Gary Sanchez found his name at the top of Baseball America’s annual top Yankees prospects list (Photo: MiLB.com)
Baseball America, the premiere website for minor league baseball coverage, released their annual list of the top 10 New York Yankees prospects on Monday. To no one’s surprise, catcher Gary Sanchez topped the list, which was compiled by former Trenton Thunder beat writer Josh Norris.
Slade Heathcott, who was finally getting on track in Trenton before a late-season knee injury, came in second on the list, with his replacement in Trenton, Mason Williams, being listed third. J.R. Murphy, who began the year with the Thunder before earning a promotion to Triple-A and eventually to New York, was believed to have a legitimate chance to be the Yankees’ starting catcher in 2014 before the Brian McCann acquisition. Now, he is likely headed back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as the fourth-ranked prospect in the organization.
The next three spots went to three first-round selections from 2013: Eric Jagielo, a power-hitting third baseman was fifth, with Aaron Judge and Ian Clarkin ranking sixth and seventh. Converted first baseman Greg Bird, right-handed pitcher Luis Severino, and second baseman Gosuke Katoh rounded out the top 10. The full list is below:
- C Gary Sanchez
- OF Slade Heathcott
- OF Mason Williams
- C J.R. Murphy
- 3B Eric Jagielo
- OF Aaron Judge
- LHP Ian Clarkin
- 1B Greg Bird
- RHP Luis Severino
- 2B Gosuke Katoh
Norris might be one of the best in the business, and has years of experience observing prospects in the New York Yankees farm system. But I must disagree with him on a couple of these. Last offseason, Tyler Austin came in ranked fourth on Baseball America’s list, and Jose Ramirez was listed as having the best fastball and the best change-up in the system. Yet neither of those players made this year’s list. For Austin, the fall was even more significant as he did not make Norris’ list of “Top 15 players 25 & under.” This comes on the heels of a season Austin missed a good chunk of the Eastern League’s second half due to a wrist injury, and was shut down in Arizona Fall League play.
After seeing both Ramirez and Austin throughout the season, I’m convinced that both belong in the top 10, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see Ramirez make a big impact in the second half of 2014. I would rank him ahead of both Clarkin and Severino, the only two pitchers to make this year’s list, and probably slot him in ahead of Eric Jagielo and Aaron Judge due to his track record. Austin’s stock took a definite hit, but to drop him out of the top 10, that’s something I’m not completely ready to do just yet.
Dan is Examiner.com’s beat writer for the New York Yankees and the Trenton Thunder and a minor league contributor to BronxPinstripes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @danpfeiffer74 for all the latest New York Yankees news.
