and here’s the top five:

  1. Aaron Judge, Yankees
  2. Jose Altuve, Astros
  3. Javier Baez, Cubs
  4. Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers
  5. Mookie Betts, Red Sox

Giancarlo Stanton is ninth on the list, one spot behind Shohei Ohtani. I’d love to see the numbers on these jersey sales. Anecdotally, it seems to me there are more Judge jerseys and shirts in the stands these days than any other player since Derek Jeter retired. Jeter always dominated the jersey and shirt scene. Feels like Judge is right up there with him now.

Saturday Links: deGrom, Torres, Sheffield, Triple-A

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(Adam Glanzman/Getty)

The Yankees and Orioles continue their three-game series later this afternoon, with the penultimate regular season game at Yankee Stadium this year. That’s a 4pm ET start. Remember when they played baseball at 1pm ET on Saturdays? Those were the days. Anyway, here are some notes to check out.

Mets needed top young players for deGrom

According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees were one of five teams the Mets focused on during Jacob deGrom trade talks at the deadline, though they weren’t doing a deal without getting top young players in return. That presumably means Gleyber Torres. The Mets also discussed deGrom with the Blue Jays, Braves, Brewers, and Padres, and Heyman indicates they wanted Vladimir Guerrero Jr. from Toronto and Fernando Tatis Jr. from San Diego. So yeah, the best of the best prospects.

deGrom has been the best pitcher in baseball this season and he’s under team control another two years, so the Mets were absolutely correct in demanding tippy top prospects. Not asking for Gleyber would’ve been negligent. I love Miguel Andujar, he’s the man, but I wouldn’t trade deGrom for a package fronted by Andujar. I’d need a better centerpiece and that’s Torres. If the Mets don’t contend next year, the asking price on deGrom could come down because he’ll have less control remaining and also because he probably won’t be this good again. That said, the Yanks-Mets blockbuster trade hurdle still exits. As I’ve been saying, I need to see these two teams make a trade of this caliber to believe it.

Sheffield could make postseason roster

File this under “it’s probably not going to happen,” but Aaron Boone did leave the door open for Justus Sheffield to make the postseason roster. “You never know how the next couple weeks unfold. I’m mindful of this time that a lot changes day to day, every couple of days, week to week, depending on need, depending on performance, depending on how guys are looking,” said Boone to Brendan Kuty earlier this week when asked about the possibility.

Sheffield, 22, made his MLB debut the other night and it wasn’t pretty, but he did throw a scoreless inning in a blowout win. There are nine regular season games remaining and I don’t see how Sheffield could do enough to make the postseason roster, even as an extra lefty. Six bullpen spots are already accounted for (Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, Zach Britton, Chad Green, David Robertson, Jonathan Holder) plus I assume Lance Lynn will be in the postseason bullpen as well. There doesn’t seem to be room for Sheffield, but hey, stranger things have happened.

Sheffield among top IL prospects

In other Justus Sheffield news, Baseball America (subs. req’d) started their annual series looking at the top 20 prospects in each minor league earlier this week, and Sheffield was ranked as the seventh best prospect in the Triple-A International League this year. White Sox OF Eloy Jimenez, who the Yankees reportedly could’ve had rather than Gleyber Torres in the Aroldis Chapman trade, sits in the top spot. (Jimenez went to the ChiSox in the Jose Quintana trade.)

“Sheffield’s fastball worked 93-97 mph and he steadily improved his command of it, making it a true plus pitch,” says the write-up, which also mentions his changeup is too firm at the moment. He needs to create more velocity separation between his fastball and changeup. No other Yankees prospects make the IL top 20, which isn’t surprising. The Triple-A lists tend to be loaded with top 100 prospects and that leaves guys like Chance Adams and Erik Swanson on the outside looking in. (Mike King didn’t throw enough Triple-A innings to qualify for the list.)

Triple-A leagues to begin using MLB baseballs

Starting next season, the two Triple-A leagues (International League and Pacific Coast League) will begin using baseballs made to Major League specifications, reports J.J. Cooper. Major League and minor league baseballs are made with different seams and a different cover, and the Major League ball tends to carry farther. That’s why many young players (e.g. Gleyber Torres) come up and hit for more power in the big leagues than they had in the minors. The switch next year will approximately double what Triple-A teams pay for baseballs throughout the season.

It is kinda dumb MLB and minor league (and college) leagues use different baseballs, but it’s all about cost. Teams don’t want to spend more on baseballs than they have to, so inferior baseballs are used in the minors. At least now the Triple-A and MLB balls will be uniform. Offense will increase in Triple-A — the PCL league average was .270/.340/.423 this year and that’s only going to go up with the new ball, so that’s fun — thought at least it’ll be a little easier to put Triple-A statistics into context. I get the sense a lot of fringe MLB pitchers are in for a rude awakening in 2019.

RAB’s Minor League Awards for 2018

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The RailRiders went to the IL Championship Series for the third straight season. (Conor Foley on Twitter)

It was an eventful season in the farm system. With one exception, the various scouting publications all ranked the Yankees’ farm system as the second best in baseball coming into 2018, behind only the Braves. Atlanta tanked pretty hard for a few years to earn that top farm system ranking. (MLB.com was the exception. They ranked New York’s system as sixth best coming into the season.)

Now, seven months later, the farm system looks very different thanks to graduations and trades. Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar, the system’s top two position player prospects coming into the year, are now mainstays on the big league infield. Tyler Wade was the Opening Day second baseman, Jonathan Holder has assumed a vital bullpen role, and Domingo German held down a rotation spot for nearly two months.

The Yankees also dipped into their farm system at the trade deadline. The J.A. Happ, Lance Lynn, Zach Britton, and Andrew McCutchen deals sent away seven prospects and two other young big leaguers. Nine of my preseason top 30 prospects are no longer prospect-eligible. Four have graduated to the big leagues and five others were traded. That’s a lot of turnover.

The organization’s eight domestic minor league affiliates went a combined 399-399 this season. Exactly .500 for the system’s worst combined record in a long time. Fortunately minor league win-loss records have basically zero correlation to long-term big league success. Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton both qualified for the postseason, with the RailRiders falling one game short of their second International League championship in three years.

Now that the minor league postseason is over, it’s time to hand out some awards for the 2018 season. As always, these awards are subjective and completely meaningless. I have no authority whatsoever. This is just my look back at the minor league season and a recognition for those who played well. This isn’t any sort of top prospects list. It’s a best performers list regardless of prospect status.

Here are my 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 awards posts. Eleven years of these already. This is year 12. Crazy. Time to dive into this year’s minor league awards.

Minor League Player of the Year: RHP Mike King
When he came over from the Marlins in the Caleb Smith/Garrett Cooper roster clean-up trade over the winter, King was an unheralded right-hander who spent all of last season in Low-A. This season, his first with the Yankees, he shot up three levels and was one of the most dominant pitchers in the minors. King threw 161.1 innings this year — those 161.1 innings are the most in the farm system since veteran journeyman Ramon Ortiz (169.1) and organizational southpaw Shaeffer Hall (164.1) in 2012 — with a 1.79 ERA (2.76 FIP) and excellent strikeout (24.4%) and walk (4.7%) rates. He allowed five runs in 39 innings in six Triple-A starts to close out the regular season. Five-hundred-and-ten pitchers threw at least 100 innings in the minors this year. Among those 510 pitchers, King has the second lowest ERA and the 11th lowest FIP. His 152 strikeouts were 22nd most in the minors. Total dominance from start to finish. King went from easy-to-overlook offseason pickup to knocking on the big league door.

King. (Jason Farmer/Scranton Times-Tribune)

Minor League Hitter of the Year: OF Dom Thompson-Williams
Buying into the fly ball revolution worked wonders for Thompson-Williams, the team’s fifth round pick in 2016. Thompson-Williams decreased his fly ball rate from 49.7% last year to 42.2% this year and the result was a farm system leading 22 home runs with a .299/.363/.546 (157 wRC+) line in 415 plate appearances, almost all in High-A, with manageable strikeout (24.8%) and walk (8.0%) rates. Thompson-Williams ranked third in AVG, fourth in OBP, first in SLG, and first in OPS among the 28 players in the system with 300 plate appearances. His 157 wRC+ was 13th best among the 724 minor leaguers with 400 plate appearances this season. An out-of-nowhere great season for the former bonus pool saving mid-round pick. (Thompson-Williams signed for $250,000 in 2016. He was slotted for $341,000.)

Minor League Pitcher of the Year: LHP Justus Sheffield
For the sake of variety, the Player of the Year doesn’t get to double up as the Pitcher (or Hitter) of the Year. That’s always been my rule and that’s why Sheffield gets the nod over King here. Sheffield reached Triple-A as a 21-year-old this summer and was dominant, finishing with a 2.48 ERA (2.98 FIP) and a strong 25.9% strikeout rate in 116 innings around a relatively minor shoulder injury. His 10.5% walk rate was a bit too high, but Sheffield did go from 14 homers in 98 regular season innings last year to four homers in 116 innings this year. There were some excellent pitching performances in the system this year, starting with King. Sheffield was the best of the rest.

Breakout Player of the Year: RHP Deivi Garcia
Garcia’s evolution from raw stuff guy to talented strike-thrower was quick. The 19-year-old pitched at three levels this year, including making one spot start at Double-A, and he cut his walk rate from 12.0% in 2016-17 to 6.8% in 2018. Garcia threw 74 innings across those three levels and finished this season with a 2.55 ERA (2.60 FIP) and an excellent 35.5% strikeout rate. Over 900 pitchers threw at least 70 innings in the minors this summer (902, to be exact). Garcia had the fifth highest strikeout rate and the fourth highest K-BB%. Everyone above him in both strikeout rate and K-BB% is at least two years his elder. Garcia’s breakout at age 19 was even better than 19-year-old Luis Severino’s breakout in 2013.

Comeback Player of the Year: RHP Nelson Gomez
Not a good year for comeback players in the farm system. RHP Jonathan Loaisiga would’ve been a great candidate had his comeback year not been last year. RHP Clarke Schmidt came back from Tommy John surgery, though it was his pro debut more than a comeback season. So Gomez gets the nod almost by default. The 20-year-old hit a weak .128/.269/.174 (50 wRC+) in 27 rookie ball games last year and there were rumblings he’d quit baseball and gone home. Gomez returned this year and hit .213/.289/.425 (84 wRC+) in 58 games with Pulaski this year, which obviously isn’t great (or even good), though his eleven homers were fourth most in the rookie Appalachian League.

Bounceback Player of the Year (started slow, finished strong): OF Trey Amburgey
Amburgey had a bit of a weird season. He finished the year quite strong, though his overall season stat line never seemed to move. He finished the year with a .258/.300/.418 (97 wRC+) batting line to go with 16 homers and 12 steals (in 14 attempts) in 125 Double-A games. Amburgey bottomed out at .228/.267/.383 (78 wRC+) on June 6th, through 49 games. He had six homers and three steals in those 49 games. In his final 76 games, he hit .276/.319/.439 (109 wRC+) with ten homers and nine steals. That is the essence of the Bounceback Player of the Year award right there. Start slow, adjust, finish strong.

Best Pro Debut: OF Antonio Cabello
The Best Pro Debut award typically goes to a recent draftee because rarely does an international player come stateside one year after signing his first pro contract. Cabello is not most international signees. The Yankees gave the 17-year-old Cabello a $1.35M bonus with their leftover Shohei Ohtani money last offseason and turned him loose in the rookie Gulf Coast League this year. He hit .308/.427/.522 (168 wRC+) with nine doubles, five triples, five home runs, and ten steals in 46 games. His walk (14.1%) and strikeout (20.8%) rates were quite strong as well. Over 2,400 players batted at least 180 times in the minors this season and Cabello ranked 24th in wRC+. Twenty of the 23 players ahead of him are older.

Most Disappointing Player of the Year: OF Isiah Gilliam
Tough year for Gilliam, who followed up last season’s breakout with a .259/.313/.397 (103 wRC+) batting line and 13 home runs in 125 games with High-A Tampa. That’s not terrible by any means, but for a bat-first corner outfielder with not much defensive value, it ain’t good. Gilliam hit .275/.356/.468 (137 wRC+) with Low-A Charleston last season and was unable to build on it this year. His strikeout and walk rates declined from 21.7% and 10.8% last year, respectively, to 29.0% and 6.9% this year.

All-Minor League Teams

First Team Second Team Third Team
Catcher Jason Lopez Francisco Diaz Anthony Seigler
First Base Brandon Wagner Ryan McBroom Dermis Garcia
Second Base Billy Fleming Bruce Caldwell L.J. Mazzilli
Shortstop Hoy Jun Park Tyler Wade Diego Castillo
Third Base Mandy Alvarez Jose Villa Nelson Gomez
Outfield Dom Thompson-Williams Antonio Cabello Pablo Olivares
Outfield Clint Frazier Zack Zehner Trey Amburgey
Outfield Estevan Florial Alex Palma Mark Payton
Starting Pitcher Mike King Erik Swanson Nick Nelson
Starting Pitcher Justus Sheffield Deivi Garcia Trevor Stephan
Starting Pitcher Garrett Whitlock Nick Green Roansy Contreras
Relief Pitcher Phil Diehl Joe Harvey Raynel Espinal
Relief Pitcher Stephen Tarpley Matt Wivinis Jordan Foley

Lifetime Achievement Award: RHP Brady Lail
Lail has yet to reach the big leagues — that’s sort of the point of this award, to honor a player still plugging along in the minors — and he likely never will with the Yankees given the fact he will become a minor league free agent after the season. Despite that, he is a remarkable player development story. In 2012 the Yankees made him their 18th round pick out of a Salt Lake City high school. Utah’s not exactly a baseball hotbed, you know.

Baseball America (subs. req’d) wrote in their pre-draft scouting report that Lail “usually settles into the 85-88 mph range” with his fastball, but the “hand speed is there,” which indicated he had the laxity to make the ball spin. The Yankees had to teach him basically everything. A proper delivery, a proper fastball, a proper curveball, help him develop a plan on the mound. The works. They drafted a ball of clay and molded Lail into a pitcher.

Lail. (Scranton Times-Tribune)

Lail’s climb up the minor league ladder was not as gradual as you may expect given his general rawness out of the draft. He was drafted in 2012 and he reached Triple-A as a 21-year-old in 2015, and he’s split the 2016-18 seasons between Double-A and Triple-A. Lail worked as a starter up until this year, when the Yankees moved him to the bullpen full-time to see whether he could help at the MLB level in that role.

The move to the bullpen didn’t help much this year (5.43 ERA and 4.65 FIP) and, in six and a half pro seasons, the just turned 25-year-old Lail has a 3.98 ERA (3.82 FIP) with serviceable strikeout (17.5%) and walk (7.0%) rates in 691.2 innings. That doesn’t sound great, but keep in mind most raw cold weather prep pitchers rarely make it this far. Jordan Cote, the Yankees’ third rounder out of a New Hampshire high school in 2011, threw only 129 minor league innings before being released. Canadian Dayton Dawe, selected three rounds before Lail in 2012, lasted 52.1 minor league innings.

In addition to having a great spoonerism name (Lady Brail!), Lail deserves a ton of credit for getting to where he is today. He came to the Yankees with some natural ability and had to work hard to become a successful professional pitcher, one who reached the highest level of minor league baseball at age 21 and earned three non-roster invitations to big league Spring Training (2016-18). Lail is one of the longest tenured players in the organization and he’s been an occasional prospect/quality organizational player for the better part of a decade now.

Yankees reportedly calling up Justus Sheffield

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(Patrick McDermott/Getty)

According to Conor Foley, the Yankees are calling up top pitching prospect Justus Sheffield. Triple-A Scranton was eliminated from the postseason Saturday, so, with their season over, Sheffield will join the Yankees for the rest of September. Also, Foley says Domingo German is coming up as well. No surprise there.

Sheffield, 22, pitched to a 2.48 ERA (2.98 FIP) with 25.9% strikeouts and 10.5% walks in 116 innings this season, mostly with the RailRiders. The Yankees moved him to the bullpen late in the season to prepare him for a possible big league role. He’s still a starter long-term. Even if he doesn’t pitch much, there’s value in letting Sheffield spend the rest of the season with the big league team.

“The transition to the bullpen, obviously, I knew there was something going on there. So it was hard for me to block it out and do my thing. When I did, I felt back to myself. It was one of those things where it was hard to block out,” said Sheffield to Jay Monahan. “I am still at a loss for words. I’m super excited. I just can’t believe it. I am pretty sure my whole town knows about it already.”

The Yankees need to clear a 40-man roster spot for Sheffield, who will be Rule 5 Draft eligible this winter. He was going to be added to the 40-man after the season anyway. The Yankees are just getting a head start on it. They won’t burn an option year or anything like that. I imagine Clint Frazier will be transferred to the 60-day DL to open up the 40-man spot.