May 25th, 2021: Defense, Montgomery, Bullpen, Hicks, Prospects

My bi-weekly Yankees post at CBS is live. I wrote about the defense, Jameson Taillon's fastball, and Estevan Florial.

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Make it 35 consecutive scoreless innings for the starting pitchers, dating back to Gerrit Cole’s uncharacteristically poor start in Texas. The Yankees are 23-9 since their 5-10 start and 16-5 in their last 21 games. They’re winning games without home runs too. They’ve hit two homers during the current six-game winning streak and one was a garbage time-ish homer with a 5-0 lead in the sixth inning. The Yankees are 7-8 when they don’t hit a homer this year. They were 20-50 when they didn’t hit a homer from 2018-20. The Yankees are on pace to go 97-65 with 115 games remaining. Let’s get to today’s thoughts.

1. Weekend observations. The White Sox went into this past weekend’s series with the best record in the American League and the highest scoring offense in baseball, and the Yankees held them to five runs in the sweep. I won’t ever call a series in May a statement series, but that was satisfying. It was a good test and the Yankees aced it. Here are some other thoughts.

Gio to Odor to Voit

A no-hitter and a triple play in the same week? The baseball gods owed us that after watching this offense bang into nonstop double plays these last eight weeks. The triple play was a huge moment in Friday’s game too, as you know. Runners on first and second, no outs, top of the ninth in a tie game ...

• Win probability before triple play: 30.2%
• Win probability after triple play: 63.8%

At +33.6% win probability added, the triple play was the Yankees’ biggest defensive play since Aroldis Chapman got Jonathan Lucroy to fly into a 7-2 double play with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a tie game on May 12th, 2018 (+34.0%). Here’s the video (the safe call was overturned on replay). The triple play felt bigger than that play, though maybe it’s recency bias.

“That’s an energy-giver right there,” Aaron Boone said about the triple play. “You see that kind of a play in that situation where you’re a little bit up against it, they were definitely fired up coming off. You don’t see Chappie very often pumping his fist and smiling. That was a special turn by the fellas.”

James Smyth says the Yankees are the fifth team in history with a no-hitter and a triple play in a three-day span, joining the 1884 Philadelphia Athletics, the 1892 Boston Beaneaters, the 1908 Brooklyn Superbas, and the 1983 Cardinals. Superbas is such a great nickname. Brooklyn Superbas and Brooklyn Tip-Tops are two A+ old-timey baseball team names.

Anyway, the triple play was the Yankees’ first since April 17th, 2014 at Tropicana Field. That around the horn triple killing went (gulp) Yangervis Solarte to Brian Roberts to Scott Sizemore. Here’s the video. I have somehow seen four -- four! -- triple plays in person now. I saw Friday’s, this one, this one, and this one. Luck of the draw, I guess.

Gleyber Torres was not involved in the triple play but he has turned his season around defensively. He had that brutal first week, and has been so good since that he’s up to +2 DRS. Do I believe Torres has truly been a +2 defender this year? No. That’s just what the numbers say. I do think he’s been improved though, and so has been the defense overall. Amazing what happens when you catch the ball.

“It was a luxury to turn all the double plays,” Gerrit Cole joked over the weekend when asked about the luxury of getting run support. “We played our tails off on defense today. That was fun. Fun to be a part of. We pitched ourselves into a few ground balls for sure, we tried to force a couple double plays, and it worked out for us. That’s exciting.”

Montgomery’s curveball

Remember when some idiot said the Yankees should consider skipping Jordan Montgomery against a White Sox team that went into Friday’s game hitting .285/.361/.461 (131 wRC+) vs. lefties? Good thing the Yankees don’t listen to that guy. Montgomery had the best start of his career against arguably the best offense in the league: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 11 K.

“That’s more what I expect out of myself,” Montgomery said after the game.

Montgomery threw 26 curveballs Friday, more than any other pitch, and the White Sox missed with eight of their 14 swings against it. He threw another six curves for called strikes. The 14 combined whiffs and called strikes are the most Montgomery has gotten on his curveball in a start since 2017. The pitch looks a little different too. Here is his curveball velocity by start …

… and here is his curveball vertical break by start:

Montgomery is throwing the curveball harder and getting a little less break on it the last few starts. There’s less of a hump in the curveball now. It’s more like a slider, really. I’m not sure whether this is just a little blip or a conscious adjustment, but Montgomery’s curveball did look sharper to me Friday night, and the White Sox sure had problems with it.

As a four-pitch guy without a blow-you-away fastball, any change to Montgomery’s secondary pitches is worth monitoring. My hunch is this is just a blip and his curveball will resemble his regular ol’ curveball the rest of the season. If not, and what we saw Friday was the real deal, then it changes expectations for Montgomery moving forward.

The center field situation

The Yankees just played four straight games with their utility infielder as their backup outfielder. Can that continue? Boone says he’s comfortable playing Tyler Wade in center and in the outfield in general and that’s great, but man, I don’t think it should be a regular thing. The Yankees need a real backup outfielder and probably soon. Today begins another 13 games in 13 days stretch.

“Obviously Tyler Wade can go out there and we’ll just have to figure it out on the fly a little bit,” Boone said over the weekend when asked about the center field situation. “... Obviously my preference is to keep (Aaron Judge) in right and we’ll probably do that, but if you get into enough of an emergency on a given day, anything’s possible.”

The rumored Delino DeShields Jr. trade has not yet come together and Andrew Velazquez and Socrates Brito are the only healthy outfielders in Triple-A with MLB experience (well, Estevan Florial has one game of MLB experience, but you know what I mean). Aaron Hicks is a 60-day injured list candidate now and Mike Ford can be sent down. The roster moves are easy.

Brett Gardner has started to hit a little bit (8-for-25 in his last seven games) but he should not play against lefties, and playing him everyday against righties is setting him up to be worn down later in the season. Maybe Greg Allen is coming back soon and the Yankees are just biding time until then? I don’t think Tyler Wade, Fourth Outfielder is a legitimate long-term solution though.

On the bullpen workload

With the starters pitching so well lately, the bullpen has not had to pick up as many innings as they did earlier in the year, and thank goodness for that. The bullpen would’ve been fried by the All-Star break had they continued working at April’s pace. Give me starters going deep and underworked relievers over short starts and taxed relievers all day, every day.

Because the starters have pitched so well, Lucas Luetge and Mike King have not pitched in nine days now. Since the series finale in Baltimore. King is the long man and no long man situations have arisen the last week or so. The Yankees prefer Wandy Peralta in high-leverage spots to Luetge (Peralta’s been good outside two recent hiccups), so Luetge’s seeing less action.

Here’s the relief appearance leaderboard since the start of the 10-day road trip two weeks ago (13 games):

1. Aroldis Chapman: 6
2. Jonathan Loaisiga: 5
3. Chad Green: 4
4. Wandy Peralta: 4
5. Luis Cessa: 3
6. Justin Wilson: 3
7. Lucas Luetge: 2
8. Mike King: 1 (also Albert Abreu with one)

I’ve watched enough baseball to know things can go from “this reliever needs work” to “this reliever needs a break because he’s pitched four times in the last five days” real quick. Case in point: Luetge is still third on the team in reliever innings (21.1) behind Loaisiga (25.1) and Green (24) this year despite not pitching the last nine days.

In a perfect world the offense scores a bunch of runs early tonight, Corey Kluber gives the Yankees six strong innings, and Luetge (one inning) and King (two innings) finish the game and shake off any rust. I don’t have a problem with how Boone has used his relievers lately. I’m just noting the circumstances have led to a few guys growing roots in the bullpen. Luetge and King need work.

On the lineup

It sounds like Giancarlo Stanton will either return today when he’s eligible to be activated, or soon thereafter. He’s been hitting and running the bases and all that the last few days. If the Yankees believe he needs another few days to get ready, then so be it. I’d rather Stanton miss a few days now than potentially a lot of days later.

Whenever Stanton does return, I assume Ford is going down to clear a roster spot, though we can’t rule out Miguel Andujar being demoted again, especially if the Yankees bring in a backup center fielder at some point. Whenever Stanton returns, this is the lineup I’d like the Yankees to run out there:

1. 2B DJ LeMahieu
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. SS Gleyber Torres
4. DH Giancarlo Stanton
5. 3B Gio Urshela
6. 1B Luke Voit
7. C Gary Sanchez
8. LF Clint Frazier / Miguel Andujar
9. CF Brett Gardner

Judge has been hitting third lately and that’s fine, really. I just prefer him hitting second. There was a rally in Texas that died when Gardner, the No. 2 hitter, popped up with two on and two outs and Judge standing on deck. It almost burned them again Sunday too, when No. 2 hitter Tyler Wade batted before Judge with two on and one out in the ninth inning of a tie game.

I’d like to put Judge in position to get that extra at-bat as often as possible. Gleyber has been great lately, Voit has not since coming back, so move Torres up and Voit down. That’s not crazy, is it? Once Voit starts swinging the bat a little better, the Yankees can move him up. LeMahieu’s mediocre season (.260/.347/.347 and 99 wRC+) is worth a longer discussion at some point. For now, I’m fine with leaving him in the leadoff spot given the OBP (and lack of alternatives).

That’s about all I have to say about the lineup. I just would like to see Judge and Torres move up to increase the chances they come to the plate in a key situation, and Voit temporarily move down until he starts looking like Luke Voit again. Small beans, I know, but the Yankees already watched one rally die on the vine with Judge standing on deck. Let’s try to avoid a repeat.

2. Hicks opts for surgery. Over the weekend Aaron Boone announced Aaron Hicks will indeed undergo surgery to repair the torn tendon sheath in his left wrist. The Yankees hoped treatment would allow him to play, but nope. He’s going under the knife. Although Boone left the door open that Hicks could return this year, I wouldn’t count on it. We’ll see him in 2022.

“I'm not sure (he can return this season). I know it's months, plural. I don't know how many,” Boone said. “I'd rather -- let's get through the surgery and see what they say about a potential timeline and if that puts any point at the end of the season in play or not, probably too early to speculate on that. But it's going to be a while."

And with this news, center field becomes the No. 1 priority at the trade deadline. The Yankees can get by with Brett Gardner for the time being, but he shouldn’t be counted on as an everyday player at this point in his career, and guys like Ryan LaMarre and Greg Allen and maybe Delino DeShields Jr. are temporary solutions (unless one of them turns into Gio Urshela 2.0, I guess).

Defense in center is obviously important but the Yankees also need to prioritize offense as well, because the current lineup has underwhelmed and we’re a week away from the one-third point of the season. I’m going to drop these numbers in once again just to drive home how far from dominant the offense has been to date:

• AVG: .231 (21st in MLB)
• OBP: .320 (9th)
• SLG: .381 (23rd)
• wRC+: 99 (16th)
• Runs per game: 4.02 (22nd)

Given Clint Frazier’s season, I was thinking the Yankees could use an outfielder at the deadline anyway. The Hicks injury not only necessitates an outfield trade, it necessitates trading for an outfielder who can play center. That narrows their potential target list a bit. There aren’t many good center fielders out there and even fewer of those good center fielders are available.

I’ve already mentioned Starling Marte and Max Kepler as possible targets. Marte is the probably the best realistic trade target seeing how he’s an impending free agent and the Marlins are not going to contend (and the Yankees wanted him last year). Other impending free agent center fielders include Jarrod Dyson, Ender Inciarte, Jake Marisnick, and Michael Taylor. Yuck.

You can hold your nose and put Joc Pederson in center field, though I’d rather the Yankees not do that full-time. Pederson is best in a corner and as a once in a while center fielder only. That said, beggars can’t be choosers. Pederson might be the best (only?) center field option should the Marlins hang onto Marte or send him elsewhere.

Kris Bryant has played center field quite a bit recently (five times in an eight game span earlier this month) so he’s a galaxy brain trade target. He’s having an excellent (MVP caliber) season and he’s athletic enough and fast enough that he seems like he could handle center full-time for three months or so. The Cubs aren’t going to give Bryant away, but it’s not a crazy idea.

The Twins are going down in flames and Byron Buxton is worth a call even though he’s on the injured list now and visits it frequently. Decent chance you trade for Buxton to replace Hicks and then have to scramble for someone to fill in when Buxton gets hurt. Bryan Reynolds with the Pirates is a good young player and a longer term solution. No reason not to ask about him.

A player I’d call about: Ketel Marte. The Diamondbacks are really bad (3-17 in their last 20 games!) and they’ve been willing to trade important players with multiple years of control (Zack Greinke, Jean Segura, etc.). Marte is on a bargain contract that pays him $6M this year and $8M next year with club options for 2023 ($10M) and 2024 ($12M). Super affordable.

Do I expect Marte to hit .329/.389/.592 (150 wRC+) with 32 homers like he did in 2019 again? No, that was definitely rocket ball aided. Three-year ZiPS projects have him as a .285/.340/.480 type and +3 WAR overall. A young (27) low strikeout switch-hitter who can play center field and second base* on that contract is crazy valuable. It would hurt to get him but I’d ask.

* Marte has said he doesn’t care which position he plays, he just doesn’t like bouncing between the two. The numbers say he’s better in center (but still good at second) but he hasn’t played the position regularly since 2019 because Arizona is deep in outfielders. The Yankees would need him in center. I don’t think the transition back would be a huge adjustment.

Both Martes (Starling and Ketel) might be a pipe dream given the almighty luxury tax plan. The same goes for Bryant and his $18.6M salary. We’ve got another two months to mine through the various center field options. For now, the Yankees have officially lost Hicks for the season, and they shouldn’t count on their internal options handling the position the rest of the way.

“I don’t know what could happen outside the organization, but inside, we can call someone up if we get in a pinch, and I feel comfortable putting Tyler Wade out there or sliding Clint Frazier over in a pinch,” Boone said. “I don’t think I’d do that with Aaron Judge right now, but we’ll see. We can’t run Gardy out there nine innings every day and run him into the ground.”

3. Minor league thoughts. Conor Foley has some good stuff on Deivi Garcia, specifically what he had to correct following his walk-filled first Triple-A start a few weeks ago. Long story short, Garcia became too rotational with his delivery, something he’s had trouble with in the past, and he's since tightened that up. Here are a few prospect thoughts.

Wells’ missing pop

Two weeks into his pro career, 2020 first round pick Austin Wells is hitting .250/.358/.412 (111 wRC+) with one home run in 81 plate appearances with Low-A Tampa. He’s drawn 12 walks (14.8%) and struck out 20 times (24.7%). He’s also 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts, though I’ll have more on that weirdness in a second.

The slash line is fine. Not great, but nothing to worry about two weeks into the season. The weird thing is Wells is not hitting the ball hard. He was said to be an exit velocity darling coming out of college and Statcast has his average exit velocity at 86.4 mph. That is second lowest on the Tampa roster, and his 106.2 mph max exit velocity is fifth lowest. His 26.5% hard-hit rate (i.e. percent of batted balls at 95+ mph) is third lowest. Hmmm.

Wells is getting the ball in the air often enough (42.6% grounders), so it’s not like he’s hitting a bunch of weak ground balls, and he’s not chasing out of the zone excessively either (25.9%). It’s just that when he’s making contact, the ball is not jumping off the bat the way it was reported to do. Maybe the reports were wrong! There were so many of them from so many different sources that I don’t think that is the case though.

We’re talking about 49 batted balls, so it’s too early to panic, though I’m certain this is not what the Yankees expected. Similar to a pitcher with a mid-90s fastball suddenly throwing 90-91 mph, a hitter with a reputation for big exit velocities not hitting the ball hard is a red flag. We’ll see where Wells is at in a few weeks, though the early lack of thump is surprising.

Krook’s impressive start

The Yankees selected lefty Matt Krook from the Rays in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft in December and he’s started the season very well, pitching to a 2.20 ERA (2.79 FIP) with 34.9% strikeouts in 16.1 innings with Double-A Somerset. Here’s some video. 209 pitchers have thrown at least 15 innings in the minors this year. Here are two leaderboards:

Swing & Miss Rate
1. Drew Parrish, Royals: 24.1%
2. Grayson Rodriguez, Orioles: 23.8%
3. Matt Krook, Yankees: 21.2%
4. Xzavion Curry, Cleveland: 21.1%
5. A.J. Block, Royals: 21.0%

Ground Ball Rate
1. Connor Johnstone, Braves: 67.3%
2. Luis Medina, Yankees: 66.7%
3. Joe Biagini, Cleveland: 65.5%
4. Bryce Elder, Braves: 63.3%
5. Tylor Megill, Mets: 62.8%
6. Matt Krook, Yankees: 62.5%

Krook is the only pitcher in the minors in the top 10 in both swing and miss rate and ground ball rate. The caveat here is that at age 26, Krook is over a year older than the average Double-A Northeast player, though he’s missed a bunch of time with injuries, so he’s not exactly the most experienced 26-year-old in Double-A.

Once upon a time Krook was a significant prospect. Significant enough that the Marlins made him the No. 35 pick in the 2013 draft, but he turned them down and went to college, then started getting hurt. Here’s what Baseball America (subs. req’d) wrote two years ago, the last time Krook appeared on one of their top 30 team prospect lists:

It's highly possible that Krook will never put it all together, but scouts and coaches rave about his fastball movement because his sinker has movement that draws comparisons to Zach Britton. Now Britton threw his sinker at 95-96 at his best, while Krook's fastball sits anywhere from 90-96, so the comparisons aren't perfect, but it's a bat misser. Krook's slider has also shown plus potential, but it's his sinker that is the key to future success. At its best, his changeup is an above-average pitch too.

I’ve heard Krook’s slider has looked pretty good in the early going this year, better than it has the last few years. I’m not sure if that’s something the Yankees helped him with or something he improved on his own at home last year, but the slider is supposedly improved, and is surely contributing to that excellent swing and miss rate.

The Yankees got Krook for basically free ($24,500 fee and there are no roster requirements with minor league Rule 5 Draft picks, he’s theirs to keep) and lefties with a mid-90s sinker and a supposedly improved slider are always worth a look. The consensus is his future lies in the bullpen because of the injury history and because he lacks a third pitch, and that’s fine. Relievers are important too.

Minor league Rule 5 Draft success stories are few and far between but they’re becoming a little more common nowadays. Rays sidewinder Ryan Thompson was a minor league Rule 5 Draft pick. Remember Alexi Ogando? He was a minor league Rule 5 Draft pick. So were Justin Bour and Omar Narvaez.

We are nowhere close to declaring Krook a minor league Rule 5 Draft success story but he is off to a nice start this year. He has prospect pedigree and two quality pitches, and he’s near the top of the right leaderboards at the moment. At the very least, Krook is becoming someone to pay attention to the rest of the season. He’s interesting.

Otto’s new pitch

Righty Glenn Otto, a fifth round pick in 2017 and long a fringe top 30 prospect with good stuff but a long injury history, has a 3.78 ERA (0.77 FIP) in 16.2 innings with Double-A Somerset. In those 16.2 innings he has 28 strikeouts (44.4%) and two walks (3.2%). His 41.3 K-BB% is second best in the minors among the 209 pitchers with at least 15 innings.

Otto struck out 14 batters in 5.1 innings last Thursday, two short of the Somerset franchise record. Here’s video. Otto was a mid-90s fastball guy with a hammer curveball coming out of Rice. Brendan Kuty (subs. req’d) spoke to Director of Pitching Sam Briend, who said the Yankees have tweaked Otto’s delivery, and given him a new slider. From Kuty:

Briend said that while Yankees coaches were exploring command issues Otto had been experiencing, they identified a possible flaw that led him to push off the rubber. That would slow his arm, forcing his fastballs to miss high and arm side and making him yank his curveball.

Then they went to work to add a slider.

“He’s always had a nasty breaking ball,” Briend said. “A big, over-the-top curveball. It’s a banger. It hasn’t played right to righties, but it’s been awesome to lefties. So we thought the addition of a slider would really give him that swing-and-miss pitch that he’s been lacking to righthanders.”

Briend said that Otto has started to learn how to “throw (his slider) in the zone for a strike, expand off the plate.”

Otto turned 25 in March, so he’s not young by prospect standards, and this is his first time pitching above Single-A. Pitchers like him, who have a power arm but a long injury history, can bust out at any time. They stay healthy for a few months and things click, and bam, suddenly they’re the hot new thing in the minors. A new pitch only adds fuel to the fire.

I’m not sure what the Yankees have planned for Otto but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him dangled as a trade chip in a few weeks. It could be a “he stayed healthy for a few months? quick, trade him before he gets hurt again!” situation similar to Vicente Campos in 2016. Otto will be Rule 5 Draft eligible after the season (again) and I’m not sure there’s 40-man roster space for him. I guess we’ll find out.

Stolen bases way up in Single-A

MLB is experimenting with several rule changes in the minors this year, among them measures intended to increase stolen bases. In High-A, pitchers must step off the rubber completely before making a pickoff throw. In Low-A, pitchers can only make two step off moves or pickoff throws per plate appearance. Each one after that is a balk.

As intended, stolen bases are way up in the Single-A leagues. Sam Dykstra has the numbers:

High-A in 2019: 1.19 SB attempts per game, 0.80 SB per game, 32.8% caught stealing rate
High-A in 2021: 1.79 SB attempts per game, 1.41 SB per game, 20.9% caught stealing rate

Low-A in 2019: 1.22 SB attempts per game, 0.83 SB per game, 31.8% caught stealing rate
Low-A in 2021: 1.72 SB attempts per game, 1.42 SB per game, 17.3% caught stealing rate

Stolen base attempts are up roughly 40% and stolen bases are up roughly 70%. The caught stealing rate is down more than 50%. That is massive and it must be accounted for when evaluating prospects. Remember when I said Wells is 4-for-4 stealing bases? I’d throw that right out the window. It’s meaningless with these rules.

The stolen bases will inflate more than ERAs. AVG and SLG historically go up with runners in scoring position (MLB hitters have a .245 AVG and .406 SLG with runners in scoring position this year compared to .228 and .384 with the bases empty), so all the steals put pitchers at a further disadvantage and give hitters a greater advantage. This goes beyond the “more steals equal more runs and inflated ERAs” concept.

As for catchers, their caught stealing rates are going to be in the tank. Wells is 3-for-25 (12%) throwing out runners this year, which is below the league average, but my goodness, guys can run almost with impunity now. Antonio Gomez, my No. 15 prospect, is said to have an 80 arm on the 20-80 scouting scale. If he reaches Low-and goes 4-for-16 throwing out runners, it would be incredible. Last year we’d wonder what’s wrong with him.

The stolen base rules seem to be working a little too well. I’m all for more stolen bases and more action in general, though this is extreme. I’m not sure how you rein it in from here, and it’s too early to say these rules aren’t good (let’s give pitchers and catchers time to adjust, eh?), but the steals are something we must consider when looking at prospects. Pitcher and hitter numbers will be skewed, not just stolen base totals.

Miscellany

Sleeper lefty Ken Waldichuk in four High-A starts: 14.1 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 6 BB, 29 K. As a three-year college guy chewing up Single-A hitters, I don’t think it’ll be long before the Yankees bump him up to Double-A. I could see Waldichuk landing with Somerset within a month. He’s been great and needs another challenge … 2019 first rounder Anthony Volpe is hitting .250/.402/.438 (135 wRC+) with 16 walks (19.5%) and 13 strikeouts (15.9%) in 82 Low-A plate appearances. He turned only 20 last month and is a year and a half younger than the average Low-A Southeast player, and his average (92.8 mph) and max (107.2 mph) exit velocities are very good. Among the best in the league. The .250 AVG is unimpressive, but if Volpe can continue to marry that exit velocity with that plate discipline, the AVG will climb soon enough … Dermis Garcia’s first eight games this year: 2-for-28 (.071) with 16 strikeouts. Dermis Garcia’s last nine games: 13-for-36 (.361) with six homers. Although he’s still only 23, Dermis isn’t much of a prospect these days, but hit a bunch of homers in Double-A and you’re going to force people to pay attention … Righty reliever Greg Weissert, an 18th round pick in 2016, has allowed one run in 7.2 innings with Double-A Somerset this year. He’s struck out 10 of the 32 batters he’s faced (31.3%). Weissert told Mike Ashmore he taught himself a new slider last year watching Chaz Roe GIFs on Twitter, and it’s good enough that Baseball America (subs. req’d) rated it the best slider in the system before the season. Kuty (subs. req’d) spoke to a scout who said the slider “could get big league outs right now.” I’m not sure I buy that, but Weissert was an organizational depth arm pretty much his entire career until this slider put him on the map. Neat story, if nothing else.

4. 2021 draft prospect: South Carolina HS OF Will Taylor. The 2021 MLB Draft will take place during the All-Star break and J.J. Cooper (subs. req’d) reports MLB has informed teams the draft will be 20 rounds, the minimum number allowed under last year’s March agreement. The Yankees hold the No. 20 pick. Here is our 2021 draft prospect coverage archive.

Taylor, 18, is a three-sport star at his South Carolina high school. He’s won multiple state championships in wrestling and one as quarterback, and he’s committed to play both baseball and football (as a slot receiver) at Clemson. I’m not sure what Taylor is hitting this spring, but a) it doesn’t really matter, and b) he’s had at least one two-homer game.

MLB.com ranks Taylor the No. 27 prospect in the draft class and Baseball America (subs. req’d) has him a bit lower at No. 31. Here’s video and here’s a chunk of MLB.com’s scouting report:

Taylor is more advanced than the typical multisport athlete who hasn't devoted himself to baseball full-time and could get significantly better once he does. He has a loose right-handed swing and made consistent contact on the showcase circuit this summer, displaying the ability to make in-game adjustments against quality competition. The biggest question is how much impact he'll have at the plate, though he does have some wiry strength and should develop into at least a 15-homer threat with more pop possible if he adds some loft to his stroke.

Taylor's best tool is his speed, which produces plus to top-of-the-scale run times from home to first. He plays with an aggressive mindset, wreaking havoc on the bases and covering lots of ground in center field. Though he's a high school quarterback, his arm grades as fringy to average, though that's enough to remain in center.

Baseball America’s scouting report adds Taylor has “impressive feel for the game on both sides of the ball” and “great natural feel for the barrel to go along with above-average bat speed.” For what it’s worth, Kiley McDaniel (subs. req’d) has the Yankees taking Taylor in his latest mock draft, though I read it as speculation rather than an informed projection.

The Yankees used to be all about multi-sport athletes (Drew Henson, Andrew Brackman, etc.) but it’s been a while since they’ve used significant draft capital on such a player. The last was Austin Aune, a top quarterback recruit who received a $1M bonus as a second round pick in 2012, and never made it out of High-A ball before going to college to play football.

That doesn’t mean the Yankees are steering clear of two-sport athletes. It could just be how the draft board lined up. By all accounts Taylor is more advanced than the typical multi-sport guy based on the scouting reports and his work at showcase events, so this isn’t necessarily a “take a great athlete and hope we can teach him how to play baseball” prospect.

The two-sport commitment to Clemson gives Taylor leverage and I wonder whether that could price him out of the Yankees’ range. They don’t have an extra pick this year, so their bonus pool is relatively small ($6.9M or so), and sinking maybe half of it into Taylor may not be the smartest idea. The Yankees may instead look at a similarly talented player with less negotiation leverage.

5. Remembering a random Yankee: Alvaro Espinoza. This week’s random Yankees came by request and is said to be one of Bob Sheppard’s favorite names to announce. Here’s the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

Born and raised in Venezuela, Espinoza signed with the Astros as an international amateur free agent in Oct. 1978. He spent two seasons playing rookie ball in their farm system, was released in Nov. 1980, and didn’t sign with another team until hooking on with the Twins in March 1982. Less than two years later, he was in the big leagues.

Espinoza made his MLB debut as a September call-up with Minnesota in 1984. He appeared in one game as a defensive replacement. Espinoza spent most of the next two seasons as an up and down depth infielder, going 24-for-99 (.242) in 69 big league games. In 1987, no big league call-up came, and Espinoza hit .275/.308/.340 in 91 Triple-A games.

The Twins released Espinoza following the 1987 season and a few weeks later the Yankees signed him to a minor league contract. Espinoza, then 25, spent most of 1988 in Triple-A, hitting .246/.262/.306 with two homers in 119 games. He also went 0-for-3 with the Yankees in an August cameo while Willie Randolph was dealing with a rib issue.

In Spring Training 1989, incumbent shortstop Rafael Santana went down with an elbow injury that would later require season-ending surgery. The Yankees and Braves discussed a Roberto Kelly for Jeff Blauser trade, but it never materialized, leaving the Yankees with Espinoza and Randy Velarde as their shortstop tandem. At the end of camp, Espinoza was named the starter.

''All I've wanted is for them to give me a chance to play. All I wanted was to show them I could do the job.,” Espinoza told Michael Martinez. ''I think I can't hit the ball good. I'd be happy with .240, .245. But you've got to think you can hit .300 every time.''

Then-manager Dallas Green added: ''When Espy gets the ball, somebody is usually out. With a pitching staff that doesn't get a lot of strikeouts, you'd better be able to catch the ball.''

Espinoza had a big Opening Day in Minnesota against the Twins, his former team, going 2-for-4 and scoring two runs in a 4-2 win. Offensively, Espinoza spent the rest of the season doing his best Ronald Torreyes impression. He was a singles hitter who never walked and didn’t hit for power, and would occasionally put together BABIP-fueled streaks. To wit:

• April 19th to 27th: 12-for-27 (.444) in eight games
• July 24th to August 5th: 18-for-45 (.400) in 12 games
• August 15th to 25th: 20-for-46 (.435) in 12 games
• Sept. 29th to Oct. 1st: 7-for-13 (.538) in three games

All told, Espinoza hit .282/.301/.332 with 23 doubles, one triple, no homers, 14 walks, and 60 strikeouts in 146 games. That’s an 80 OPS+ with a .318 BABIP, a 2.6% walk rate, and an 11.0% strikeout rate at a time when the league average was 15.2% strikeouts. The rudimentary defensive stats at the time liked his work and had Espinoza at +1.5 WAR overall.

"Why shouldn't he be?'' then-manager Bucky Dent told Martinez that September when asked whether Espinoza would be his shortstop in 1990. ''He's done everything you could ask of a player. He's played hard, he's caught the ball, and he's hit. He has a field presence.''

Espinoza’s 1990 season started about as poorly as possible. He bottomed out at .177/.205/.215 on May 7th and rebounded -- “rebounded” -- to hit .234/.270/.287 the rest of the season. In 150 games, Espinoza dropped to .224/.258/.274 (50 OPS+) with two homers, 16 walks, and 54 strikeouts. His defense kept him just above replacement level at +0.4 WAR.

"I was trying too hard. I was trying to hit every ball out of the park,” Espinoza told Jack Curry in Spring Training 1991 about his poor 1990 season. "I've always swung at the first pitch. That's what they make bats for. Even my wife gets mad at me when I swing at the first pitch. She says: 'Why did you do that?' Now I know I got to get more walks."

Despite breaking his finger in Spring Training, Espinoza was on the Opening Day roster in 1991 and he had an incredible start to the season, going 17-for-39 (.436) in his first 14 games and 23-for-69 (.333) in his first 22 games. The rest of the season went poorly (.243/.267/.324 in his final 126 games) and Espinoza finished with a .256/.282/.344 (73 OPS+) batting line.

On Aug. 6th, Espinoza became the first position player to pitch for the Yankees since Rick Cerone did it twice in 1987. He retired both batters he faced in a game the Yankees led 5-0 in the first inning, but eventually lost 14-5. "It was a lot of fun for me. I got out there and said, 'Oh, God, here we go.' I was laughing,” Espinoza told Curry after the game.

During his three-year stint as the starting shortstop Espinoza hit .255/.281/.318 (68 OPS+) with seven homers and 46 walks (3.0%) in 444 games and 1,528 plate appearances. His defense helped him post +3.4 WAR. Not surprisingly, Espinoza is on the very short list of the worst hitters in franchise history among players with that many plate appearances:

By OBP
1. Alvaro Espinoza: .281 OBP in 1,528 PA
2. Everett Scott: .282 OBP in 1,835 PA
3. Red Kleinow: .286 OBP in 1,690 PA
4. Jake Gibbs: .289 OBP in 1,795 PA
5. Joe Pepitone: .294 OBP in 4,116 PA

By OPS+
1. Everett Scott: 57 OPS+ in 1,835 PA
2. Alvaro Espinoza: 68 OPS+ in 1,528 PA
3. Gene Michael: 71 OPS+ in 2,659 PA
4. Bucky Dent: 72 OPS + in 2,429 PA
5. Bobby Meachem: 73 OPS+ in 1,591 PA

The Yankees and Espinoza avoided arbitration with a $1M contract in Feb. 1992 but his time with the team would soon be over. On March 17th, the Yankees released him and decided to go with Velarde as their shortstop. Given the timing of the move, the Yankees only had to pay Espinoza 30 days termination pay (roughly $167,000).

"He said, 'Espy, we're going to let you go,” Espinoza told Curry about his conversation with then-GM Gene Michael. "So I said: 'What do you want me to do? Cry?'"

Espinoza signed with Cleveland two weeks after being released and he spent 1992 in Triple-A before resurfacing with the team in 1993. From 1993-96, Espinoza was the backup behind the Carlos Baerga/Omar Vizquel middle infield, and he was part of Cleveland’s 1995 American League pennant team (2-for-11 that postseason, the only postseason action of his career).

Cleveland traded Espinoza to the Mets with Baerga in the Jeff Kent deal at the 1996 deadline. He wrapped up his career with a half-season with the Mets in 1996 and a partial season with the Mariners in 1997. Espinoza got into minor league coaching soon after his playing career ended and was the infield coach with Triple-A Scranton from 2007-08.

(There are quite a few Alvaro Espinoza highlight videos on YouTube, so check those out.)

6. Rapid fire thoughts. Sounds like Zack Britton won’t be back when eligible on May 30th. He either threw a bullpen yesterday or will today, and if it goes well, he’ll begin a rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset later this week. Aaron Boone told Brendan Kuty that Britton will need 4-5 rehab appearances. Figure 1-2 days off between appearances, and we’re looking at another 10-14 days until Britton returns at least. Slight delay but not the end of the world … The Yankees signed righty Sal Romano to a minor league deal and sent him to Triple-A Scranton over the weekend, the team announced. The 27-year-old is a Long Island native. Romano had a nice rookie season with the Reds in 2017 (4.45 ERA and 4.26 FIP in 87 innings) but has been replacement level since (5.48 ERA and 5.13 FIP with 16.3 K% and 8.6 BB% in 184 innings). Cincinnati designated him for assignment last week. There’s not much here, no hidden sky high spin rate or ultra low exit velocity or anything. This seems like a Triple-A inventory arm more than anything. Someone to eat innings so the prospects don’t have to. Of course, I would be happy to be wrong. We’ll see … In their latest mock draft, Baseball America (subs. req’d) notes the Yankees have scouted Wake Forest RHP Ryan Cusick recently. Here’s my write-up. This is the first time this spring we’ve heard the Yankees connected to a player or scouting a player or whatever. With the draft seven weeks away, more reports like this will begin trickling in soon … And finally, Team USA announced its 28-man player pool for the Olympics over the weekend. Here’s the roster. Only non-40-man roster players are eligible for the Olympics and Team USA went heavy on recent big leaguers who are unsigned free agents (Homer Bailey, Matt Kemp, David Robertson, Matt Wieters, etc.), which seems smart. Yankees’ Triple-A lefty Trevor Lane is included on the 28-man roster (Addison Russ is not despite reports to the contrary a few weeks ago), which will be whittled down to 26 players later this month. Should Lane make the Olympic roster, he’ll be away for two weeks at the end of July and beginning of August. Infielder Hoy Jun Park is on South Korea’s preliminary roster. Not sure if any other Yankees players are heading to the Olympics yet.

(Send your requests for Tuesday's random Yankee series and questions for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com.)