I’ve been fortunate to see a variety of players from a variety of levels at the New York Yankees minor league camp over the past few months. The following are some takeaways based on what I’ve seen, but I haven’t been able to get any hard data such as pitch velo, launch angle, etc.
RHP Randy Vasquez
I was fortunate to see Randy Vasquez make a start for the “AA Yankees” against the “AA Tigers” recently. Of the video I have, Vasquez threw 28 pitches in two innings, only giving up 1 walk and struck out 1 swinging. Most of the ABs that Vasquez pitched against ended up in pop outs or fly outs.
Vasquez threw a few really good looking breaking balls, but sometimes they break too much leading to walks. His walk rate was relatively high at the beginning of the season with Low-A Tampa, but got much better as he matured through the season. His control overall is superior to anyone else I saw last season, only hitting 4 batters all season in 107.1 innings between 3 levels (A, A+ and AA).
Vasquez threw exceptionally well when I saw him at Low-A Tampa in 2021, registering a 0.54 ERA in his last 7 starts and in 33.2 innings with the Tarpons.
He struggled in his first few starts with High-A Hudson Valley in 2021, giving up 6 runs in 11.1 innings which is good for a 4.76 ERA. He did sort his stuff out quickly though and in the following 4 starts with Hudson Valley, only gave up 1 earned run in 24.2 innings, which resulted in a 0.36 ERA. Vasquez ended the year with AA Somerset, where he has struggled the most.
RHP Beck Way
Beck Way made his professional debut in May 2021 and instantly made an impact on the mound, not giving up a run until his fourth appearance with Low-A Tampa. I was also able to see Way pitch behind Vasquez against the “AA Tigers” recently.
A JUCO kid out of NW FL State JC, Way has a good mix of pitches, including a four-seam fastball, a changeup, a slider and a sinker. Way can reach triple digits on his four-seamer and his slider averages 37 inches of vertical drop.
That being said, his pitch control isn’t the best, but has gotten a bit tighter within the strike zone and once Way gets control figured out, it isn’t unreasonable to imagine him as a potential backend starter or long reliever. When I recently saw Way pitch, his control wasn’t as tight as he’d had it at the end of the 2021 season and was a little wild.
He’d commented during a meeting with the media in February 2022 that his poor control is a result of nerves getting to him, so he said that that is a work in progress and that he didn’t have this issue when he pitched in college. The control issue he had when I saw him throw recently could’ve been nerves because he had a considerable amount of family in the stands.
By the end of the 2021 season, Way’s slider, which averages 82-84 MPH, gained 7 inches of horizontal movement and his sinker, which averages 95-98 MPH, gained 6 inches of vertical drop.
RHP Mitch Spence
Spence has easily been the most impressive pitcher I’ve seen in the Yankees’ minor league camp. I don’t know enough about Spence to give a year-over-year comp since he skipped playing in Tampa as a result of the A/A+ re-org, but Spence has shown the most whiffs of any pitcher I’ve seen in the intrasquad games.
Access was restricted in intrasquad games, so my viewpoint was accordingly limited as well, but Spence showed good vertical movement on his breaking balls and made a number of prospects, including those at a higher level than he’s faced, whiff on those breaking pitches.
Spence spent the entire 2021 season with High-A Hudson Valley, throwing a 3.94 ERA in 105 innings (23 games), so it’s not hard to expect he’d start with AA Somerset. Given the extremely brief but outstanding looks I’ve seen of Spence, he is definitely a pitching prospect I’ll be following this season.
CF Jasson Dominguez
Jasson Dominguez is quite possibly one of the most highly hyped up teenage prospects we may ever see with the Yankees. I’ve seen a little better than half of the home games he’s played with both the FCL Yankees and Low-A Tampa (including a few road games) and have also seen some of the progress he’s made over the past few months in minor league camp.
“The Martian” has lost a significant amount of muscle and overall size, especially in his torso, over last year, which has made his running both on the bases and in center field much more efficient than last year. His legs were so muscular last year that it looked like it was almost awkward for him to run properly, so it was a necessary move. The good news for those who were looking forward to the power hitter he could be is that he retained the power with the shrinkage.
Dominguez’s biggest opportunity right now is his plate discipline. It had gotten better as the season went on in 2021, but the few appearances I’ve seen in minor league camp has it appear that he has regressed to how he entered the 2021 season. Dominguez likes to chase outside pitches, and indeed he can hit them for power as his first pro homer was a low and away pitch.
Dominguez had difficulty running efficient routes last year and in the brief time I’ve seen him play in games within the Yankees’ minor league camp, his routes look a lot better as does his arm strength. Last season he needed to rely on a relay to get from deep center field, but this year it doesn’t necessarily look that way. I should get a better look before too long as Dominguez is expected to start in Low-A Tampa for the 2022 season.
SS Anthony Volpe
Aside from Jasson Dominguez, Anthony Volpe is most likely the other “household name” that most Yankees fans are familiar with. When Volpe made his season debut last year, it was apparent that he had an exceptional glove and very good base-running skills, but the bat wasn’t as polished.
He had some struggles with plate discipline like many others at the Low-A level, but something clicked with him at the end of May when he hit his first homer of the season and he and his name recognition took off from there, ending the season with 121 hits and 27 home runs in 109 games.
Volpe has that clutch-hitter kind of vibe where he can hit the ball wherever the gap is to get on base or where it’s beneficial to drive in a run by hitting it the opposite way, but what many fans experienced via social media was his power.
Volpe has had some concerns by scouts on not having the arm strength to properly play at SS, but I disagree. I don’t see the arm fade, and what he’s shown off in the handful of broadcasted Yankees Spring Training games that he’s played in should back up that sentiment. He can turn a very quick 6-4-3 double play, no matter whether he’s at SS or 2B, so it’s possible he ends up at 2B anyways with Oswald Peraza in the system ahead of him. That positioning is of course yet to be determined.
Volpe has shown some improvement in “hitting strikes hard” over the last year. That phrase is something that new Yankees hitting coach Dillon Lawson instilled in the Yankees’ system when he was their hitting coordinator. Volpe has put on a little bit of upper body muscle over last year, which is what the Yankees have been trying to get him to do.
Volpe has a smaller body frame than others on the field, so to see the kind of power he has is rather incredible. That speaks highly to the efficient mechanics he has in his swing, and he has tweaked it a little bit in the off-season to be more efficient and produce more power.
C Austin Wells
Austin Wells was the Yankees' 1st round pick in 2020 out of Arizona, and he had an impressive pro debut year in 2021 with Low-A Tampa and High-A Hudson Valley. Wells’ first pro home run came in his first game with Tampa against Low-A Dunedin, a 367 ft shot over the wall in right field. It’s easy to say that Wells’ stand out feature is his power and he’s put on quite a show in minor league camp over the past few months. Wells was showing off some of his power in the handful of batting practice I saw, but had some difficulty in live at-bats.
In regards to his defense, Wells is still struggling behind the plate, but is still one of the better defenders I’ve seen in regards to catching prospects. That being said, Antonio Gomez, a catching prospect that’s a level below him is easily the best defending catcher in the system. Wells has gotten better in blocking and the Yankees are adamant that they intend on keeping him behind the plate. Wells still struggles with pop time, and that’s his biggest weakness behind the plate.
The only comment that was noteworthy was when Kevin Reese noted while speaking with the media is that if it means getting him more at-bats, they’ll consider playing him elsewhere on the field given he’d be playing with other catchers that are fighting for ABs too (Seigler, Breaux, etc.) That speaks to how much the Yankees value his bat, especially at this early stage in his pro career.
The lefty bat can hit to all sides of the field but pulls most of the hits. Wells has struggled a little in what I’ve seen of live at-bats as far as plate discipline goes.
It doesn’t appear that Wells has put on any more muscle over last year, and he’s pretty well filled out as it is.
OF Elijah Dunham
Elijah Dunham was easily the biggest surprise in the lower levels in the system last year, and Dunham looks to have an even bigger year in 2022. Dunham has put on a considerable amount of upper body muscle over last year and the power I saw in batting practice while in minor league camp has been truly impressive.
The Yankees value lefty bats (like Wells), and Dunham is no exception. Dunham is a versatile outfielder, but he’s been primarily played in right field mostly because of his arm. I didn’t get a chance to see him show off his arm in camp, but it wasn’t incredibly impressive last season with Low-A Tampa. Given that he’s put on more muscle over last year, something to look for is to see if his fielding performance gets any better.
Dunham has the speed and power to rip off some attractive counting stats. Dunham stole 28 bases last year and his speed was the first thing that was impressive to me when I saw him with Low-A Tampa. He looks like he’s maintained his speed compared to last year, but there’s really not much to improve on.
IF Cooper Bowman
When Cooper Bowman was inserted into Monday, March 28th’s Spring Training game against the Tigers in Lakeland, FL, a lot of Yankees fans saw his home run and said on Twitter, “who?”
Bowman, a 2021 4th round draft pick out of Louisville, doesn’t hit for power a lot, hitting only 4 home runs in 30 games. That doesn’t mean, however, that he doesn’t have power. His first pro grand slam came on August 21, 2021, a 397 ft shot to left center that hit the Jumbotron at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.
Bowman has the ability to hit to all fields, but primarily hits to left/left center like most other right-handed batters. Out of 26 hits, 10 were extra-base hits in 2021, but that’s also an extremely small sample size.
Bowman has an under-rated arm and could play 3B in a pinch but the Yankees have so many good prospects in the middle infield that it almost seems like he’d be prone to trading away at some point.
Bowman doesn’t appear any physically different over last year and may have just tweaked a few things with his swing in the off-season because he looks marginally improved over last year, but that’s not a bad thing though.