The New York Yankees will be well-represented at the 2016 Major League Baseball first-year player draft.
On Monday evening, Major League Baseball announced a list of 23 former big league players who will serve as a team representative during this year’s draft. The list has some high profile names, including some former All Stars, a Most Valuable Player, a Rookie of the Year and two Hall of Fame inductees.
The Yankees will be represented by Andy Pettitte, one of the greatest pitchers to ever wear the Yankee pinstripes. Pettitte spent 15 of his 18 big league seasons in the Bronx, winning 219 regular season games, the third most in franchise history. He is the franchise’s all-time leader in strikeouts (2,020) and games started (438) as well. During the 2015 season, the Yankees organization retired his number 46 during a ceremony on August 23.
Along with Pettitte, some other former Yankees will be representing other teams for this year’s MLB Draft. The list of former Yankees includes: Jim Abbott (Angels), Jesse Barfield (Blue Jays), Ted Lilly (Cubs), Brian Roberts (Orioles) and Ivan Rodriguez (Rangers).
With Pettitte representing the Yankees, the organization can only hope that they are able to find a player or even players in this draft who could potentially impact the franchise the way Pettitte did during his playing days. With the team’s recent focus on building up their crop of young talent, the Yankees definitely hope they could find some talent that can ultimately impact the big league club at some point in the future.
This year’s first-year player draft will take place on Thursday, June 9 at 7:00 p.m. (ET) at MLB Network’s Studio 42 in Secaucus, New Jersey. The draft can be seen on MLB Network, and can also be streamed live on MLB.com.
